'Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan' Series Review

When Amazon announced they were making another adaption of the beloved Jack Ryan novels, my first thought was "really, again?" But, then I read it's going to be a tv-show this time, giving it the time to really delve into its characters and the title characters origin, something that was extremely problematic in the film adaptations. Oh, and it was going to star Hollywood hottie, John Krasinski. After that I was pretty much sold, excited even.

Unfortunately, this show fell just short for me. It has an exciting and interesting lead character that they spend little time delving into in the first six episodes and then try to pile it all in in the last two. The real main character (in my opinion) is Suleiman, played by Ali Suliman, the international terrorist Ryan and the CIA are chasing. They give him a very interesting arc and delve into his origin story and family life, but that falls off in the last two episodes. They drop his character arc/story and go into Jack's story of "saving the day".

Another big storyline in the show is Jack's relationship with Cathy Mueller (Abbie Cornish), a doctor who can't know about Jack's job or why he disappears for days at a time with no warning. Their storyline takes up way too much time for me to care, the actors don't have chemistry and her character was pretty annoying. They have an interesting way of tying her into the CIA that I didn't see coming, but, when she (inevitably) finds out about Jack's job, she gets angry about him lying which I just found annoying and irrational. Everytime her character came on screen, I would get annoyed.

Now, onto my least favorite part of the show was Victor's storyline. Victor, played by John Magaro, is a drone pilot for the military who is having some guilt issues and some ptsd from his job. I don't want to spoil the show but, he makes some stupid decisions and has a pretty extensive storyline that lasts three episodes, almost half the season. But, his storyline and character don't tie into Jack Ryan, Suleiman or any storyline of the show whatsoever. He's just a random military man with ptsd, and his storyline isn't tied up, it's left off with no ending. This leads me to think they'll continue in another season but I don't really want that, and I don't really care.

With all its faults, this show has one major thing going for it, and that's John Krasinski. We knew he could do comedy (The Office), we knew he could do extreme drama (A Quiet Place), we knew he could do big military style action (13 Hours), but together it's a match made in heaven. He plays Jack as a stoic man who you get the sense keeps to himself but who also isn't afraid to speak his mind when he deems it necessary and he deems it necessary, a lot. Being described by his former boss in one episode as a "self-righteous boy scout", who is "too smart for his own good", which is definitely shown in later episodes. Krasinski makes him extremely lovable, a CIA officer with "merit badges", who can also kick ass and you wouldn't want to cross because he can kill you. He kicks ass when he wants to but he also has a soft endearing side. John Krasinski plays all of this perfectly, I think he's the best Jack Ryan by far.

Another extreme pro of the show is the action, it's almost flawless. It has fight scenes that make you feel in the moment without making you nauseous and explosions and gunshots that feel oh so real. A scene in episode one where a fight breaks out between the Americans a militia in Yemen is one for the history books, for sure. I think Amazon made a great choice in giving this show a big budget to go into this new age of "serious" television they're now trying to make.

'Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan' is a fun action ride, with an enjoyable lead character and fight scenes but with some major story problems.

All the love x, Amalia.