After so many misfires, I’m glad a reboot is finding some success, despite my criticisms of this season.
I’m curious why you liked it. What am I missing?
Maybe you expect too much?
I don’t think so. I just found this iteration the most inconsistent with what I knew, or remembered, of Jack Ryan. I liked the original stories in Shadow Recruit and the first season on Amazon. I haven’t read every Jack Ryan novel, and don’t consider myself an obsessive fan of it, but I don’t think any of my friends who liked the series read any books.
I’ve long given up on faithful adaptations of those–indeed, many would be horribly out of date (except for Debt of Honor, which is why they’ll never do it.) When Alec Baldwin bailed out, and they cast Harrison Ford, the irony was they made Ryan retire for his “first mission” in Patriot Games to match Ford’s age. There was supposedly a three picture deal, but Ford only did two. That left the filmmakers in a lurch. Now Sum of All Fears was a reboot prequel. The timeline is even more screwed up than EON’s Fleming adaptations.
Yet with a TV series they can do long story arcs–indeed, they’ve hinted at Ryan’s political future in Season 2. But I fear that will be another tease like the Russian denouement of Season 1.
Okay, you’re right. I am expecting too much. 
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Part of the problem is perhaps that some of Ryan’s original arc has by now been done by a number of other shows - and what’s left of Ryan isn’t all that memorable or intriguing to begin with. Clancy started out with books that used numerous characters to paint a much broader canvas. But few of them are really memorable for themselves; it’s the broader events and clockwork that gives them significance. Like with Forsyth there is hardly anybody you can relate to outside of the tale.
For the streaming series that means they already have improved on the character(s) - had to - but also needed to find a niche that’s not all-out 24 torture porn and OTT shenanigans. Contenders are Berlin Station and Homeland on the intelligence front and House of Cards and Designated Survivor at the political end of the spectrum - amongst other strong competition like Man in the High Castle that’s sf genre but making heavy use of the spy-politics element. Making Jack Ryan stand out in this environment is tricky - and the majority of watchers are probably really expecting a relatively conventional - but high production standard nonetheless - series.
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US show runner are starting to go the way of U.K. football managers.
For me I would have like the series to have gone the way of being like the BBC miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and A Perfect Spy. Yeah it might be boring to most people. But at least done that way they can make Jack Ryan like in the novels and how Clancy want to be. That it set in today’s time and just the not novel’s era and timeline. With that can see more of Ryan as a CIA Analyst, Clark as the CIA Special Activity Division Operation Officer and Greer as the CIA Deputy Director Of Intelligence(Ryan’s boss and mentor). As I have said before here Ryan is the fictional version Robert M. Gates, both of them does not want to be a CIA Operation Officer, both of them are NOT former U.S. Special Operation Forces soldiers and CAN NOT be a CIA Special Activity Division Operation Officer at all or do anything that looks like that, beside needing 4 year college and they are not trained at the farm(Camp Peary) in Williamsburg, Virginia. What the both can do and are good at also, is be being part of the President’s National Security Advisor’s team IF needed or want to. Also it might NOT be that easy to use gun when one is only a regular CIA Operation Officer. Could be have to go through level of command and rules to be able to use a gun on assignment. Unlike a CIA Special Activity Division Operation Officer(train to use both a M4 and a handgun) who is sometime out in the frontline, sometime works with a Special Forces team and can also do what a regular CIA Operation Officer do.
I have the fist season on DVD when came out, I watched the first 12-20 minutes of the first disc. I was already comparing what they understood about the real spy world and the CIA and how Tom Clancy created his characters. Since I’m a fan of the real spy world and a Tom Clancy fan. After the first 12-20 minutes I took out the disc and turned it off. Have not watched it since. I might try to force myself to try and watch it again.
What we mustn’t forget is, whatever the series should look like, it always has to stand its ground on the current market. For the hardcore Clancy fans this is hard to swallow but most of his œuvre has been done already by either the films or other tv series. The faithful adaptations you think of don’t seem to have the most promising prospects under this premise.
What would be the use to adapt a 700+ pages tract that doesn’t survive season one? Sure, streaming can also cater to niche markets, better than traditional tv can. But not too small a niche to justify a decent budget - and for Clancy you’d surely need the budget too.
As I said somewhere above - or in another thread? I forget - the Ryan series will have to find that difficult balance between the Clancy fans and the wider audience. And the wider audience is what in the end gets the series done.
