Vanity Fair, having a hysteric-neurotic reaction to the new Amazon Prime series, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, whines that the show’s objective is to prove that the eponymous hero “deserves his white male entitlement,” and mocks the show for celebrating American military might, which Vanity Fair calls “the best-funded killing infrastructure in human history.”
What else does Vanity Fair moan and pout about the new show? Here’s a starter: “It lauds Jack Ryan—a true American hero who unfailingly escalates every situation and lacks even basic collaborative skills—while neglecting to even attempt to challenge the narrative of noble American involvement and intervention abroad.”
Of course: celebrating Americans who save foreigners from harm is just so cliché.
More: “Its appeal lies in a more visceral satisfaction: the guns are hot, the women are sexually available, and the explosions keep coming.”
If the same story were told about the guns and explosions of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, whom Vanity Fair described as “this formidable man” who had “awesome vigor,” one wonders if Vanity Fair’s review would be so venomous.
Of course, since the story revolves around Ryan’s efforts targeting an enemy in the Middle East, Vanity Fair has to get a shot in regarding the war on terror the U.S. has been fighting for nearly two decades: “The show is less funny when Jack Ryan tries to portray extremism—and the quantifiable human toll of the largely unsuccessful war on terror. The show not-so-subtly frames this conflict as a clash of civilizations, one that reaches its climax when four Muslim terrorists attack a Catholic church in Paris as mass is being sung.”
Vanity Fair decides to play the Islamophobia card: “With mainstream rhetoric about Muslims being what it is, it’s not possible to engage with storytelling about the ‘war on terror’ as pure entertainment.”
Then finally, the rip at conservative Americans: “Jack Ryan feels like a machine designed to turn us all into the sort of viewers who disappear smiling down jingoistic Fox News rabbit holes. It assumes that we—Americans, and America—are doing a good job. Talk about a fantasy.”
Can’t wait to watch.