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Mary

The characters of The Diplomat couldn’t be facing a bigger crisis when the third season of the hit political drama picks up. In the preceding season finale, Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) discovered that the president of the United States had a heart attack, making Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) the leader of the free world. Did we mention that Kate recently learned Grace orchestrated a terrorist plot?

“It’s second-by-second what happens, which is actually really interesting — the whole breakdown of what happens when there’s a death of a president and how important it is, how they go through all the protocol,” says Russell. The Emmy-nominated series’ return whisks Kate, her husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell), and Grace through the chaos of succession and the selection of a new VP. “If you’re playing someone who’s confident, it’s really good to get to play them absolutely rattled,” says Sewell. “You get to see another side of all of us.”

The latest season of the drama, created by Debora Cahn, delves into the underbelly of another political power couple: Grace’s husband, Todd (three-time Emmy winner Bradley Whitford), enters as the “first lady” — a moniker he begrudgingly gives himself. “Having the character of Todd come on [means] you get to see … the private-facing Grace, not just the public-facing Grace,” Janney says. “It’s so great that it’s Brad, because we have a relationship already.”

Whitford reunites with his West Wing collaborators Janney and Cahn, who began her career writing and producing the White House drama. “Shows that really hum, that resonate and become a chord, are the ones where the political issues are resonating with the personal issues,” says Whitford. “The thing that I love about this show is the diplomacy is always just amplified and resonating with what’s going on personally. I realized it the moment I saw the first episode. And that’s really fun. There’s a power dynamic. There’s negotiation.” Continue reading Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell, Allison Janney, and Bradley Whitford marry diplomacy with domesticity in The Diplomat.

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