Yeah, I watched the first episode and I see what you mean. The story is off and this doesn't feel like the same character as the books.
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Yeah, I watched the season last couple of days.

Does anyone else have a problem accepting him in a serious role?

I still see him as Jim from "the Office":-)
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Must have some tities and splosions Listo don't like no boobs and bombs.
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Get out of my head.

As I'm watching him transition in with this black op squad he's apparently never met and kick as much ass as any of them, I'm thinking why would they even let him attempt to be an analyst with sharpshooter/assassin skills like he has while being cool as a cucumber under pressure.

I enjoyed the first episode and will keep watching (Greer is hilarious and has the best lines), but yeah, this isn't the Jack Ryan from the lore.
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The thing about dingleberries is that you can easily avoid them.
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I've enjoyed this season so far (six eps in). Looking forward to how they try and put a bow on it all.

I want Mike November's "retirement" villa.
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I'm Loving season 3 so far (Ep 4).
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This was my least favorite season. It's weird, to me he's not being Jack Ryan...he's more Jason Bourne or something. Eh. I enjoyed it, but definitely trending down in my view.
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So far I haven't seen one super unrealistic car chase, or someone shooting a lock open with a gun... so that is a win!

My one gripe is that the characters in the show travel around from country to country really freaking fast without many quick scenes thrown in to show how.
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Just finished and I had the same reaction to the Jason Bourne theme it seems others did. Not a big fan of it for this character but fine I guess because that stuff can be fun. I think my main complaint is it was just a little too loose and not tight and buttoned up around the edges. Kind of a lot of scenes like “really guys?” For one, how many times they going to go breaking into some location completely outnumbered shooting and causing a ruckus as opposed to being discrete and not requiring miracle escapes?

A few specific things that took me out of some scenes were when



But overall I liked it because it was decent action and spy type stuff. Certainly better than a lot of what comes out streaming these days.
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I guess where I've gotten on this is that I don't understand at ALL why it needed to involve Jack Ryan.

Stand alone, it's a good show. But they paid for a name. They didn't use ANY of the IP. This isn't recognizable in any way.

I mean let's just start with Jack's entry into the CIA. The dude was a multi-millionaire retired stock trader who's teaching history and living on a cliffside mansion. He's in London with his family when he ends up in the middle of an assassination plot against the Royal family. Things develop, he ends up an 'asset' and slowly drawn into part-time analysis with the CIA. He proves himself and becomes a baller agent.

In the show, he's a geeky cubicle dwelling single systems analyst with a shitty beltway apartment.

In the books he has an almost father/son relationship with Admiral Greer who is essentially the Presidents right hand in the military. In the show he meets Greer when Greer is a burnout on the decline in the agency and has an antagonistic relationship before they become peers.

None of the ancillary characters exist in the books, nor do any of the book characters exist in the show. The Foleys, Clark, Mancuso, Robby Jackson, Dan Murray, Scott Adler...hell, Cathy Ryan barely exists here and she's a central figure in the novels. And the only character thus far that could hang with any of the book characters is Mike. And even still, he's mostly a watered down Murray. Meanwhile Clark, Jackson, Mancuso and the Foleys are great in the books.

I don't mind that the stories don't mesh because...cool - tell new stories. I'm good with that.

But they didn't use ANY of the back story of the character. Worse, they flip the back story so far on its head that it makes him almost the opposite of who he is in the books. Shit, in the show he's essentially Ding Chavez. His traits are completely different. His strengths/weaknesses are different. His underlying philosophy and ethos (the 'Ryan Doctrine') essentially don't exist.

I mean they just borrowed a name and scrapped everything else.

I think the show is entertaining, don't get me wrong. It just has absolutely NOTHING to do with Jack Ryan. Had Disney purchased the Star Wars IP, made a show called "Skywalker" and then made him an Imperial Senator or something, it wouldn't have been much different. I just don't quite understand it so I'm left with pure cycnicism - they know the public has the attention span of a gnat so they had to put a 'known name' on the project to get it made.

It was done strictly as a bait and switch.
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Post necromancy but I think Baldwin exactly nailed it. He brought the right amount of quiet confidence mixed with nervous energy. The great thing about the Ryan novels is how they celebrate competence. Or more accurately, excellence.

Jack isn't some guy who ascending through happenstance. He's not an everyman just doing his job. He's BRILLIANT. And he's driven and focused. He got where he got by being a truly remarkable person.

Baldwin, removing the person for a moment, absolutely projects that. He played the part as a relative neophyte with exceptional tools. It was Jack's Patrick Mahomes 2018 season where he was getting by on skills vs. savvy.

I think Krasinski could've done that. But he hasn't. Because they just messed up the character something awful, IMO.
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I know what I am going to get with this series and I still enjoy the hell out of it every season.
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This season was OK I guess. Way too many contrived situations, like how convenient that when the guy you have under surveillance get's taken away in a van that's parked right in front of your car. Way too much bullshit used to make the story work.

I swear, by the final 3 episodes I was fully expecting to see Ryan wearing a cape and flying to the rescue.
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They kinda started it that way in season 1, but then just made him another SpecOp guy.

Still some of the better TV made in the last few years if you ignore that it isn't really Jack Ryan.
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