Jack Ryan Season 3 review: A disappointing step backwards
Review Overview
Plot
3Characters
4Action
6Chris Bryant | On 02, Jan 2023
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan began much as the character himself did – understated, focused on the details, intent on creating an insightful view of the crisis in hand. By the third season, however, the show and the man have seemingly abandoned their analytical roots in favour of adventure, action and questionable plotting (Russia invading Ukraine being an extremely tone-deaf inclusion to this season’s political side).
Where Season 1 had Jack facing off against an intelligent and three-dimensional foe, Season 3 pits him against a group of power-hungry Soviet Russians with a stolen nuke who would be just at home in 90s action adaptations of Tom Clancy’s work. No longer a lowly economics analyst thrust into gritty action sequences by bad luck, John Krasinski’s hero is now a decorated field agent, running headlong towards any and all danger with little in the way of planning or morality.
Following the theme of reverting to 90s spy thrillers, Krasinski is opposed by former Soviet Russians, several of whom are actually English. Peter Guinness and James Cosmo take centre stage alongside Alexei Manvelov as Russian intelligence officers, whose murky pasts and allegiances drive the show. The terminally uninspired plot and characters aside, the show’s feel manages to stay the course – a combination of international heads of government, top-ranking intelligence experts and Jack’s team guides us through a flurry of fairly exciting espionage sequences, shootouts, car chases and the like. While the competent action sequences remain steadfast, without the well-rounded, thoughtful backdrop, it feels as though the show is solely focused on finding a way from one shootout to the next.
Krasinski’s Ryan is flanked by Wendell Pierce’s unflappable station chief and Michael Kelly’s smirking private intelligence operative, as well as newcomer Betty Gabriel as Ryan’s disapproving superior. Without Season 1’s Abbie Cornish or Season 2’s Noomi Rapace to humanise him, Ryan has little to do in the way of emotion and is mostly left to chase leads, stare into the middle distance and ignore international peace treaties. Those hunting for a pro-CIA adventure full of bad guy Russians and explosions have all they need right here, but anyone who was pleasantly surprised by Season 1’s depth and scope will find that Ryan has stopped solving the puzzle and started charging in guns blazing.