What a surprise! Intelligent dialogs, engaging plot, and the right amount of humor. I really appreciate that a political drama can manage to leave the Republican/Democrat, left/right labels out of the dialog and avoid taking cheap onscreen political shots that won't age well. I dare say, from what I have watched so far, this is on par with the best of The West Wing, without the occasional partisanship or sanctimonious virtue signaling.
The screenplay incorporates current state of world politics in meaningful and timely ways, as a crisis spirals and diplomacy's "sausage making" comes into play. Whether it's realistic or not who knows, but it's certainly very entertaining to watch the complexity (and humor) of the interaction between two of the world's greatest allies.
The acting is superb, especially Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell and David Gyasi, but really, everyone all around. The chemistry is outstanding and natural, without the usual early stiffness and awkwardness that gets ironed out over a few episodes.
The only nit is that I wish they wouldn't use profanity so much. There are places in the script where it's called for to great effect, but much of the time it's just too casual.
Unfortunately, there is another lesser show with the same title that was released just weeks prior that could lead to some confusion. It's coincidental, but hopefully, no one is missing out on this gem as a result.
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