Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Season 1

This series took me a lot longer to finish that I originally expected. I will say I enjoyed the second half of the season more than the first half but that's a pretty good analogy for my thoughts on the entire season. It's a mixed bag. Some of it I absolutely loved and was hooked from the start, while other parts made me roll my eyes or take a long break because I was just bored. 

Jack Ryan is a property that I'm really glad someone did a television series on and I am always a fan of Tom Clancy properties. But there are definitely some notes I can make of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan that keep it from being a great espionage television show. 

The Jack Ryan story is not the most known story of in all cinematic and television history, but it is

one that has been told a few times. John Krasinski follows in the footsteps of Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine to play Jack Ryan, the analyst from the CIA thrusted into a conspiracy against the United States, bringing him from behind the desk, out into the field.

The show depicts Jack as an intelligent analyst. And that's about it. I like John Krasinski and I think he was a good choice for the character. Any issues I have with the character doesn't have to do with Krasinski, it's more his character. And this has always been a problem with Jack Ryan. He's not that interesting of a character. He's a described boy scout. He loves America. He wants to serve his country. He is lawful good. And that's not to say lawful good characters can't be interesting, but there have only been a few cinematic interpretations of Jack Ryan that were really interesting and this one is... not the worst?

Jack's team is focused on Terror, Finance, and Arms and he gets a new boss, the world weary and morally grey Jim Greer (played by Wendell Pierce). Greer comes with a checkered reputation, benched from the field from a mysterious past. The two are polar opposites. This plays very well when they partner up to investigate some financial transactions that lead them to Yemen and on a manhunt for a ruthless terrorist.

The show is very much a buddy cop show between Jack Ryan and Jim Greer. One is the inexperienced idealistic analyst (Ryan) and the other is the weathered morally gray operative (Greer). While Greer doesn't become very interesting until the second half of the season, the two play off each other very well. Greer has been in the world of international espionage for years while Ryan is being taken out of the security of his desk job and must learn the moral greyness of that world.

Their partnership brings them down a rabbit hole as they pursue a terrorist by the name of Mousa Bin Suleiman (played by Ali Suliman).

Now the way this show stands out from the other adaptations of the Jack Ryan story is how it makes itself timely to the era we live in.

First off, they spend a lot of time in the show developing the main villain. Traditionally, I'm cool with that. Shows like Daredevil and other premium streaming service series usually have an episode or two tracing the backstory of the villain so it means more to see this person you can relate to turn evil. The one bad thing about this show is that they try that approach and try and humanize radical terrorists. While the show never excuses or justifies any of their behavior, they do rationalize it a little bit for audience understanding. To a certain extent it works, especially when it builds up the cunning and intelligence of Sulieman. But there is an aspect about this character that really can't be rationalized. They try to connect a dot between a guy who is the victim of stereotypes and prejudice and a radical terrorist and I think that dot is very, VERY hard to connect. And even in the episodes where they try to explain it, they never go all the way because the show rides a fine line between being relevant to the issues of the international world, and being a red white and blue Tom Clancy property. It's a difficult line that they don't always stay on.

The show also spends a lot of time on Sulieman's wife Hanin (played by Dina Shihabi). Now this section of the show was both interesting and made the show drag a lot. On one hand, Hanin was used as the insight into the life of Muslim women as well as the refugee crisis from countries plagued by war like Syria. I applaud the show for taking on this topic and at times it was well done. It's pretty timely and definitely worth portraying to draw attention to it at at time like this. But these moments often serve more as a background for the story, rather than actually having much to say about it. There are a lot of "OH THE HUMANITY" moments where it just displays people living and moving in harsh conditions to escape from their previous situations. However, not a whole lot is being said in these moments because the show is again riding that fine line of being aware of international issues, and beating the chest of America. It would be silly to say this show has a bold stance because it really doesn't. Now, to be fair, they don't have to have a bold stance. But there are moments where they're giving the impression that they do have that stance.

One huge downfall of the show is when the subplots veer off and are either super boring, or amount to absolutely nothing. The biggest culprit is that of the random drone pilot that carries over multiple episodes played by John Magaro.

I get what they're trying to do in this and I can at least appreciate the effort. The big through line with this character is the advancement of military technology and what impact it has on the modern battlefield as well as the Soldiers who operate drones as opposed to airplanes. There is a decent conversation he has with his partner about that and again, I can appreciate the effort. But it feels REALLY out of place in a show that already struggles to herd the cats they let loose. If you watch this series, feel free to fast forward all but two scenes with this character because they really make the show drag.

And that's the bummer of the show. It does not exactly clip along. There are moments where it's really interesting and then it slows down to a crawl and it's tough to capture my attention. There's some really good international espionage intrigue and if you're a fan of the Bourne franchise or modern military movies, you might enjoy this series (I'll talk a little more about that in a little bit). But there are for sure some problems.

A good example of this is the relationship between Jack and Kathy Mueller (played by Abbie Cornish). If you've seen any of the other Jack Ryan movies you'll know there's always some drama with Jack and Kathy in the beginning of their relationship because he can't tell her he works for the CIA. There were some moments that I really liked between these two.

But then again, the chemistry at times was pretty lacking and I was often times pretty happy when these two were off doing their own thing. Again, there's a lot of loose cats this show has to herd back in 8 episodes. Some of which they do well, others they could have left alone.

The show lands somewhere in between two of my favorite international espionage shows: 24 and Homeland. Unfortunately, it doesn't match the tone and goal of either of these shows and falls shorts in the worst ways at places. The easiest and shortest way of putting it is that it is not as fast paced and over the top as 24. However, it's also not as thought provoking or realistic as Homeland. It lands somewhere in the middle sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst.

Now usually I don't speak on the realism of a show for two reasons. Especially with a subject matter like this, I don't know how much is real and how much isn't, but it doesn't usually matter. It's a fictional show, you need to suspend disbelief in order to have an intriguing show.

With any military show or movie, you're going to get some inaccuracies. Military uniforms are never worn correctly, protocol and military etiquette get thrown aside in order to facilitate dramatic dialogue, etc. Most of the time I can look past that in order to have a fun time. But there were a couple of moments, especially towards the end that are actually pretty critical to how the story unfolds that would never happen ever. I won't delve into spoilers, but the bottom line is there were things that bothered me because they were so ridiculous. It wasn't even your over the top stuff, it was just bad writing. Again, I get that sometimes you have to suspend disbelief sometimes, but these are plot holes that were a little bit distracting when I was watching it.

Overall, I had fun watching Jack Ryan. I love me a good espionage, international intrigue thriller more than most people. It's why I was excited to watch this show in the first place. If you like it too, you're going to get what you expect. There are some great use of the military and espionage elements you'd see in 24, Homeland, or the Bourne films. The action is good, and there are some tense moments that I had fun with. I think it utilized the Tom Clancy IP pretty well and I'm glad it got renewed for a second season.

However, I really hope that some of the issues of the first season get addressed. The pacing, the writing of the titular character, and sometimes chaotic plot lines. I recommend they focus in on what made the first season good, and trim some of the fat. I don't think it's going to reach the levels of quality Homeland gives, but it's more of a popcorn series anyway, might as well make it the best popcorn series you can.

But those are my thoughts on Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime. What did you think? How does it compare with shows and movies like 24 and Homeland? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films and TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.