Jack Ryan – Season 1 Review

Jack Ryan

I like John Krasinski, but I don’t think he was the right person for this role. He excels at being the lovable goof or put-upon smart guy, which is why the scenes of him in the CIA “office” worked, but as soon as they shoved him into the field, gun in hand, it was hard to take him seriously. I get that that’s kind of Jack Ryan’s thing, balancing office smarts with tactical know-how, and that there’s inherent, internal conflict that comes with that. However, I didn’t really see it in Krasinski’s performance and, in his defense, the writing, either. Jack Ryan wasn’t so much a person as he was a crutch to move the plot forward.

The story is somewhat oddly structured, though. For many episodes, the good guys are simply too close to capturing their terrorist target, deflating some of the intensity that you would get in a show like 24 where the terrorists are always one step ahead. Here, it’s pretty obvious they’re gonna get their guy. It’s only in the last few episodes that things heat up, but part of that heat-up is because we’re really rushed through the final stages of Mousa Bin Suleiman’s evil plan. I criticize Netflix a lot for having overlong seasons, but Amazon could have really benefited from 1-2 more episodes.

That, or cut out the sub-plot with the drone pilot. I kept waiting for this to tie into the bigger story, but it just never paid off. It ended up being a really weird thing to include. The plot I did like, though, was getting to watch Suleiman’s wife become disillusioned with what was going on and try to flee with her children. It was nice to get that human glimpse into the “other side” instead of the usual “Muslims hate America” rhetoric, though there’s plenty of that, too. The show loves to remind you that 9/11 happened (and could happen again), but I suppose it handles these topics with a little more grace than you might have seen 5-10 years ago.

Reviewer

Clark
I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.

Published by

Clark

I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.