My ‘Jack Ryan’ mini-review.

Short version: Jack Ryan is a solid adaptation of the character to a Netflix series.  I liked the title character’s relationship with Jim Greer, the storyline is infinitely more nuanced than Vanity Fair suggested that it was, and my ultimate decision to watch this show based on the aforementioned VF review turned out to be a good one.  It’s not The Hunt For Red October*, but nothing will ever be The Hunt For Red October so it’s unfair to hold Jack Ryan to that standard.

Slightly longer version: Jack Ryan is a somewhat alternate-history version of itself: it rewinds the character arc to even before Patriot Games, while pushing the date forward to more or less now.  The people writing the scripts have actually read the books, which is nice.  The changes that have been made to Cathy and Greer’s parts are justifiable, in terms of the overarching narrative.

Said narrative is, of course, based on the technothriller aesthetic, which explicitly allows for ornate plots, a certain amount of coincidence, and a remarkable amount of automatic weapons fire.  I do not criticize: I was there for the aesthetic.  I was also there for some fairly unapologetic Americanism, which was at least once delivered in a manner that probably caused SAN loss in the Vanity Fair reviewer mentioned above.  And yet; the main villain was not a cardboard cutout.  The reasons for his unambiguous villainy were shown, and while they were certainly not sufficient justification for evil at least they were comprehensible.  I suspect that this subconsciously bothered that reviewer even more.

So: yeah, if you have the free time then watch it.  I bought Tom Clancy in hardcover, and I liked Jack Ryan just fine.

Moe Lane

*IT’S ON PRIME!

5 thoughts on “My ‘Jack Ryan’ mini-review.”

  1. Clancy was the one author I always bought in hardcover – I have a signed one around here somewhere.

  2. At the start of the series we were told that Suleiman was a good man, and we were even shown that he was good in some of the flashbacks. At one point I remarked “I hope they show us how he turned evil”. I was not terribly disappointed with how it was shown.
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    That said, my favorite part was watching Cathy at work. She was clearly very intelligent, diligent, and resourceful.

  3. On your Vanity Fair-based recommendation, I looked it up, and .. am not disappointed.
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    I did, however, find the French .. very French.
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    Mew

  4. VF negative review is also a booster for me, it may stir me to watch now that I’ve finished Iron Fist season 2 (which is much improved over season 1).

  5. Ryan’s character development was well done, especially with the final flashback in the helicopter and how that related to what Ryan eventually does in the end.

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