If they’re playing this by the books, he’s already a Marine veteran by the time he becomes a CIA analyst.
Yeah, he is. But since this is 2018 everything has been reset. It looks like he saw action in Iraq or Afghanistan before a chopper crash killed all of his squad but himself.
It’s sorta covered, but he goes into civilian life and used to work in Wall Street before he got bored with the idea of making money. Joe Mueller, his old boss, makes an appearance in the episode. And if you know the Jack Ryan story, you know who is Joe’s daughter.
Jim Greer is a main character, but it looks like he’s no longer a Navy admiral.
Well, it’s kind of funny, I guess we’ve looped back around to having Russia as a villain being relevant again. Though I don’t imagine he’ll be helping any Lithuanian submarine captains defect with secret Russian submarine technology.
You never know. Season 2 was greenlit.
I would be seriously impressed if they decided to sink that kind of money into the budget. Ha ha, sink. I kill me.
Finished the first episode. That was awesome and I can’t wait to watch the rest.
Saw first one too. Solid start. Nothing totally new but they do a good job of gett No the context for the main bad guy so he’s not just Mr. generic terrorist.
I hope this is as good as Shooter. That’s my current benchmark for TV thrillers.
Binged on the first three episodes. WOW. I’m hooked. Tight and tense storyline, not a ton of boring exposition to start off, action in every episode and characters you start to empathize with almost immediately, this is good TV. For a guy whom I only ever saw do comedy roles, Krasinski is nailing his role as Ryan.
I may end up finishing this by the end of the holiday weekend.
It’s very Clancy-esqe in the way it has almost random stories interacting at pivotal moments.
I think one way Amazon was able to spend big was by spending about $5 on the opening credits.
Also, Jack needs to have his business card say “I’m just an analyst” for the job title.
Ep. 4 done.
Daaaaamn.
Finished Ep 5 and am calling it a night. Long day of college football tomorrow.
But this really does feel like a Clancy novel come to life. It’s damn good.
How many eps are there, 8? 10? 13?
Wiki says 8 episodes for Season 1.
DONE! I want another eight episodes!
Hiding thoughts
Summary
Okay, around episode 6, I was really starting to worry that it was going to end on a cliffhanger, or end extremely rushed.
Not to worry. It doesn’t. And it sets up the Russia plot for Season 2.
I really, really liked it. It played it very straight. It’s very Clancy to the core. Just enough action and military porn, real-world operations that can go pear-shaped for a variety of reasons, an elaborate plot, and great chemistry between Wendell Pierce and Krasinski. They’re the duo that makes it tick, and there are some really nice touches of humor every now and then between them.
I really like the changes in this adaption to the Ryan-verse. A lot better than the Affleck or Chris Pine reboots (although I would trade the Abbie Cornish for Keira Knightley any day).
I also like the huge amounts of characterization they gave everyone, including the main bad guys.
The thing that sorta went nowhere: Drone pilot. Seriously, that was it? I kept expecting he’d show in in the last act when they desperately need a pilot out of Syria. They spent massive amounts of set-up, and I’m not sure why.
I’m now bummed that based on how much production values and location shooting they did, we’ll probably not see Season 2 until 2020. But Amazon deserves some kudos for this one.
That’s cool - after The Wire and Treme, I’m a big fan of Wendell Pierce.
In case you’re wondering, “Garth” is Clark. But they don’t have the rights to he John Clark character.
Updated to modern times from Clancy’s original Ryan, it still keep the tone very Clancy like. I only caught the first episode so far but I like what I see. Smart move by Amazon to lock up John K for a 2nd season because this guy has really got it going on these days.
Watched the first three episodes with my wife today. The pilot was great. #2 was okay. #3 was a huge drag. The show is at its best when the focus is on James Greer and this one other guy who played Jim in the office. In fact, I’d say the show is so much better when these two are on screen that they should consider refocusing the entire series around one of them. I can already imagine how much less bored I’d be compared to watching whatever the hell episode 3 got up to.
Has the Jack Ryan character ever died at some point in this series? (Books, movies, Broadway musical productions, etc.)