The missus and I finished the binge last night. Let’s set the post: I am a huge Tom Clancy fan and I can probably stay for hours arguing about his best books (A tie for first between Red Storm Rising and Without Remorse). The missus has not read Clancy ever nor she cares.
She loved the damned show, and so did I.
If you are a Clancy fan, I must tell you how I approached the series: I knew from the get-go that this was not to be a faithful approach to Clancy’s book and accepted it. This is a new timeline, if you wish. If this was Science Fiction, we would be watching our favorite characters in an alternate universe. This is not the Ryan from the Cold War era books, but has the same internal nature and motivation. There are some adapted differences & similarities in personal character (this Ryan is a tested combat veteran) which is the genius in itself. It is not a totally new unknown person yet is fresh enough to attract new fans. In my opinion they did a great job trying to satisfy both old and new fans.
Female main characters are strong which is a Clancy trait long before the whole SJW even began to be masturbated. yes, there are some representations of Human Trafficking that are not very nice, but guess what? It is a faithful portrayal of what is happening out there. Probably the reason why so many liberals have criticized the series about women and Muslims may have to do with the lollipop scene. I won’t do a spoiler, but when you watch it, you will understand what I am saying.
The surprise character-wise was Admiral Greer.
Played by The Wire’s Wendell Pierce, he is not the soft fatherly figure, office-strategist we are used to, but a hard charger, hyper-realistic Ops guy who knows his hands will get dirty to get the job done. I might be a bit prejudiced since I am an absolute fan of his for his incredible job in The Wire.
And what I liked the best is that the producers and writers did not fall for the “24” ailment of almost always having a secret evil cabal of super rich white people being the real bad guys controlling everything and everybody like puppets.
So, Jack Ryan has the official recommendation from me and the missus. You have the day off today, so go forth and binge. And that reminds me there is one bad thing about the series: Being only eight episode, it was not long enough, damn it! We wanted at least two more episodes!
And now I wait till I hear we will have a second season.
The wife and I are making our way through it. Just finned Ep4. What I learned is the French can’t shoot or clear buildings worth a damn.
Also, the writer Carlton Cuse was the main writer of Colony, which was Awesome.
I haven’t been this happy with a Jack Ryan adaptation since ‘The Hunt for Red October.’
I agree with most of what you wrote about the series. I thought Greer’s religious background was a bit of Hollywood social posturing though. I’m sure it was meant as a capitulation to the expected backlash but unless the show turned Ryan into a Trans SJW that was dedicated to fighting the patriarchy and white supremacy, the backlash was to be expected.
I’m with you on Red Storm Rising being the best Clancy book. Have you read any of Larry Bond’s books? He co-wrote RSR with Clancy. Bond’s best was Red Phoenix imho.
I stopped after the first two author book.
If you liked Red Storm Rising, I really recommend Red Phoenix. It’s a bit dated now but it was a very similar book to Red Storm Rising but it was about a new Korean War in the 1990’s. Well worth the read. He did a few others in the same vein as Red Storm Rising and Red Phoenix but I didn’t think they were as good.
NYC2AZ: Agree with you completely. Glad you caught that, as well. For the most part, this was a well-done series.
But of course its Hollywood, so they MUST sneak in the idea that “Oh, the Musloids can be good guys and still faithful Musloids” [crap]. I said out loud, when Greer made some comment about his “prayer time”… that “he needs to get his black a** back to a Christian church and worship Jesus like he was meant to do.”
There were a few other minor things that Hollywood also sneaked in there, but mostly it was well done. LIke: the musloid mother wasn’t actually a raving lunatic. That was interesting…
The best two characters in THE WIRE were Det. William “Buck” Moreland (played by Pierce) and, my personal favorite, Det. Lester Freamon (played by the always excellent Clarke Peters).
I have to agree. Amazing performances.
And a young Idris Elba not doing too bad of a job.
I don’t think many people saw it, but Pierce was also very good with a limited role for several seasons in Suits; that role didn’t give hom the opportunity The Wire did to show his strengths, though.
RE: More episodes – IMDB already has the Season Two episode numbers for 2019, so it looks like at least one more year. Hopefully, it will be 5-7 years’ worth, although 1 per year is agonizingly slow. WE WANT MORE NOW !!