I am only 4 episodes into this series so I don't want to fly out of the gate and tell people that they absolutely must watch this show but so far, I have been entertained for the entirety of the 4, 45-minute episodes that I have seen thus far. This is extremely rare to have happen to me as I normally am quite picky about what I watch, so I think that unless they do something terrible with the story, that this will continue to be really good.
It has a great cast and Michael Bay as a producer, so of course there is plenty of really good action with tons of explosions since Bay really seems to enjoy that sort of thing and is really good at it.
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By the way this is NOT on Netflix. Even though my username is netflixr and my original idea was to exclusively follow Netflix material, I have a falling out of sorts with that company in the past couple of years. Now I am on Plex and I am watching movies and TV shows from a wide-variety of streaming platforms. This particular show comes from Amazon Prime but as I am sure you are aware, there are many other ways of obtaining this, and almost any other show in existence.
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At first, Jack Ryan might appear to be another Homeland because it does share a lot of the same characteristics in that Jack works for a USA covert operations organization, only this time it is the CIA rather than Homeland Security. His unit specializes in the financial aspects of tracking terrorism, but this quickly becomes raw action rather than just some guy in a cubicle staring at spreadsheets.
This is one of the first times that I am seeing John Krasinski play a non-comedic role. I recall he was in a horror movie where the aliens could see nothing but had super-special hearing. I thought he did a good job in that role but the premise behind the movie was extremely flawed and therefore I couldn't enjoy it.
I'm sure it wasn't easy for him to get himself out of the type-casting of comedy after years of success in the TV show The Office but he has definitely pulled it off in this series.
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It begins with him being a bit of a desk jockey and he is content with his simple life in relative safety in the confines of an office in Washington D.C. But due to his discovery of some really important financial happenings in Europe and the Middle East, he is taken out to the forefront since he is the only one that is extremely familiar with the situation.
I like the character because he isn't "all powerful." Although Jack does have a military background and this is shown in multiple flashbacks in the first few episodes, he is still very vulnerable in combat and fighting situations and this kind of in unique when comparing his character to that other Jack with the surname Reacher and a multitude of other series that have a similar plotline.
This is one of the things that makes me more interested in this series that others like it. Jack doesn't always win and even though I enjoy the other CIA type films, it does get a bit annoying that the guy we are focused on is always 10 steps ahead of the enemy and is seemingly invulnerable. Jack Ryan as a character and the organizations that he works with are very vulnerable and often, they lose. You'll find this out in the very first episode so I don't think that is much of a spoiler.
The show has a nice mix of action and drama and I would say that it is just the right mix because neither one happens for such a long period of time that you have a chance to get sick of it.
Should I watch it?
Out of all the series I have recently watched this is one of my favorites and at least thus far, it is my favorite espionage-oriented series perhaps of all time. Even though I had other things that I needed and wanted to do on the one and only day that I spent watching this, I binged 4 episodes in a row and ended up getting a lot less sleep than I needed that night. I think that most people who watch this will end up having a similar reaction to it.
As far as Amazon series are concerned, this is one of their best and does a tiny bit in making up for the dumpster fire that is The Rings of Power. I'm just hopeful that they don't screw this series up. There are currently 3 seasons available and there is a 4th on the way.
