Jack Ryan is a fun take on Tom Clancy's signature character, and the show is available to stream on Amazon Prime right now. Season One brought John Krasinski's take on Ryan's character to television in a big way, squaring him off against a Yemeni terrorist named Suleiman. Season Two shifted the scenery to Venezuela, where Ryan battles a corrupt incumbent President responsible for a hit job on a Senator who just happened to be his close friend.
Season Two made a few mistakes that unfortunately detracted away from the overall narrative, but that doesn't mean a third Season can't turn things around. Here are 10 things Jack Ryan Season Two did wrong, and how the showrunners can make certain that third time's a charm.
TOO MUCH SOLDIER RYAN
Jack Ryan works best when he's a reluctant hero. He may have the background and combat training necessary to handle himself in a firefight, but at heart, he's an analyst who doesn't enjoy the prospect of jumping back into the fray.
Season Two gave Ryan the incentive needed to wage a vendetta against corrupt Venezuelan President Reyes, but it was out of step with his character. Ryan would have preferred working from the confines of a CIA chair before having to resort to undercover ops in a hostile country.
GREER'S AGGRESSION
Jim Greer's novel character is a much different man than the one portrayed in the Amazon series. The former is kind, gracious, and analytical, while the latter is hostile, jaded, and aggressive. The two share certain key personality traits, but Amazon's Greer is a distant echo of his source material.
Season Two should have seen Greer lighten up and become less brash, and more friendly, especially in light of his heart condition. His experiences near the end of the Season may allow his character to embrace some of that, or it may further reinforce his character's hostility.
NO PLOT TWISTS
Season Two played an open hand, almost from the start. Where many spy thrillers enjoy sprinkling in a few good plot twists, none were uncovered during the course of the season's run. That's a bit of a shame, as some fans ran an early theory suggesting that President Reyes might actually be the good guy, and his opponent Gloria Bonalde might be the true villain.
Instead, the story played straight to fashion, with nothing surprising in the plot department until the very last episode (which was underwhelming, on the back of everything that preceded it). Season Three should incorporate some sort of a plot twist designed to throw the audience off, as the lack of any actually runs counterproductive to audience expectations at this point.
STOLEN PLOT ELEMENTS
Ryan and his team are assaulted by President Reyes' hit squad early in the season, leading to the death of Senator Moreno. This is almost a shot-for-shot remake of the assault scene from Clear And Present Danger, which also leads to the death of one of Ryan's friends.
While adapting source material to fit new stories isn't inherently bad, it's never wise to do so with a property as well-known as the Ryanverse, or a movie that achieved as much critical acclaim as Clear And Present Danger.
NO ROMANCE
Ryan's budding romance with Cathy Mueller in Season One seems to have dried up completely by the time Season Two begins. Ryan is once again on his own, allowing him to enjoy a brief fling with Noomi Rapace's character Harriet, a German operative.
While their romance could have been expanded on, Harriet is put out of commission near the end of the Season, leaving Jack to continue his vendetta against Reyes. Throughout the entire time, no hint of Ryan's future wife Cathy ever emerges, leading us to wonder if things will pick up again in Season Three.
A LIGHT TAKE ON VENEZUELA
Modern-day Venezuela is rife with corruption and plagued by societal and economic woes unseen in the country's history. Season Two of Jack Ryan doesn't go nearly far enough in shedding light on the situation within the country, instead preferring to stick to a simple subplot about a corrupt President, and a would-be challenger.
The current dispute between Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Juan Guaido is proof of the far-reaching issues that Venezuelans face on a day-to-day basis; something only glimpsed briefly in Season Two. The reality is far worse.
AN ILLOGICAL ENDING
When U.S. personnel are driven out of the embassy following a botched spec-ops mission at the end of Season Two, the chaos allows Ryan and his team to rescue Greer from confinement. They do so as a small strike team who slaughter Reyes' guards, before giving Ryan the opportunity to face down Reyes in person.
This is a highly illogical play by Ryan, not to mention out of character. Clancy's Jack Ryan preferred to operate within official channels to bring villains to justice, rather than wage personal vendettas. Though Ryan refrains from killing Reyes, it's enough to make audiences question the liberties taken with the character. Hopefully, Ryan plays it by the book in Season Three.
BONALDE WASN'T ASSASSINATED
President Reyes was willing to do whatever it took to hold onto power while running his operations in the Venezuelan jungle, even if it meant kidnapping detractors and imprisoning them in inhumane conditions. When Gloria Bonalde arrives on the scene to challenge him for the Presidency, Reyes does little but puff his chest out a bit.
Someone so ruthless would surely have not hesitated in staging an "accident" to take out his greatest political rival, and the largest threat to his power. If he was willing to order a hit on a United States Senator, why would he be afraid of offing a political foe in his own backyard?
GREER WASN'T EXECUTED
Greer spends the last portion of the Season in President Reyes' basement, but the "why" doesn't quite add up. By this time, Reyes had all the excuse in the world to banish U.S. forces from the country and hold their personnel responsible, so why bother moving Greer in the first place? In spite of all that happens at that point, he wasn't particularly valuable.
It would have been far better to leave him in the jungle prison complex to await rescue by Ryan and his team of paid mercenaries and spec-ops personnel. It would have been a far more convincing firefight with a lot more emotional weight, rather than plucking him out of harm's way before the assault took place.
HARRIET'S CHARACTER WAS MOTHBALLED
Noomi Rapace's character Harriet Baumann played an integral role in the first half of the season, but by the time her beloved Max Schenkel dies, she is written out of the show. The character should make a comeback in Season Three, possibly alongside Ryan as they investigate the shadowy organization that aided Reyes' efforts in Venezuela.
Harriet's return could also set up some good dramatic tension for Ryan to deal with, especially if he rekindles his romance with Cathy Mueller. It sure won't end well, but that's part of storytelling!