'Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan' Season 2: Jack is no superspy or Captain America but his more human approach makes him America's hero
Jack Ryan wasn't introduced to the world as a suave superspy with a license to kill. He wasn't a part of the Impossible Mission Force and doing a Tom Cruise by jumping off the Burj Khalifa, neither was a G.I. Joe with some smart weapons, but what he was, was a former marine turned analyst for the CIA suffering from PTSD. This was a man who regretted the use of a gun to kill an enemy, even if it was an act of self-defense. If anything that he really was, was a patriot.
Rollback to the time when he discovers illegal monetary transactions and when he's called for to interrogate a suspect in Yemen, "I’m an analyst," Ryan says. "I don’t interrogate people. I write reports."
"Get on the fuckin’ plane", his boss (Wendell Pierce) replies.
If this was what we knew about John Krasinski's titular character from the opening season, we see a rage-filled, emotionally charged up Ryan in season 2 after he witnesses the death of Senator Moreno right in front of his eyes. The expressions firmly established that Ryan was still suffering from PTSD and Moreno's death just pushed him to the brink. All that was on his mind was revenge and that was a deadly shade of Ryan the season explores.
Krasinski is immensely likable as the character. He's not the guy who manages to walk away unscathed, he's vulnerable, and while he does have those sporadic flashes of arrogance, he's a man with a code. Couple Krasinski's hard-worn musculature, his strong and quiet demeanor, with Ryan's flaws, and you have a reluctant, but an honorable soldier for a hero.
By the end of Season 2, 'Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan still takes the route where the man is still very much the analyst. He may be combat-proficient considering his time spent on tours as a marine, but he does go on to prove that it's his brain that separates him from the super spies and the commandos as the ultimate American hero.
'Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan' Season 2 is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.