"The Diplomat": The one set in Barcelona, with a homophobic Brit, a gay assistant, and some Catalan cocks

Netflix was trying to sell The Diplomat, about, but this time I was smart: I looked for gay characters, and  found Dylan Brady, who tells Pink News that the show "talks about his queerness in relation to his job, in quite a nuanced way.”  Plus it's set in Barcelona, one of my favorite cities in Europe!

So I started watching.  It took ten minutes to realize that there would be no Barcelona and no gay character. There are two tv shows called The Diplomat, airing at the same time, both featuring young blond women who become diplomats, one the ambassador to Britain, the other the British consul in Barcelona.  Not confusing at all.  Let's do the British one, on Amazon Prime. I reviewed Episode 5, which the Pink News article praises as centering on Dylan's queerness.

Scene 1: Richard and Amanda, romantic partners, have just visited the Sagrada Familia, the iconic Barcelona cathedral.  He hates it.  They have also lost their "Hola Barcelona" card, so they have to buy regular metro tickets.  Cut to Security seeing Richard getting into an altercation with security guards.  They attack; Richard falls.  I'm guessing that these are not main characters, but this week's case.

Scene 2: Laura gets a phone call from her friend, who is hung over in a cafe. She reveals the Sagrada Familia incident.  One of the cops has broken ribs and a perforated eardrum, and the Brit is in the ICU after a heart attack.  

Another call from downstairs, from Fabian (Philipp Boos).  As she buzzes him in, a mysterious figure watches from behind a tree.  

Scene 3: Fabian criticizes her Serrat CD: "It's for old hippies."  An important composer of Spanish and Catalan music.  He didn't know that the bouncer being set up to take the fall, and he wasn't there when Cabell arranged the girl to be a scapegoat at the party on the yacht.  These episodes are not self-contained. In other news, "I really want to fuck you again."

She says no.  "I have a boyfriend." Tom (Ladi Emeruwa)

"But I'm better in bed, right?"  He walks her out; they smooch, in view of the mysterious figure.  Uh-oh, the British consul is going to be blackmailed.

After the smooching, he calls someone, says that he found the "skinny bitch," and this time there will be no screw-ups.  Uh-oh, he's an enemy.

Scene 4: At the hospital, the Wife explains to Laura and her assistant Carl (Dylan Brady) that the ticket machine wasn't working, so her husband gave it a thump, and the cop came over and started yelling and hitting.   "But you hit the cop hard. He has a major ear injury.  They're considering criminal charges," "Um...well, I'm sorry about that, but he was acting like a mad dog."

It's apparent that these people are highly religious, and bigoted against various groups.  

Meanwhile, in Ibiza, a woman is fiddling with a watch.  

Scene 5: Carl is upset: the wife called him "young man" in a dismissive tone that he feels is racist and homophobic.  Laura did some research and discovered that they are Baptist.  Her parents are progressive Baptists, but these two...not so progressive.

Back in the office, Laura gets a phone call from the Ibiza woman, but she hangs up. 

Cut to La Rambla, where a guy who looks identical to Fabian, but is probably Steven Cree (Sam Henderson) wants to know if the wedding to Mariana is still on.  They discuss the season-long plot.  

Neither Wikipedia nor the IMDB have any details about what's going on here, so I'll skip the discussions of the bouncer and the wedding, and stick to the metro-confrontation plot.

More metro after the break