Review: Jack Ryan – Yay!

Jack Ryan is a new Amazon Studios show based on the beloved character from the late Tom Clancy’s books, although the show doesn’t follow the plot of any specific book. John Krasinski (A Quiet Place, The Office) plays the titular character, a marine turned Wallstreet analyst turned CIA financial analyst chasing the money supporting terrorism. After Jack gets a financial lead on a new terrorist on the block, his boss sends him into the field to help gather more evidence and the next thing we know, the mild-mannered desk jockey is racing to stop a terrorist plot.

I love a good action show or movie and Amazon hyped the show heavily at San Diego Comic Con this summer so I had been looking forward to it for several weeks. I wasn’t disappointed – I really enjoyed the show as did two family members who watched the first half of the series with me while visiting. No sooner had I finished, than I saw a friend had posted on Facebook about how she was going through withdrawal because she had watched the whole show in a few days. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen this friend post about a TV show before. Several others including me chimed in to say that we also loved it and had binged the whole season already, which I find really uncommon for a streaming show in my social circle, particularly one that had only been available less than two weeks – clearly Amazon’s early marketing and then word of mouth paid off.

Thinking back over the series, here’s why I loved it, and a few things I thought they could have improved. Warning, mild SPOILER ALERT, especially for the Things I didn’t love.

Things I loved:

• Krasinski is perfectly cast – he pulls off the financial nerd with some serious survival skills and makes it believable with his guy-next-door charm. The character is very attractive, both physically and emotionallyintellectually, and it is easy to get emotionally invested in the character and his mission. Moreover, even when things get intense and lives hang in the balance, Jack keeps his moral compass and his sensitive side.
• The show feels more like a movie with elaborate middle-eastern scenes – none of it feels fake or soundstagey.
• The story is very compelling – I burned through all 8 episodes in a week and then felt a void when it was gone – it’s been a long time since I’ve felt like this about a show! Most of the episodes cliff-hang into the next, making watching another episode hard to resist when they are all available immediately. I also found myself spending a lot of time thinking about it when I wasn’t watching it.
• The final episode had my heart racing – while rationally I expected Jack Ryan would triumph, I wasn’t sure how far things would go before he got the upper hand and I actually felt anxious going in to it – it’s been a long time since I was so invested in a show, particularly after only 8 episodes.
• The show did better than most at providing some backstory on how and why the villain, Suleiman, was radicalized – at least until his actions became diabolical, he was a sympathetic character and I didn’t think he’d go as far as he did. They also did a good job showing his interactions with his kids, although his interactions with his wife were not quite so loving.

Things I didn’t love:

• The “Muslim terrorist” is more than a little clichéd and I wish the show could have found a different villain – there seems to be no shortage of them these days.
• They set up Jack with a love interest that had the background to be very useful to the overall plotline – a physician specializing in infectious disease – but then failed to utilize her knowledge except as a way to embarrass Jack by outing his double life.
• The story about the drone pilot had a lot of potential, but then was barely integrated into the main plot. And what was up with that couple that he brought home from the casino? What was their point? I kept assuming they were going to blackmail him for military secrets or something, but after that bizarre scene they never came up again.
• They could have had more women in important roles

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the show and have watched several episodes multiple times as I encourage friends to check it out. However, 0ne of the other Nice Girls, Lexie, had a different take. You can check out her thoughts here.