Jack Ryan

For Noomi Rapace, joining the second season of Prime Video’s successful “Jack Ryan” installment was a no-brainer. “I watched A Quiet Place, maybe a few months before I got the call. It was like, ‘John Krasinski is in London, he wants to meet you for Jack Ryan season 2,’ and I was like, ‘Okay!’ It was like we just connected straight away… I’d do anything with him,” she told Entertainment Weekly upon the season’s premiere. As Krasinski returns as the title character, a former Marine and CIA analyst who this time around finds himself battling conspiracies and corruption in South America, Rapace plays German intelligence operative Harriet “Harry” Baumann. “She’s a complex woman, you don’t really know much about her, she’s pretty good at games,” she said. “You don’t really know where you have her, which I love. She has her own agenda.”

Previews of season two, in which Ryan ends up on a mission to Venezuela to “bring stability to a country on the brink of collapse”, has been criticized by the government of Venezuela for allegedly promoting an invasion of the country by the United States. Venezuela’s Minister of Cultural Affairs, Ernesto Villegas, described previews of the show as “Crass war propaganda disguised as entertainment”. Venezuelan actor Francisco Denis, who plays Ubarri, a senior Venezuelan government official in the new season, responded to his government’s criticism by highlighting the fictional character of the series. “I don’t think the CIA needs [a show like] this to intervene or not in a country,” he said. Denis did regret that the series has included mistakes such as the fictitious meeting of the Venezuelan president with the CIA – which, in his opinion, would never occur under the current administrations – or presenting the most powerful man in the country as “basking in luxury”.

Reviews for the second season were positive to mixed. Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter gave a favorable review: “Jack Ryan is still fun, despite being a little bit ridiculous and predictable… Not all the events described above make perfect sense and there’s definitely some bloat here storytelling-wise, but that never seems to cut into the pacing. It’s a strong, appealing cast and an entertaining story – the same successful formula as the first season and a welcome return visitor to the living room”.