Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Season 1 - Written Review
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Season 1 is quite methodically-paced across its eight episode run. It isn't constantly working in big action sequences in an effort to feel more like a mainstream blockbuster, but because of the lack of action, most of the show consists of characters talking. There's very little in the way of visual story-telling in the series, and it mostly revolves around dialogue scenes that go on for quite some time, and often feel quite flatly directed. There are chase sequences and moments of suspense, but the episodes never managed to keep a consistent pace. Particularly in the first few episodes, there are whole stretches where nothing of interest actually happens, from a plot or character perspective.
It's also difficult not to feel that this season lacks focus. Jack Ryan himself seems to barely appear in the show as a whole, and feels far removed from the action between episodes two and five. That's almost half the season where Ryan feels like a supporting player in his own show, and even when he's given the focus, he doesn't feel nearly developed enough. His friendship with Greer and budding romance with Cathy feel like underdeveloped sub-plots, while his back-story doesn't feature until the season's finale. John Krasinski is fantastic in the role, but the show doesn't seem interested enough in Jack Ryan as a character to give him the focus he deserves.
Instead, the show spends a lot of time with Hanin Ali, the wife of the show's antagonist. For the first few episodes her story-line feels oddly separate from the events, simply there to pad out each episode with filler material. Eventually her story starts to go somewhere, but again we have multiple episodes dedicated to one episode's worth of story. When her narrative thread intersects with Ryan's at long last though, the character is pushed to the side. To put such emphasis on a character only to push her to the sidelines in the final two episodes is a little odd, and perhaps highlights the show's structural problems.
Another story-line is that of Victor Polizzi, who himself is completely separated from the season's main plot. He has two or three episodes centered around him, but none of them make any kind of impact on the rest of the characters. One small action he takes is so inconsequential that the show almost completely ignores it to key dragging out the eight-episode run. As a character, Victor isn't particularly interesting, and his story-line serves to cause even more pacing and structural problems with the show.
That being said, the series spends a lot of time with it's antagonist Suleiman, played brilliantly by actor Ali Suliman. Over the course of the season his motivations become very clear and he feels like a fully-developed, three-dimensional character, despite his antagonistic role. This is where I feel Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan's strength lies - in creating a morally ambiguous conflict. Instead of creating a conflict of the all-good American hero fighting the evil terrorist threat, the show presents flawed characters from flawed systems trying to do what they believe to be the right thing. That's not to say that the series endorses Suleiman's views, but it demonstrates the moral ambiguity of war and conflict.
On the production side of things, the series has very mixed production values. The location work is fantastic, and the series doesn't look cheap, but considering how many shows look like big-budget movies nowadays, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan still looks very TV-esque. Shots are intentionally framed quite wide to capture entire scenes in as few takes as possible, but most of them feel quite formulaic and flat. There's no real creative spark to the series' direction or camerawork, and considering how much work must've been put into the show, the cinematography looks pretty standard. Considering Amazon want this to be their big flagship show, I would've thought they'd want the series to look as cinematic as possible, but it simply doesn't. Ramin Djawadi's score is also so understated and generic that I was surprised to see his name in the credits. Based on the end result, I think this was a pay-cheque for the composer as opposed to a passion-project.
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan is a badly-structured series that often feels a bit flat. That's not to say that the series is terrible, but considering the high-caliber of television at the moment, it feels a bit generic. Even the title sequence is one of the most bland and boring I've ever seen. If Amazon want to grab an audience, they really need to put more work into the second season and take what's worked about this first outing and move forward in an improved direction. Given how quickly they've jumped into a second season though (they're already part-way through filming), I doubt they've had any time to really assess this first season to develop the series in future. If you haven't seen Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, I wouldn't say that it's not worth your time, but there are a variety of shows that really are, meaning that this series should hardly be a priority for you - at least for now.
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