If you’re like me, you wait until the entire season is streaming before watching many episodic television shows – like “The Diplomat: Season 2” – a political thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat – from beginning to shocking conclusion. 

Don’t let anyone tell you what happens!

First, let’s recognize showrunner/writer Debora Cahn (“The West Wing,” Grey’s Anatomy,” “Homeland”) whose ingenuity and imagination knows no bounds. Cahn ‘created’ the character of intelligent, outspoken, fashion-phobic career diplomat Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) who reluctantly left her pivotal post in Kabul to become U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James (England). 

Second, let’s laud versatile Keri Russell, acclaimed as teenage “Felicity,” then “The Americans,” in which she played a 1980s Soviet spy. Now, her Kate Wyler becomes intimately involved in a game of geo-political chess, the outcome of which could affect the fate of the free world.

An international crisis has erupted with an attack on a British warship, involving Russia, Iran and the United States. The twisty storyline is complex; it’s often hard to decipher the intricate plot involving London politician Margaret Roylin (Celia Imrie), Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear), Foreign Minister Austin Dennison (David Gyasias), along with Kate’s crew: Stuart Heyford (Ato Essandohl) and Eidra Pak (Ali Ahn). 

Concurrently, Kate’s under consideration by U.S. President William Rayburn (Michael McKeon) to replace contentious Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney), whose reputation is under scrutiny because of a brewing scandal.

Then there’s Kate’s clever, conniving husband Hal Wyler (charismatic Rufus Sewell), a former Ambassador who ruffled too many feathers in the Middle East. 

Kate once considered divorcing Hal because he made immoral deals that were deadly for a few in order to save the many. Now they know they need one another and have each other’s backs, no matter what choices and mistakes they make. 

Time and resource limitations, along with production delays, shortened Season 2 to just six episodes but – with Season 3 – things will only get more complicated.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Diplomat: Season 2” is a tension-filled 10, streaming on Netflix.

There’s ‘star power’ a-plenty when the curtain goes up on “The Roommate” – so much that Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone slyly take brief applause-acknowledging bows even before their dramedy begins.

“I didn’t realize Mia’s that tall,” whispered the man behind me. “She isn’t,” said his companion. “She’s 5’3” but Patti’s barely 5’2”.”  “Well she looks taller!”

That having been clarified, their odd-couple two-hander begins as Robyn (LuPone) moves into the spare bedroom in the sprawling Iowa City farmhouse belonging to Sharon (Farrow). 

Tough-talking, chain-smoking, black-leather-clad, restless Robyn is an outspoken vegetarian from the Bronx, while chatty, naïve Sharon’s only contact with New York comes through her adult, clothing-designer son who lives in Park Slope (voiced on the phone by the uncredited Ronan Farrow).

So, for the first half of Jen Silverman’s play, Sharon’s guileless, recently-divorced country-mouse seems constantly surprised, confused and intrigued by lesbian/grifter Robyn’s city-mouse behavior, including requiring almond milk in her coffee, swindling money out of people (particularly senior citizens), and growing marijuana plants.

“Please don’t call them ‘drugs,’ they’re ‘medicinal herbs,’” Robyn defensively explains. “Herbs only become drugs when a capitalist economy gets involved.”

Make no mistake: this is a star vehicle, ostensibly chronicling the unexpected, life-changing friendship between two seeming disparate, older women – both troubled by their identity, mortality and the prospect of re-invention.

Directed by Jack O’Brien, Mia Farrow oozes screwball vulnerability, claiming she learned from the Harvard Business Review that “Expansion is progress,” while formidable Patti LuPone wryly sneers: “Sustaining and expanding are two different activities.” 

Yes, it’s predictably far-fetched. Its pop-culture references are dated – not to mention repetitive – and there’s no intermission in which to escape.

Bob Crowley designed the kitchen-centric, wood-framed set and character-driven costumes, augmented by Natasha Katz’s lighting design, Mikaal Sulaiman’s sound, David Yazbek’s music, with wigs/hair/make-up by Robert Pickens & Katie Gill.

After numerous regional productions, “The Roommate” is scheduled to run on Broadway at the Booth Theatre through December 12. For tickets and information: theroommatebway.com.