Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Season One (Review)

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan
2018 Amazon Video
Season One
The Nicsperiment Score: 8/10

Considering the me-focused eulogy I wrote here for the man is still one of my most read pieces, I think it's safe to say Tom Clancy's name can still put butts in seats. Clancy's technology-driven tales of government intrigue and espionage may have been a bit dry, but they included some legitimately memorable characters, including the gritty, grey-dwelling John Clark, a field agent, and the ultimate patriot and moral boy scout, Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst. James Berardinelli's review for the 1994 cinematic adaptation of Clancy's Clear and Present Danger complained that Harrison Ford's Ryan is "...disgustingly virtuous: a flawless fighter for good and justice..." Well, yeah, James, that's his appeal. Thankfully, Amazon's new take on the character doesn't compromise Ryan's impeachable integrity.
A warning: I just mentioned that I wrote a eulogy on The Nicsperiment for Tom Clancy. Let this serve as a warning that this review is coming form the perspective of a Clancy fanboy. Proceed with caution.
John Krasinski is the fifth actor to portray Jack Ryan, and performs aptly. Krasinski, previously known as a comedic actor, proved in 13 Hours, a surprisingly great Michael Bay film, that he can do action as well. Ryan is presented in this series as a young financial analyst for the CIA, a slight deviation from the book, but his character is set in stone almost immediately. The extent of Ryan's sense of humor is slightly ribbing or being ribbed by a co-worker for his favorite sports team winning or losing. He is hyper-intelligent, but mild-mannered. Ryan takes his work seriously. He does what is right at all costs. When he's disappointed in himself, he lies awake all night. His sense of honor causes him to often go above his own head at work. Then, before he knows it, he's embroiled in matters far above his pay-grade. These are all elements the show and Krasinski nail.
My favorite moment comes when Ryan and his boss have to work with a middle-eastern pimp to find a family in danger. As soon as Ryan meets the pimp, who Ryan finds immoral and disgusting, Krasinki's nose goes up in the air, and a scowl digs deeply into his face. He never drops it for the duration of the episode, though all the while his boss chides him for it, trying to insist that sometimes compromises have to be made. I hope the show doesn't grey out Ryan's moral code over time. It's what makes him Ryan. However one change that I'm a bit conflicted about involves making Ryan into an all-out action hero. Previous adaptations have included bits of action for Ryan to partake in, and the books do, as well. However, at the end of the day, Ryan is the cunning person back home uncovering terrorist plots or corruption, while other Clancy characters are sent out to deal with them. Ryan reluctantly gets drawn into the action at times, and as an ex-Marine, is quite capable, if need be, but this is a character who, at the end of the day, would rather be teaching history class.
The show either doesn't have an interest in presenting more characters on the ground, doesn't want the audience to get confused, or just really wants to have Krasinki running around with a gun. When Ryan discovers some Yemini terrorist financial shenanigans, combat experts aren't dispatched to investigate. Before you can say, "wait, he's a civilian," Ryan has been dispatched to a Middle-Eastern war-zone, where he's almost immediately engaging in fisticuffs and firefights (there's a humorous moment when he's handed a gun early on and says "I'm not supposed to have one of those," ironically right before he becomes a terrorist-dispatching Rambo). I get that this is more thrilling from an action standpoint, and indeed, the show's action is well-shot and exciting, but it still feels a bit unbelievable that the U.S. government is sending what is basically an accountant to do black ops jobs.
Ryan is often accompanied by his supervisor, James Greer, once played by James Earl Jones, this time ably embodied by Wendell Pierce. Pierce absolutely nails every eye-roll and "are you kidding me" Greer levels at Ryan, as Greer is subjected to Ryan's constant righteousness, and pulled deeper and deeper into physical danger by his subordinate. Greer's character is a bit changed here, as now he's a disgraced former Station Chief, as well as a lapsed Muslim, but this newfound depth is actually welcome.
Faring slightly less well is Abbie Cornish as Cathy Mueller, Ryan's love interest. Cornish is fine on an emotional level, and has great chemistry with Krasinski, but her native Australian accent obliterates her attempt at an East Coast one. My personal favorite is her multiple mispronunciations of helicopter as "heh-lee-copter." Also, the fact that I had to simply refer to her as "Ryan's love interest,' though not fault of Cornish, is a bit of an indictment against the character. Her profession is changed from the books' premier eye surgeon to infectious disease expert, which simply serves to force her to run into Ryan on a professional level (after they've already met outside of work), due to a certain terrorist plot. This character profession change may connect and smooth the narrative, but it robs the character a bit of her charm and agency. In the books, it is frequently and humorously pointed out that the rock star eye surgeon Cathy is generally off doing important work, only interrupted when Jack pisses off an adversary to the point that her life is threatened. Per Clancy's writing, Cathy's identity as a person is quite safe from being overrun by Jack's, though here in the show, she's just sort of an accessory that's sucked into his wake.
As far as the actual narrative, Jack Ryan takes many pages from Clancy's work, though it tells its own unique story. However, there are pretty huge elements from Sum of All Fears and Debt of Honor mostly lifted wholesale as a part of the grand scheme of season villain, Suleiman. As Suleiman, an Islamic terrorist, Ali Suliman brings humanity and pathos to what could have been a throwaway role. The show also wisely subverts the Dark Knight and Skyfall villain grand plan idea, as Suliman's admittedly convoluted machinations are often thwarted by the fact that his poverty-born resources can't quite match the sheer power of the nations he's set himself against. He's a great foil for Ryan, as the two frequently lock intellects, and at certain points, fists.
As another admission of personal bias, I must throw out that I love Washington, D.C. It's a vibrant city with a unique energy. I've been twice, both times in the 90's, and Clancy's books always accurately captured that feeling for me. Jack Ryan does a good job of conjuring that vibe, even as it's set 20-30 years after Clancy's best and well-known books. That atmosphere is further thickened by Ramin Djawadi's score. The Game of Thrones and Westworld alum obviously took James Horner's scores for the Ford film's as a starting point, as their textures and scales are utilized, but he also adds a modern touch, which can be miss when it's generic ambiance, but hit when it's tension-building booming electronic percussion.
As a Clancy fan, I am happy with Jack Ryan's take, as it for the most part captures the feel of Clancy's work, and absolutely nails the flag-draped, goody-two-shoes Jack Ryan character (a poster for the Harrison Ford Ryan is literally Ford wearing a flag and scowling). Some people might find such a heavily moral character boring, but watching him navigate such a morally compromised environment as national intelligence is quite interesting.  I can make my peace with Ryan being a bit more of an action hero here (just look at all the explosions in the posters!), and the liberties taken with the more minor characters. It's great that this character is living on more than 30-years after his creation.
On a simple critical level, this is a very solid show. The performances are engaging, the production values are excellent (an episode set on the edge of the snowy Alps is particularly beautiful), and the plotting, while not entirely original, is attention-captivating enough to make these eight episodes fly by. I give it eight U.S.S. Nimitz's out of ten.