The Ambassador

My wife and I recently watched the first 3 episodes on Amazon Prime but were underwhelmed. While we found the premise very intriguing and the story lines promising, the ambassador did not come across as being anywhere near smart or savvy enough to have been appointed to a sensitive ambassadorial position, in Ireland or especially in her previous posting, Lebanon (where her husband died in a car bomb meant for her). We couldn't decide whether the actress playing the ambassador was miscast or the scripts made her seem stupid, but whichever it was we won't be watching any more episodes.

As long as you put your cynical nature on hold it plays OK. It isn't great but no worse that many cop style or soapy series and better than some. Ms Collins although a good actress doesn't really fit here too well and adds to the implausiblilty of the show, not really her fault.

All this is not helped by the fact that the writers seem to have to make the Amassador some kind of super hero rather than rounding the 'team' into the show. Second series is even worse in terms of writing and drifts into 'personal relationships' like many soap operas do. Overall the issue is that it is so focused on one character (aka superhero) that it becomes steadily more unbelievable as time goes on. Shame really because the idea is quite good but the writers were really not clever enough to exploit the idea.

The lovely and able Pauline Collins does an excellent job in series 1 of portraying the ambassador in a set of interesting stories that raise a variety of issues and problems and are scripted very plausibly.

Of course, being modern TV, we can't just enjoy the drama of seeing the ambassador wrestle with the political and diplomatic challenges of each situation; we have to be subjected to the usual tedioius tropes about career woman torn between personal fulfillment as a woman in a man's world and the demands of motherhood as she tries to hold together her family in dealing with their personal tragedy but in series 1 this codswallop is kept in reasonable proportion to the proper drama.

In series 2 the whole thing goes to the dogs with Peter Egan introduced as a completely ludicrous character, the ambassador transformed from a convincingly thinking woman into an overgrown teenager, and plots that are not worthy of the name.

Pauline Collins continues to do her best but it is asking too much of her to rescue things; she deserves better than the rubbish she is saddled with in series 2.

Had the potential to be good, nice concept, strong cast. The writing though is weak and unbelievable. The ambassador is 'practically perfect in every way' whilst those around her are deficient - greedy, dishonourable, incompetent etc. She is at the centre of things in an unbelievable way - no delegation or trust. If this were painted a little less black/white it would be much better.

I thoroughly enjoyed this: it's a fascinating look at the sometimes contentious relationship between two neighboring countries, with a long and complicated history. The characters are, for the most part, relatable and believable but the brightest one is Pauline Collins. She shines in her role as Ambassador Harriett Smith who - on several occasions - has to walk the line between her personal and professional beliefs. I saw this as a child growing up in Ireland, and recently re-watched it on Prime Video and it was almost as good as I remember. Some of the stories are a bit far-fetched and a stretch, but others are very believable and relatable to today.