Jack Ryan, Amazon Prime, episode 1 review: Counter-terrorism's original and best Jack is back

John Krasinski is perfect as the latest incarnation of Tom Clancy's CIA operative

(Amazon Studios)

It's Hollywood law that at any one time an American everyman named Jack be saving the world from terrorist networks. And so, with 24's Jack Bauer locked in a cell somewhere in Russia and Jack Reacher's eponymous hero busy cooking up a TV adaptation, the burden falls to counter-terrorism's original and best Jack – Jack Ryan.

The CIA operative has been played by Alec Baldwin, Ben Affleck, Chris Pine and, most famously, Harrison Ford in film adaptations of the bestselling Tom Clancy novels, with John Krasinski taking over for Ryan's first foray into television.

They couldn't have re-cast the part any better. Jack Ryan would go on to serve as US president in the books, but the Amazon Prime series is set way back in his CIA analyst days. The majority of the pilot takes place in an office in Washington DC, with Ryan sat behind a computer looking for financial aberrations in global bank transfers. It plays to Krasinski's type and brings to mind his beloved Jim Halpert character from The Office – only instead of constantly pranking colleague Dwight by sneakily putting all of his desk paraphernalia in a vending machine, he's breaking chain-of-command by sneakily placing a hold on a potential terrorist's crypto transfers.

Krasinski resembles an 18-month old puppy: lanky and too large for the furniture but still possessing an innocence and playful charm. As such, he is an immediately likeable protagonist, and as he inevitably gets pulled away from the safety and familiarity of the office (he cycles to work and everything!) you fear for him out in the field.

This “rookie out of his depth” trope is one of many Jack Ryan trades in, but they're forgivable as the series probably invented half of them and there's a comfort to the Nineties-inspired format. The Wire's Wendall Pierce plays Ryan's no-nonsense boss James Greer, and he and Krasinski show promising chemistry in this opener. While Ryan tries to make a name for himself in the CIA, Greer is trying to clear his, having recently been demoted after – you guessed it – proving too much of a damn maverick as a CIA case officer.

All this is to say that, yes, Jack Ryan, is cut from a very familiar TV thriller mould, but it's just executed so very well. Directed by the Oscar-nominated Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game), the pilot is taut, confident and fun.

There are signs that the show will delve into the terrorists' story more than is customary in these types of shows, and though the pilot does focus on CIA bureaucracy, it has an action-packed climax which includes – without wanting to give too much away – a clever and really quite gruesome trojan horse scene over at an army outpost in Yemen.

Staying committed to an entire season of a show is a big ask in this dense new television landscape, but for now, I'm firmly strapped into my flak jacket.

Jack Ryan launches on Amazon Prime 31 August