Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is now available for your binge watching entertainment on Amazon Prime. And it’s fantastic!

Who would have guessed that Jim Halpert from The Office (John Krasinski) would grow up to become one of the most popular CIA agents in popular literature?

Krasinski is outstanding in the lead role. And it doesn’t take long for you to forget that more notable actors have played Jack Ryan in the movies.

Many of Clancy’s books deal with America and Soviet relations (think The Hunt for Red October) written before Soviet communism collapsed. His terrorist novels (think Patriot Games) involved the worst terrorist group on the planet in the 90’s, the Irish Republican Army (not Al-Qaeda or ISIS).

Still, Clancy’s concepts of the CIA and world events translate perfectly into the modern age.

There are a few flaws from the books (this is for the Jack Ryan geeks):

• The portrayal of Admiral (now disgraced CIA field manager) Jim Greer is troublesome. I’m not sure why remaking his character do drastically was necessary? The conversion to Islam is fine and interesting, but Greer was a strong, central character in the books and he is not that way here.
• There is no context to the American bombing in Beirut in 1983. We just see it happen, and it triggers the lifelong hatred that propels the story. In truth, the  barracks bombing by terrorists killed 241 American servicemen that year, one of the worst attacks on the American military in history. We needed context, otherwise there is this sense of “we did it for no reason to them” which is not historically accurate.
• Not much of a spoiler, Episode 3 featured a bizarre sex scene that really needed more explanation because it did add must to the character. Would love to know the thinking of including that scene.

All of that said, Jack Ryan is an enjoyable, sometimes intense, 8 episode made for television series that is well worth the watch.

Rating:   * * * *

Actors Who Have Played Jack Ryan

Alec Baldwin, The Hunt For Red October, 1990

Harrison Ford, Patriot Games, 1992; Clear and Present Danger, 1994

Ben Affleck, The Sum of All Fears, 2002

Chris Pine, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, 2014

John Krasinski, Tom Clancey’s Jack Ryan (Amazon), 2018