There are certain elements that are a given in any and every season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan — a heady globe-trotting adventure, deluxe production values and a dense plot which will not allow any kind of superficial viewing. This is a show — as has been the inherent DNA of Clancy’s writing — that demands an investment of time and attention, and more often than not, rewards you for it.
The fourth season of Prime Video’s reworking of Tom Clancy’s fictional CIA man is its last. The six-episode series finale has Jack Ryan, now elevated to the position of the acting deputy director of the agency, having, of course, stopped World War III in his previous escapade. When we first meet him (played by John Krasinski as second skin) in Season 4, Jack Ryan is suspended upside down by cables and the series rewinds to tell us how exactly he got there.
As the plot unfolds intensely, a whole lot of information is thrown at the viewer. Jack Ryan learns that former agency boss Thomas Miller (John Schwab) has many a skeleton stashed in his closet, including nine clandestine operations which have been carefully concealed in obscured files. Miller had been using the agency black ops squads to help the Myanmar triad establish a drugs-and-terrorism network with the Marquez cartel in Yucatan. There is also the danger from vengeful undercover agent Domingo Chavez (Michael Pena) who is prowling in the shadows and biding his time to attack, having been used and abused by Miller in the mysterious Operation Pluto and is seeking payback of his own.
Dubbed the ‘Final Mission’, there is hardly a dull moment in Season 4. Things keep moving, with Jack Ryan swinging into action, which also gives him the opportunity to reunite with his pals, including veteran agency man Jim Greer (Wendell Pierce) and his trusted fixer and right-hand man Mike November (Michael Kelley), who have made it a habit of rescuing Ryan from seemingly hopeless situations. Also back in the mix is Ryan’s love interest Cathy Mueller (Abbie Cornish), with the final season giving the two some downtime.
But, as has been the case with Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan even in previous seasons, Season 4 makes for entertaining television, if not particularly memorable. It’s the kind of series that you enjoy, partially, largely or wholly, while it’s playing but one which evaporates from your memory soon after. ‘More of the same’ has inevitably been the mantra of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and, fortunately, what it repeats isn’t of low quality. There are, of course, some silly twists and turns, especially in the season’s final moments, but the presence of John Krasinski, who is the fifth actor to play Tom Clancy’s most famous creation and the first to embody him on the small screen, somehow always saves the day. Both on screen and off it.
Priyanka RoyI am a Jack Ryan fan because... Tell t2@abp.in
