The Diplomat, Tempest: Deepanjana Pal writes on a new numbers game
Two fictional diplomats have lit up our small screens lately: Seo Mun-ju (played by Jun Ji-hyun) in Tempest, and Kate Wyler (played by Keri Russell) in The Diplomat.
Jun’s Mun-ju is a former ambassador who enters politics after her husband is killed, and discovers a tangled web of war-mongering that includes the US and North Korea. The Tempest became the most-watched Korean original on Disney+ worldwide within days of its release. It didn’t hurt that Mun-ju has a dreamy bodyguard (played by Gang Dong-won), or that the two have explosive chemistry (literally; a lot of bombs go off in this show). As swoon-worthy as Gang may be, though, Mun-ju is the undisputed hero. He saves her life, but she saves the day.
Meanwhile, Season 3 of The Diplomat (2023-) on Netflix sees Kate juggle a new boyfriend, her unconventional relationship with husband Hal (Rufus Sewell), and a range of political crises. Grace Penn (Allison Janney), her rival from the last season, in fact, is now US President. And, as if the Wyler marriage didn’t have enough to contend with, she picks Hal as her vice-president.
Although they are cut from different cloths, Mun-ju and Kate have some things in common. They are both older and messier than the women we usually see celebrated on screen. They are single-minded, work-obsessed and bold. Most refreshingly, their rough edges are not smoothened out by scenes of motherhood or wifely devotion.
Both Mun-ju and Kate have personality traits we usually see in heroes and heroines modelled on alpha-masculinity. These two, though, don’t compromise on their femininity, and there is no hint of victimhood about them either. The protagonist being a successful woman is simply integral to the plots of both Tempest and The Diplomat.
It is a delight to see such fierce and flawed women claim the spotlight, particularly since women in their 40s and 50s rarely get to be leads.
Now, here’s a not-so-curious detail: Tempest and The Diplomat were both created by women in their 50s. The showrunner, writer and producer of The Diplomat is Debora Cahn, whose previous credits include The West Wing (1999-2006) and Grey’s Anatomy (2005-).
Tempest was written by Jeong Seo-kyung, a regular collaborator with the Korean auteur Park Chan-wook. The show also benefits from having Kim Hee-won at the helm (with co-director Heo Myung-haeng); she could conduct a masterclass just on the difference the female gaze can make. (A scene in which Mun-ju finds herself sitting on a bomb, despite the audience knowing she can’t be blown up in Episode 3, is as tense as it is sensual.)
Shows such as Tempest and The Diplomat, written for formats that statistics suggest are popular with women, are gradually helping un-skew the entertainment industry’s gendered ageism. The most heartening detail is that these two are not alone this year.
In Queen Mantis, the Korean remake of the French show La Mante (2017), 54-year-old Go Hyun-jung plays a serial killer who runs rings around the police. Robin Wright, 59, starred in and directed a few episodes of the thriller The Girlfriend. Riot Women is about a group of angry and miserable women (most of them over 40) who come together to form a punk rock band for a local talent contest. In India, we’ve had shows such as Aarya (2020-24, starring Sushmita Sen), Mai (2022; starring Sakshi Tanwar) and this year’s Search: The Naina Murder Case (starring Konkona Sen Sharma).
Finally, good actresses aren’t being phased out in their 30s. This is great news for the audience. We get to enjoy, in place of female characters as stiff and false as mannequins, women who revel in their imperfections, and even triumph because of them.
“We sing songs about being middle-aged and menopausal, and more or less invisible,” says a character in Riot Women. The audience is listening, and some of us are singing along.
(To reach Deepanjana Pal, write to @dpanjana on Instagram. The views expressed are personal)
