Netflix’s West Wing-style political thriller The Diplomat, starring Keri Russell as the strong-willed American ambassador to the UK, is not only one of the biggest Netflix TV shows in the US at the moment. According to one ranking, this particular drama from creator Debora Cahn, which serves up a healthy dose of both espionage and political intrigue, is actually the top show from all the major streamers this week.
I’ve already raved in an earlier post (here) about why I think the show is one of the best of 2024, so suffice it to say that I agree wholeheartedly with the latest chart from Reelgood that puts it atop this week’s ranking of the Top 10 streaming TV shows. The show is basically a mashup of Homeland and The West Wing, which also happen to be the two shows that Cahn worked on prior to The Diplomat — moreover, the show’s newly released second season picks right up where we left off with that explosive finale at the end of Season 1. In other words, not a second is wasted of the six episodes afforded to the new season.
Another thing that I, as a fan of the spy genre, love about the show: In between the fancy dinners, parties, negotiations, and private office confabs that come with being a career diplomat, Russell’s Kate Wyler continues to spend the bulk of her time basically operating as a de facto co-CIA station chief. That means working alongside the actual CIA station chief in London to figure out who was behind that bombing last season, as well as unraveling the false flag conspiracy that she uncovered involving the British Prime Minister — which resulted in one of the new season’s first of several satisfying surprises.
Moreover, it’s not often that you find critics and viewers in agreement when it comes to Netflix TV shows, but that very much seems to be the case with The Diplomat. It’s got, for example, critics’ and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes that aren’t that far off from each other (94% and 87%, respectively, for the new season). The show also adds yet another iconic character to Russell’s solid body of work, with The Diplomat‘s Wyler joining characters like Felicity‘s Felicity Porter and The Americans‘ Elizabeth Jennings as the roles for which Russell will henceforth always be most known.
All of that is to say: No wonder The Diplomat is the top-ranked series on Reelgood’s latest weekly Top 10 chart. Reelgood monitors 20 million viewing decisions each month across every streaming platform in the US, from Apple TV+ to Max, Peacock, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Prime Video, and Paramount+. And for the 7-day period that ended on Nov. 6, the 10 TV shows that topped Reelgood’s latest weekly ranking include:
- The Diplomat (Netflix)
- Agatha All Along (Disney+)
- Lioness (Paramount+)
- The Penguin (HBO/Max)
- Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
- High Potential (Hulu)
- Disclaimer (Apple TV+)
- Matlock (Paramount+)
- Shrinking (Apple TV+)
- Rivals (Hulu)
Speaking of The Diplomat, take another look at the list above, and you might notice something Netflix-related that jumps out at you.
The biggest streaming service in the world has a grand total of one TV show on the list above, which is as much a testament to the state of Netflix’s current releases as it is to the other streamers stepping up to offer top-tier comedies (like Apple’s Shrinking and Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building) and edge-of-your-seat dramas like HBO’s The Penguin.
Looking ahead to next week’s new TV shows, meanwhile, I have every confidence that Part 2 of the second season of Netflix’s anime series Arcane, as well as other TV shows, including Season 6 of Netflix’s Cobra Kai and Season 2 of Apple’s Silo, will almost certainly end up on the Reelgood ranking in short order. For more about the biggest TV shows coming next week, check out our coverage here.
