Note: This article contains some plot spoilers for The State Within.

When an airplane explodes on our television screens (or in theaters), Americans' thoughts quickly turn to terrorism, usually perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalists. Same-sex romance, however? Not so much.

The State Within is a new BBC America miniseries very reflective of the current geopolitical climate, but it also throws in an unexpected gay relationship that prevents the drama from feeling too much like 24 with a British accent. The three-part series debuts on BBC America this weekend.

In the opening scene, a jetliner does indeed explode over Washington, D.C., and the public is led to believe it is the work of a British citizen with ties to Islamic terrorism. As the plot develops, however, little is what it seems.

The State Within stars Jason Isaacs (Friends With Money, Brotherhood) as British ambassador Sir Mark Brydon, a man who finds himself at the center of a deadly conspiracy. Sharon Gless (Cagney and Lacey, Queer as Folk) plays his nemesis: right-wing, pro-war, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lynne Warner.

But gay folks will be especially interested in openly gay actor Ben Daniels (Cutting It, Beautiful Thing), who plays Brydon's assistant, Nicolas Brocklehurst. A man of many secrets, Brocklehurst is actually a U.K. government spy integral to the series' labyrinthine plot. But he is also having a relationship with Warner's assistant, Undersecretary for Defense Intelligence Christopher Styles (Noam Jenkins of Saw II and Queer as Folk).

"The big theme of the show is how the road to war can be manipulated," co-writer Daniel Percival states in the miniseries' press release. "This show takes you behind the corridors of power and hopefully, through fiction, illuminates some of the truth about how policy, foreign policy in particular, gets orchestrated."

Americans are already polarized over the many hot-button political issues fictionalized by The State Within. Conservatives will no doubt be angered by the film's conspiracy theory plot that implicates overpatriotic right-wingers in schemes involving government deceit, wrongdoing and sheer nationalistic megalomania. Adding a subplot that matter-of-factly includes a gay relationship between government operatives into such a controversial mix will no doubt do even less to endear conservative viewers to the show.

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