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I’m halfway through season 2 and I really am struggling to stick with it.
It’s powered by trope, machismo and bad acting.
That’s quite a departure from a character who is designed to be an anachronism in the action-thriller genre; a thinker rather than a fighter; an empath rather than ruthless operator.
I originally believed it’s one chance was to capitalise on the clever casting of krasinski to realise the virtues above that make Ryan interesting. But no, krasinski has been hitting the gym and seems powered only by Adrenalin, muscle and machismo.
It’s all tediously predictable and dull, but who knows, maybe the latter half of season 2 will surprise me — if I make it that far!
I still haven’t started season two, mainly because I caught up with Homeland’s season three - a rework of le Carré’s Smiley books to a large extent - and currently am more intrigued by that than by Jack Ryan.
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It is a lot “24”-ish, I agree with you on that.
But bad acting? Don’t see it there.
Homeland’s in a totally different league - probably one of the best shows of recent years imo. It constantly seems poised to jump the shark, but via great stories, writing and performances manages to keep things forever nail biting. If I wasn’t up to date on it I wouldn’t have bothered giving Ryan another chance after the dodgy first season.
Sadly the second season has accentuated the first’s problems - mainly misunderstanding the lead’s USP as an anti-machismo hero (much like Dan brown’s dubiously similar Robert Langdon). Instead he’s huffing and puffing and getting angry at every opportunity the hackneyed script gives him.
It’s true that Ford did this at time’s, but superior direction and a more nuanced performance (yep, Ford trumps Krasinski’s chops) sits better with the character’s USP than Krasinski’s always turned up to 11 blustering. The best Ryan by far was Baldwin, who nailed the bookish guy out of his comfort zone and needing to use brains over brawn.
Personally I think 24 was a far better show, even in its decline. It’s aim was clear - ever increasing torture of kiether Sutherland. Ryan tries to be the intellectual backroom guy forced to step up to the plate, while simultaneously being a beat’em all up, not scared of ‘nuffin Jack Bauer type. Krasinski’s performance more often than not resembles the latter. Elsewhere in the cast are some very good actors doing their best with cringingly clunky dialogue and I feel bad for them. But no doubt it’s a big paycheque, so not that bad.
Amazon don’t pay well for acting jobs, neither does Netflix. It’s why sooooooo many series are dropped after two seasons, just in case anyone says the words “pay rise” - same reason Soaps have huge “tragedies” every now and then.
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I suppose Jack Ryan tries to be the latter-day 24 up to a point. It’s largely aimed at the same audience and fuelled by the same theme. After all, 24 used to be very successful in its day and its audience will not have disappeared entirely, even if they may be a bit tired of the whole gunslinging-agent-prevents-terror-plot shtick.
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He says on James Bond forum…
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It’s different when it happens only every five years, you know…
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And yet “we want it back to every two years” is a common claim round here.
I am jokingly using the straw man approach here.
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That’s exactly my problem with it - it’s trying to rebrand the character as an action man. That creates an uneven, jarring schism at the heart of this tv series. One minute he’s a desk jokey, the next he’s Holding his own with the navy seals, or Tom cruising assassins across London rooftops.
They’re basically trying to make the new 24 by piggy backing the established Ryan brand, despite the two being as opposite as could be. It’s everything that’s wrong with bad mainstream telly.
Btw, the scripts are not nearly as tight as 24 - the dialogue is cheesorama!
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Uneven and jarring only for those who have read the novels - which this show is not made for. It strives to be mass entertainment, and that worked. It´s one of the most successful shows on Amazon.
Well, it works, and since I am no Clancy fan I am entertained, too. But I can understand why you’re not.
Frankly, I like Krasinski because of THE OFFICE and A QUIET PLACE, so he can hardly do anything wrong for me. Totally biased, I know.
But the only real interesting and captivating Jack Ryan movie for me was CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER with the fantastic last scene (“Mr. President, I don’t dance!”),
Here´s my ranking:
- CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER
- JACK RYAN (TV)
- JACK RYAN - SHADOW RECRUIT
- THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER
- PATRIOT GAMES
- THE SUM OF ALL FEARS
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Oh, what a fantastic scene that is - and so timely… and unfortunately outdated.
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Absolutely faultless scene!
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