Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (2018)

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan isn’t 24 or NCIS, at least from the first episode, but the rest of the season does have the potential to develop into something more. The series opens as an airstrike takes place in Lebanon, where the seeds of hate are sown for two young survivors. The story then cuts to the present day in Washington D.C. where we find our protagonist rowing in the Potomac River. Jack Ryan (played by John Krasinski) is a Boston College graduate, veteran U.S. Marine, and in the present a CIA analyst who has been cross-analyzing databases trying to find possible terrorist activity in Yemen. He discovers a pattern of financial transactions that he believes could lead to the next Bin Laden, but his voice is squashed by a recently demoted department chief named James Greer. Ryan takes steps to go over the head of his superior, and this immediately causes conflict within the CIA section where Ryan feels he is on to something. But Greer soon learns Ryan’s instincts were right, and the two end up flying to Yemen where they’ve found the man suspected of moving $90 million U.S. dollars to fund a terrorist plot. Considering the show has already been given the green light for a second run, Amazon must be getting some decent reviews and at least enough hype to produce another 8 episodes. But so far this series is a snoozer, and without Krasinski and the benefit of 20 novels and five films based on Tom Clancy’s character, the show would be a flop. Entire Review: https://goo.gl/buiKxC

* A very pleasant surprise! We've only just signed up for Prime and this is the first series I watched. I'm glad I did too, because the action is very exciting, the characters are believable - even though they've taken a few liberties on Clancy's originals - and I enjoyed how the focus was swinging to and from the terrorists' point of view. Krasinski does a fine job as the young Ryan. Not too self effacing and nerdy and not over the top heroic. It's shot in 4K too and the cinematography is superb, so I'm really looking forward to season two.

Wendell Pierce is a bit.... young... isn't he? I mean he does a great job, but after James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman you would expect someone that at least looks a bit older. Someone not so Gen-X. But then John Krasinski doesn't really look like someone that would have "Ryan" as a last name.... and, like Wendell, he does a good enough job too. John Hoogenakker, however, looks like the role he's playing, but that's really because we all expected him to be Clark. At least the people that read the books expected him to be Clark. So, in my mind, he's playing Clark and not... whatever his name is in whatever episode. But, Ali Suliman... he does a GREAT job so you get hooked despite the complaints from those of us who really wanted to see, well, the novels. This isn't really about the novels. It's kind of true to them as in you can see it all fitting into the Ryanverse, but it's also a lot more straight out of the headlines for the W and Obama era presidencies and made in the Trump era where.... it seems more like a show from the past. Either way, it works and it takes a little to get used to it if you are a fan of the books, or at least the Ford movies (which also took a little bit). However, once you get passed it, the show is entertaining as all get out and.... for a streaming show, perfectly short in it's seasons, which is FANTASTIC given that shows like The Handmaiden's Tale, The Man in the High Tower, and so many other direct-to-streaming fair have more episodes than story. Jack Ryan just enough where the filler isn't extreme and you can rest assured that the episodes are used to push the plot along and not just be filler. AND THEN SEASON 2 HITS.... ... and suddenly it's like they have forgotten how to write a suspenseful spy yarn, in fact, for the most part, they stop acting like spies altogether. It was almost like they said, OK, we got viewers, the writers can be lazy now. And all the tension and imagination that made Season 1 so much fun vanished in a puff of smoke.