Plot: After tracking a potentially suspicious shipment of illegal arms in the Venezuelan jungle, CIA Officer Jack Ryan heads down to South America to investigate. As Jack’s investigation threatens to uncover a far-reaching conspiracy, the President of Venezuela launches a counter-attack that hits home for Jack, leading him and his fellow operatives on a global mission spanning the United States, UK, Russia, and Venezuela to unravel the President’s nefarious plot and bring stability to a country on the brink of chaos.
Review: While it took 26 years, the debut of Jack Ryan in 2018 proved that the small screen was big enough for Tom Clancy's everyman hero. John Krasinski served as a worthy successor to Harrison Ford by playing Ryan as a trained soldier and brilliant mind who also embodied relatable traits rather than those of a superhero. With his "origin" out of the way, the second season of Amazon Prime's series can jump right in and start telling another chapter in Jack Ryan's storied history. While the second season is once again an original story and not directly based on Clancy's novels, it bears similarities to both The Cardinal of the Kremlin and Clear and Present Danger. In short, the second season is even better than the first.
At the end of the first season, Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) was promoted to director of T-FAD (Terror, Finance, and Arms Division) after James Greer (Wendell Pierce) was promoted to a position in Moscow. In those closing moments, it seemed like Jack was going to follow Greer to Russia but we instead find that things did not pan out quite that way. Jack is instead working for his former commanding officer and sitting senator Moreno (Benito Martinez) when he uncovers some duplicitious weapons from Russia making their way to Venezuela. At the same time, Greer learns of a satellite launched in the South China Sea that is connected to Venezuela as well. Converging in Central America, Ryan and Greer have to reteam in the face of an assassination that strikes very close to home for Jack.
Where the first season told a sprawling tale of terrorism on a global scale, season two takes a smaller approach that gives Jack Ryan a personal stake. With revenge on his mind, this Jack Ryan is more confident than he was last year but his anger clouds his judgement. Many found John Krasinski's portrayal to be somewhat wooden, but here is seems much more comfortable playing this character which helps us invest in his decisions, even when we know they may be the wrong ones. He is still a brilliant analyst and seeing him take on a corrupt world leader is what we have come to expect from the character in Clancy's novels. Showrunners Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland spend little time exploring what Jack Ryan has experience with but rather what he is capable of and that makes for a very thrilling run of episodes.
The supporting cast this season is solid with some much more intriguing characters. The biggest addition is Noomi Rapace as a German Intelligence agent, Harriet Baumann, who has a connection to the events unfolding in Venezuela. Rapace has played police and military characters before, but here her mission is more personal which puts her on similar footing to Jack Ryan. Krasinski and Rapace have some chemistry which makes us care more for these characters. Wendell Pierce gets an added layer to his portrayal of James Greer in the form of a medical condition. John Hoogenakker returns as Black Ops specialist Matice who recruits a new soldier in Marcus (Jovan Adepo). Matice is no replacement for Clancy character John Clark, but he is pretty close. We also have House of Cards alum Michael Kelly as CIA officer Mike November who adds another badass name to the Clancy canon.
On the villain front, we have Tom Wlaschiha, best known as Game of Thrones' Jaqen H'ghar, as Max Schenkel and Jordi Molla as Venezuelan president Nicolas Reyes. Molla has played similar bad guys in movies like BLOW and BAD BOYS II, but his role here is less dastardly but no less dangerous. We also have Cristina Umana as presidential candidate Gloria Bonalde who adds another layer to the already intricate plot of this season. With a limited run of 8 episodes, it seems like the series has more story than it can wrap up in one season. But, true to the promise Krasinski made before the series debuted last year, each run of episodes plays out like a massive feature film. And, like Clancy's sprawling novels, this series manages to pack a lot in while still reaching a satisfying conclusion.
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan works just as well in season two as it did in season one, maybe even better, thanks to the fact that the story is totally different than what we got last year. The stakes are different and Ryan and Greer have different reasons for being involved, but it feels more guttural and personal this time. What has always made Jack Ryan such an interesting character is that he is not Jason Bourne or James Bond but he still gets involved with missions on scale with those iconic spies. Jack Ryan does not have a secret identity which makes him vulnerable and John Krasinski makes him as human as possible. This series has bigger and bolder setpieces than season one and yet it never feels unrealistic in the least. That somehow makes this show even more thrilling and ripe for the already greenlit third season. So stock up on popcorn and the drink of your choice and buckle in for the most exciting eight hour movie you have ever seen.
The second season of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan premieres November 1st on Amazon Prime.