Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan
Cast & Key People
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Our Review
Tom Clancy’s analyst turned-field agent gets the modern series treatment: John Krasinski plays Ryan as a desk officer who keeps ending up in the field because he’s the only one who sees the whole board. Season 1 (a Middle East terror plot) is a solid post-24 thriller; season 2 (Venezuela) is sleeker and shallower; season 3 (Ryan framed and running through Europe) is the best, a full Bourne-style paranoia season; season 4 closes the run with Ryan confronting the agency’s moral rot.
Krasinski is likable and believable as the brainy action lead; Wendell Pierce as Greer, the veteran who becomes Ryan’s partner and conscience, is the show’s backbone, and Michael Kelly’s Mike November steals every season he’s in. The geopolitics are Clancy simple (there are always good guys and masterminds), and the format, eight episodes, one crisis, globetrotting, makes it ideal binge material. It never reaches the novels’ chess game depth, but it’s the best Clancy screen adaptation since Hunt for Red October.
Verdict: Watch it. A well oiled thriller machine. Krasinski’s Everyman charm keeps the wheels on.
