Blu-ray Review: TOM CLANCY’S JACK RYAN: THE FINAL SEASON

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Apr 14 Posted by Kyle Nolan in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan ran for 4 seasons/30 episodes on Amazon’s Prime Video service, from 2018–2023. As the title suggests, the series is based on the characters from Tom Clancy’s best-selling novels about CIA operative Jack Ryan. The fourth/final season now arrives on disc from Paramount Home Entertainment.

The final season opens with the sight of Jack being hooded, strung up, and tortured, before we cut back to three weeks earlier, taking a look at the events that ultimately lead up to this moment. Elizabeth Wright has become the new Acting Director of the CIA, and Jack her Acting Deputy Director. The U.S. Senate has launched a committee to investigate the CIA’s involvement in the assassination of the Nigerian president as well as several other missions funded by the corrupt former Director Thomas Miller. To try to appease the Senate committee, Jack orders funding to all 9 of the mysterious missions approved by Miller to be immediately cut off, while he investigates their purpose and if any are related to the assassination.

In Mexico, the Marquez cartel has eliminated its last major competitor in the U.S. drug trade, and is looking to join forces with the Silver Lotus Triad, a partnership that could prove very dangerous for the U.S.. Triad representative Chao Fah Sien (Louis Ozawa Changchien) is sent from Myanmar to Mexico to meet with members of the cartel, where former Navy SEAL/senior CIA operative Domingo Chavez (Michael Peña) has been secretly embedded in the cartel. Chavez had planned to help Chao Fah defect, so that he could use his knowledge to help take down the Triad. However, due to Jack’s order to cut off funding, bribes to the local authorities were left unpaid, and the meeting quickly goes south.

Jack discovers that the Triad is not just in the drug business, but that they have also developed mysterious triggers, which could have disastrous affects on the world if they fall into the wrong hands. Jack and Mike November team up with Chavez to try to find these triggers, extract Chao Fah and his family, and save the world once again. However, this conspiracy runs a lot deeper than they expected.

Meanwhile, Jack and Dr. Cathy Mueller rekindle their relationship; Cathy finds herself lured in by philanthropist Zeyara Lemos (Zuleikha Robinson); Elizabeth tries to repair the U.S. relationship with Nigeria, seeking the help of US-based oil lobbyist Ade Osoji (Okieriete Onaodowan); and Greer is trying to mend his own relationship with his son.

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is an exciting series that weaves political intrigue and drama along with pulse-pounding, exciting action-packed missions that take the viewer around the globe with CIA operative Jack Ryan. Each season builds off of the previous one, but takes the viewer on a somewhat self-contained and fully-resolved mission, so you aren’t left hanging, and can pick up any season and watch it on its own. Episodes tend to end on some big reveal or cliffhanger, making you eager to keep binging your way through the season. This fourth season is a little shorter (only 6 episodes versus the usual 8) and a little slower than the previous ones. Besides the foreshadowing cold open sequence, Jack doesn’t really get into the action until episode 4, but then things really kick into high gear, and the show is back up to par with the previous seasons. We also get a really fun and exciting heist episode later on. The back half of the season is definitely worth the slower build-up from the first 3 episodes. Michael Peña’s Domingo Chavez, is an excellent addition to the team, and he brings a fun new dynamic to the group. There was a spin-off series announced as being in the works for Chavez, which I will certainly watch if it happens.

This final season can be watched on its own without having seen the previous seasons. Though I would certainly recommend watching the others. The final season also provides a satisfying conclusion to the series, but leaves things in a place where these characters could go on for more adventures in the future.

Paramount Home Entertainment has released this final season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Blu-ray and DVD, and MOD 4K Ultra HD. While the series streams in 4K on Amazon Prime, and is also available in a 4K disc release, I found the picture on this Blu-ray set to look near-perfect, with a clean and pristine picture throughout that captures all of action with a solid level of detail. Whether Jack and his team are in the sunny streets of some foreign locale, or performing a daring nighttime raid, the picture looks amazing. The audio track provides clear dialogue throughout, and makes excellent use of the stereo and surround channels to provide a really immersive feel and put the viewer in the middle of the action. This is especially noticeable as bullets start whizzing by.

The 6 episodes are spread across 2 discs, which are placed in a standard-sized Blu-ray keepcase, and covered with a glossy carboard slipcover. The only bonus material is about 4 minutes of deleted scenes from three of the season’s episodes.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (5:17:10)

All 6 episodes of season four:
Disc 1 (2:30:38): “Triage”, “Convergence”, “Sacrifices”
Disc 2 (2:46:32): “Bethesda”, “Wukong”, “Proof of Concept”
1080p / Widescreen 2.10:1
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English Audio Description, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Danish, German, French, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish

Extras:

Deleted Scenes
Can be found in Episodes menu on discs with related episodes:
- “Convergence” (:35) – 1 scene
- “Wukong” (2:02) – 1 scene
- “Proof of Concept” (1:31) – 2 scenes

Final Thoughts:

My Rating

Episodes:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Recommended

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is thoroughly-entertaining series that weaves political intrigue, character drama, and pulse-pounding action, along with some beautiful foreign locales for a really exciting experience. The series is quite bingeable, with each season also telling its own self-contained story. John Krasinski is excellent in this role, and is joined by an amazing supporting cast. This final season starts off a little slower, but really picks up steam in the second half of the season, leading to a solid and satisfying conclusion to the series. Paramount’s Blu-ray release looks and sounds great, but is very light on bonus material. However, the release still comes recommended based on the quality of the series itself.