Jack Ryan “Strongman”

Well, here we are at the end of Jack Ryan…for now.

What the hell happened with this second season?

That’s a really good question.  As I said before, the first season was tight, with Jack engaged in a mental battle more than anything else with a smart opponent.  Is President Reyes someone who strikes me as a smart opponent?

Not in the slightest.  I never got the impression that the guy was anything more than a cartoon character stereotype of a Latin American dictator, only he’s set in a real country.  He never seemed smart of subtle or anything along those lines.  He just seemed like, at best, a dumb bully.  At best.

So, we get an episode where Jack, Mike, Boat Guy, and a bunch of others go to the presidential palace to rescue Greer (who mostly seemed to rescue himself).  Jack gets really close to shooting Reyes but doesn’t because, you know, that would be an act of war I’m sure.

You know, like a sitting American Senator getting shot up in the streets.

We have to settle for Gloria handily winning the election, her husband returning from the camps, and the implied promise she will try Reyes for his crimes.  Oh, and that other Senator Jack was contacting was, in fact, Reyes’ American business partner.  The general feeling of ambiguity from the end of the last season is nowhere to be seen.  This one is all good guys and bad guys.  Jack is a good guy, and his enemies don’t seem to have any redeeming qualities.

As such, the first season was great, the second a bit of a let down, and the third…who knows when that will come out because of world events.

But now, I need a new show for Tuesdays.  And I think I’m gonna get all papal up in this mess.  Let’s look at The New Pope.

That one is a sequel to the outright beautiful The Young Pope, and if it can bring the chops of the first series to this second, I should have a good time with it.  Or maybe Pope Lenny will be battling an Argentinian dictator.  That seems less likely, but that’s the world we live in now.