Jack Ryan: Season One

Jack Ryan, the former Marine and Wall Street stockbroker turned CIA analyst created by author Tom Clancy in his 1984 debut novel The Hunt for Red October, has been the hero of over a dozen novels and five movies. John Krasinski takes over the role—previously played by (among others) Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford—for this new Amazon Prime web series. Set early in his career, the show opens with Ryan uncovering a new, well-funded terrorist organization by tracing financial transactions through shell companies. He tries to convince his section boss James Grier (Wendell Pierce), a career military veteran, along with the intelligence hierarchy, that the targeted group’s leader is smart, careful, and poses a serious threat to the U.S. Based on an original story by producers Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland, this is a globetrotting series that takes the characters from Langley, VA, to Paris and the Middle East and back in order to stop a terrorist attack on American soil. Abbie Cornish costars as Ryan’s girlfriend, a doctor specializing in infectious diseases (which plays a role in the terrorist threat), while John Magaro plays a drone pilot suffering a crisis of conscience, and Timothy Hutton and Blair Brown have small roles as administration officials. Jack Ryan is a smart, well-produced show with strong production values and a boy scout of a hero whose self-righteousness almost sabotages his mission. The young Ryan is brilliant but has a lot to learn about the practical side of intelligence work and Grier is just the seasoned veteran to mentor him. Compiling all eight episodes from the 2018 first season, extras include deleted scenes. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)