Jack Ryan Season 2

There is no cool helicopter shot in Jack Ryan, Season 2. I mentioned it in an earlier post but there is an amazing scene where the government sends a helicopter to a private party Jack is at and it lands in the middle of the garden party. Then two guys run out and whisk Jack away to the shock and awe of the party goers. Who is this man? Why is he so awesome that the government sends a helicopter to fetch him.

This does not mean the show is not watchable. It has very good production values and enough of a verisimilitude to suck you in. Its like a very long action movie with all the tropes. Guys coming in for one last mission. Walking away once the villain gets his comeuppance. Guys going down in a fierce fight to the last man and bullet. The food here sucks. My buddy is going to die isn't he? A couple brought together because of shared conflict. Crooked elections and sexy foreign agents. Its alright if you don't have a soft spot for this stuff like I do.

***SPOILERS***

I read a ton of Tom Clancy as a teen. Even as a casual reader you can tell he began to sort of wane in latter books. I also did not turn out to be a right wing whackadoodle so there is that! Watching Jack Ryan Season 2 you wonder "Why hasn't world war 3 broken out!?" And Clancy did it in the books like Bear and the Dragon where World War 3 breaks out because the Chinese accidentally televise an abortion on TV and then invade Russia and then Russia joins fucking NATO and World War fucking 3 is a go! In Rainbow Six they punish the evil environmental terrorists by sending them naked into the jungle to "get back to nature."

"Sounds like you had quite an adventure down there," says a character to Jack at the end of the second season. Holy smokes is that an understatement. The climax is what amounts to Jack Ryan storming the Venezuelan equivalent of the White House and killing what appears to be half the Venezuelan army to save his friend. Which he then gets, but he then goes off mission again (The whole plot is moved by Jack essentially not following the rules except we don't want that to happen because its going to start World War 3!), to kill the crooked Venezuelan president! This is only after chasing rogue spies on London rooftops and exposing the crooked US Senator who set this all up.

This show has a lot to talk about, but also not much because you have seen it all before. Its a neat tapestry woven of patterns and colors you have seen. It does elevate Jack to a sort of action super star status which does not work well for the claim, which the show keeps reiterating, that he is just some desk jockey. Who rides his bike to work! Nerd! He has saved the world twice now but is still some peon analyst. He has had no fall from grace (albeit there is a third season coming so maybe) which makes for an awkward dynamic. We like him because its about him and also Krasinski is very magnetic albeit he chews the scenery.

Again, its alright.

To end on a list of WTF or WTH moments....

• How did Marcus fix the fiberglass on the boat while underwater? Did he band the hull together using his super strength?
• The best character in the show is Wendell Pierce's Greir. And the best, if only, joke in the season is when he tried to con his way into a meeting pretending to be a Canadian coffee magnate named...Timothy Horton.
• I do like how the get the mercenaries to fight for Jack's squad by just paying them. Which makes the most sense since they are mercenaries. I could have seen some appeal or moving speech but, nah, just pay us. How refreshing.
• Venezuela maybe broke but whomever is selling these US flags to burn is making a killing.
• The timeline seems a bit wonky. The whole show seems to happen in a week and all I can think of is "when did the commandos eat lunch?" I am fucking hobbit even when on mission. Looking for second breakfast.
• This season does not have any weird side stories like the wonky sex worker one in Season 1 where the drone pilot is beat by the weird dangerous swingers. Everything goes somewhere.
• Wait one thing...when the villainous Reyes is talking about the dynamics of polo. And you think it is going to be some big villain speech but it is cut off quickly to get back to the danger.
• Jack is supposed to be very smart but they don't play that up here. We are to expect it because I guess he is smart enough to get everyone else killed by defying orders. Jack must fantasize to that. "Hey, we don't have clearance for that! Wait, why are you taking off your pants!?"
• Tom Clancy is listed as an executive producer but Tom Clancy is also quite dead.
• I like the theme song and the bit where mundane things are overlapped onto exciting tactical stuff. That feels very Clancy in a none crazy way