Worth a Shot – Jack Ryan
For starters, it presents America as the good guy and dastardly agents seeking to do her dirty as the villains of the piece. That alone separated it from the pack. Add in the bad guy’s name, Suleiman, and description as a terrorist, and I’m left wondering where shows like this have been for so long. It’s a natural story – square jawed Yank fighting to protect truth, justice, and the American way from foreign agents bent on her destruction.
We all know why stories like that rarely get made these days – gotta bow to the great owlish god of Globalism and you can’t do that by presenting Americans who put their self-interest ahead of that of rootless cosmopolitans and third world savages – so it’s a refreshing change to see a show that takes an open approach to appealing to Americans first and the rest of the world if they want to hop on board the American Express – next stop, Successville.
Of course, I’ve studiously avoided all the usual hype for this one. I don’t want to hear the film makers walk the line between honest answers and appealing to the moneyed class. I’ll take Jon Krasinski’s appearance in the excellent 19 Hours as a healthy sign that the actor has the guts to stand up for his country and…pretend to do the sorts of things that patriots are expected to do on screen. It’s not much, but in these strange days, it’s a quality worth supporting.
Expect a full review later this weekend, but not of the entire season. Binge watching is for chumps with no self control. I much prefer to savor the experience of good shows by spreading the watching out over longer stretches. I’ll watch episode one, give it time to marinate in my brain, and get around to the second episode after a few days have passed.