David Bianculli

So now we're at season three, and suddenly Vice President Grace Penn is about to experience the orderly transition of presidential power.

Except it's not so orderly.

Janney's vice president, like Russell's diplomat, was in London when the president died, which makes the transition more difficult.

So does the fact that Kate recently had made moves to oust Grace from her job as VP, so their relationship at this point is, at best, tenuous.

But what saves Kate, with both the team in London and their American counterparts patched in from the Situation Room arguing about what to do next, is that she's still the most informed and level-headed person of all, much as the next president may hate that.

We can't put the president on the plane we have here.

Deborah Kahn, who created The Diplomat, won an Emmy as part of the writing team for The West Wing in 2003.

She also wrote for Homeland, one of the best TV series ever, at dramatizing two opposing or shifting points of view.

So the complexity of The Diplomat isn't surprising, but it is impressive.

She even has Alex Graves, a veteran director of the West Wing, directing this new season's first two and final two episodes.

When the writing and the direction are this excellent, and the actors every bit as good, scenes just soar.

The silences are as powerful as the dialogue, and every conversation is bound to shift the interpersonal dynamics, often profoundly.

As Kate helps Grace prepare for her swearing-in ceremony, adjusting Grace's outfit in the bathroom mirror, Grace takes the opportunity to confess, and Kate takes the opportunity to mend fences.

After Grace is installed as president, her husband Todd, played by Janney's former West Wing co-star Bradley Whitford, is flown to London and is reunited with her in the London embassy.

They exchange a hug and swap disbelieving expletives.

But it's not a private moment.

Kate's husband Hal, who greeted Todd and escorted him to where Grace was waiting, stuck around so he could talk to the brand new president about his own spouse, Kate.

Bradley Whitford, as the new first gentleman, isn't around much.

He vanishes after the first episode, but comes back strong, very strong, for the final ones.

When he and Janney share scenes, they're lovely, even when the characters are fighting.