Jack Ryan season 1

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan has seem some highs and lows on screen since his first appearance in the great 1990 submarine thriller, The Hunt for Red October when played by Alec Baldwin, before finding decent yet mixed results with Harrison Ford in two films, an average outing with Ben Affleck in 2002 and then Chris Pine's forgettable attempt in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit in 2014. It was a sad case of diminishing returns with each film but Amazon sought to change that in 2018 brining the character to the smaller screen with Jack Ryan and starring John Krasinski. 

The Jack Ryan of old was a more office bound/bookish character who would reluctantly pick up a gun when the moment called for it as seen with Baldwin and Ford. Krasinski's version is a veteran with battle scars from a haunting helicopter accident and the first episode shows him as a fighter during an explosive battle. But for some, this will feel a bit jarring and while I like Krasinski as an actor, he almost seems conflicted in his performance not knowing whether to be the muscly action star, or the hesitant CIA analyst who prefers a biro pen to an M16. 

Season one introduces Jack to James Greer, his new boss who had been affectionately played by James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman, as well as a more steely Samuel L. Jackson for Ford's films, who is now played by a more tough-as-nails Wendell Pierce as they reluctantly work together to hunt down an Islamic extremist across Europe and the Middle East. The story might lack originality but is slickly presented and Amazon thankfully avoid repeating the mistakes of Netflix by keeping season one down to a tight eight episodes. 

However, despite its glossy visuals and reliable casting with Krasinski and Pierce, Jack Ryan's first season does fall into the realms of feeling overly familiar and introduces several unnecessary sub-plots that damage the pacing. One involves a drone pilot that belonged on the cutting room floor and another with Abbie Cornish's scientist/love interest that put the brakes on the story. In the right hands, these stories could have worked but the director's safe approach saw the season peak at the beginning. 

The season concludes on a relatively entertaining but abrupt note as (minor spoiler!) the villain is popped-off with little drama or ceremony that could have developed Ryan's character. It was a missed opportunity but I still found enough to enjoy that I will return for a second season. Fans of Homeland will still be left searching for something more meaty to satisfy that hole left by the show but you could do a lot worse than watch Jack Ryan.