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Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan

Discussion in 'TV Shows and Movies' started by Deacon, Sep 3, 2018.

  1. Deacon

    Deacon Well-Known Member
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    Anybody watching Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Amazon?
    I scheduled a complete day of nothing, rest and relaxation.
    Labor Day offered me the chance to catch up on some quality TV watching.

    I’m beginning episode 6.
    I find it to be a slowly developing, action packed series, not unlike Clancy’s (original) books, which I eargerly awaited and purchased for more than a decade, ever since his first novel, The Hunt For Red October.

    The character Jack Ryan is rather uninspiring. The plot strengthens the character and compensates for the actors rather weak acting abilities. There are times when I fast-forward through a scene that is drawn out. At times I think it mirrors past Clancy plots.

    So far I find it worth watching once.
    I’d would have rather read it,
    Clancy is doing quite well writing from the grave.

    Rob
     
  2. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Thanks for the review.

    I, too started reading Clancy in the 80's. I found the early books to be interesting reads but then they got to be long-winded, too technical, and eventually I quit reading them. The movies kind of followed the same paths.

    I don't find the Jack Ryan character to be particularly compelling, which is why I'm ambivalent about the Amazon series.

    I also feel like all the water had been wrung out of this franchise's wash cloth.

    Still, I may give a couple of episodes a look-see.

    Sent from my Pixel 2 XL
     
  3. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Deacon, you might be interested in a production on Amazon Prime, "The Worricker Trilogy" starring Bill Nighy as an older MI5 agent that is stuck in an ethical dilemma. Part character study and part spy thriller, it's a bit more cerebral than is typical for the genre. Some interesting twists and turns. Well written and produced. I really liked it.

    Sent from my Pixel 2 XL
     
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  4. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    I thought that they should have just stuck to movies, with Captain Kirk actor playing him!
     
  5. Deacon

    Deacon Well-Known Member
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    I don’t know how long you stayed with the book series, his main character, Jack Ryan certainly was played out. I thought Clancy effectively killed his character when he ended a book with him being sworn in as President at the end of Debt of Honor, ...but he wrote a few great thrillers after that one... some of his best.
    But as Clancy knew, times change and technology dates books rather quickly.
    So he began developing the latest Jack Ryan character, particularly in his collaborative novels. The new character is Jack the son, who carries some of the exciting history of his fictional father, fear of flight, airplane crash, etc.

    So the series on Amazon develops the character of Jack the son rather than the father.

    Rob
     
  6. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    I just looked at the Jack Ryan books in order and I think the last one I read was "Clear and Present Danger".

    The fact the Amazon series is about his son is a good selling point for me.

    Sent from my Pixel 2 XL
     
  7. TCassidy

    TCassidy Late-Administator Emeritus
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    I watched the whole season. It was slow getting started. The actor playing Ryan is not impressive and much too wooden. And there are way too many continuity errors, not to mention James Greer was Director of Central Intelligence and a retired Navy Admiral, not a defrocked field officer. And certainly NOT a Muslim, black or otherwise!

    Oh, and Dr. Mueller was an Ophthalmic surgeon.

    But if I closed one eye and held my breath a lot it looked okay. :)
     
  8. HankD

    HankD Well-Known Member
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    Off and on but after a little while Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z.
     
  9. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Watched the first two episodes. Good production values. Kind of a slow setup but the payoff was worth it. I'm hooked and will watch the whole thing. Agree with Deacon and TCassidy that the Jack Ryan character is a bit vanilla. He's a smart cookie and has good instincts and the writers do a good job of conveying that.

    I was not fooled by the bodyguards identity in the pilot episode. Still, it was a nice twist.

    TCassidy mentioned some discrepancies between the characters here and...where? Is the Amazon production based on a book?
     
  10. TCassidy

    TCassidy Late-Administator Emeritus
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  11. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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  12. Deacon

    Deacon Well-Known Member
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    I presume that most people know of Clancy's works through the movie adaptations rather than from his books.


    The series was advertised to take advantage of a presumed familiarity with the character of Jack Ryan.

    Of course the James Greer in the series is a different character entirely from the character of James Greer in Clancy's early books.

    I'd guess it was used to exploit the a familiar character's name to try to connect the earlier movies to the series without a full or time-consuming explanation.


    New and younger viewers would not be aware, older viewer might appreciate the connections…. those true Tom Clancy fans would just have grin and bear it and put up with the illegitimization.

    So it's a storyline inspired by Clancy but with quite a bit of artistic license.

    Rob
     
  13. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Reminds me of the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child. Reacher is a 6' 5" 250 lb. bear of a man that intimidates just by standing there. When they made the Jack Reacher movies he was played by Tom Cruise, who is apparently 5' 8" and weighs 160 lbs.

    Not the actor that this long time fan of the books was expecting to play the Reacher character.
     
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  14. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    I lost track when ben Afflick became the new president in the Sum of all fears or something movie?
     
  15. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Watched episode 3 tonight. (The one with the drone operator.) That was terrible television in oh so many ways. Might give up on the rest of the series.
     
  16. TCassidy

    TCassidy Late-Administator Emeritus
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    I laughed out loud at the Predator operators. The left seat is the pilot and the right seat is the sensor operator with a second set of flight controls in the event of an emergency.

    The Predator was in flight and they both got up and stood behind the seats to have a meaningless conversation. Who was flying the Predator? :rolleyes:
     
  17. Deacon

    Deacon Well-Known Member
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    I fast forwarded through each scene dealing with the drone operators - sadly the scenario with them gets even worse.
    Should have been edited out of the series IMO.

    Rob
     
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  18. HankD

    HankD Well-Known Member
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    Drags out to much, too slow.
     
  19. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    There's more of that unrelatable, unsympathetic, insubordinate, pathetic character in future episodes?

    Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
     
  20. HankD

    HankD Well-Known Member
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    I believe episode 4 is a bit smutty. Last season's series?

    BTW you can see the series on ROKU.
     
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