You don’t know ‘Jack’
Krasinski not convincing as Tom Clancy’s CIA hero Ryan
REVIEW
“TOM CLANCY’S JACK RYAN” Series premiere tomorrow on Amazon. Grade: C
On the new season of “The Office,” Jim chases terrorists.
OK, it just seems that way as onetime NBC sitcom star and Boston native John Krasinski takes over the role of Tom Clancy’s greatest hero, Jack Ryan.
Jack has been played on the big screen by such stars as Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and, most recently, Chris Pine, and now Krasinski and Amazon Prime bring him to your tablets and phones tomorrow. The biggest casualty in this small-screen translation from Carlton Cuse (“Lost”) and Graham Roland: any semblance of excitement.
Jack — at least in the initial episodes (Amazon provided the first four out of the eight-episode season for review) — works out of a cubicle in a poorly lit office. While he digs into foreign bank accounts for the CIA, an office Pam casts longing looks his way and is willing to do anything to help him.
His boss, Jim Greer (Wendell Pierce, “The Wire”), is widely dismissed as incompetent. Jim despises his subordinates, especially Jack.
Jack discovers several suspicious financial transactions leading to a terrorist in Yemen by the name of Suleiman (Ali Suliman, “The Looming Tower”), who is amassing a militia for goals that aren’t immediately clear. Jack is sure he’s stumbled on to the next 9/11. Jim thinks he’s crazy.
Jack also has a love interest in Dr. Cathy Mueller (Abbie Cornish, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”). Their courtship is a story sucking up minutes of your life, though I suspect she will become more important as the series goes on because of her plotconvenient research into infectious diseases.
Jack’s investigation ultimately prompts a road trip to Yemen for Jack and Jim, a Muslim convert going through a divorce and questioning his own faith and purpose.
“I don’t interrogate people. I write reports,” Jack protests. But this Boston College graduate and ex-Marine has combat experience from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, even if he hates to talk about it.
“I think you have everyone fooled,” a French operative tells Jack in a later episode. “I think you are a wolf. A wolf who plays at being a sheep.”
If only we could see what she does.
Suleiman’s wife, Hanin (Dina Shihabi), adores her husband but her concern for their three children will compel her to take drastic steps.
“Jack Ryan” excels at pyrotechnics. Walls, trucks and people explode in spectacular arrays of destruction. Its fight choreography gets muddy, especially when Jack is tussling with some terrorist.
A terrorist attack on a church service in the fourth episode just might give you a week’s worth of nightmares.
Krasinski is having a banner year as the director, co-writer and star of the scary film “A Quiet Place” with his wife, Emily Blunt. This series, alas, could put the brakes on the good times. The most charitable thing that can be said about Krasinski’s performance here is that he looks deeply, deeply tired. Amazon renewed “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” for a second season back in April.
It’s hardly a good thing when you realize a series could be improved if only the producers edited out the star.