The Terminal List

slippery

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I believe book 2 is a terrorist attack happens in the UK or EU, the CIA finds out its first in the series of global attacks and for some reason they decide Reese is the man they need, so they bring him in, despite being one of the most wanted men in America, to unravel this plot and murder some dudes.

I am pretty sure the paper thin plot is more of a reason for the big RT critic vs audience split. The plot of the show asks some interesting questions about the government, military, pharma and how they all shit on our soldiers, but the answer to everything is murder. But, to use myself as an example, if I had to rate it with a number, I'd probably give a 3/5 (a rotten on RT), but if just answering "is this worth watching", yeah, absolutely, the action in the show is great, the acting is pretty good, definitely watchable, even things kinda resolve a little too easily and simply.
So basically the plot to the actual books Clancy wrote for Jack Ryan, unlike all the movies and stuff.
 

DickTrickle

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Yeah, Jack Ryan books weren't about him murdering dudes.

Any sequel to this show seems like such a silly idea.
 

Caliane

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yeah, I'm trying to come up with a good comparison. but coming up blank. I know they exist.. but any specific names escape me. its not dexter, or Reacher, Ryan, etc. Closest maybe Punisher, but not even that really.

Shooter(movie) x law abiding citizen?
 
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slippery

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Now see, stuff like this makes me wonder if you have actually read any of the Jack Ryan books.
Have you watched say Patriot Games and compared it to the book? Shit, Clancy himself in the voiceover commentary introduces himself by saying "Hi I'm Tom Clancy, the author who wrote the book they threw out to make this movie"

Point was he's a CIA analyst who ends up doing a bunch of shit, and gets out and gets dragged back in etc
 

DickTrickle

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That's setting the goal post pretty wide. As characters, Jack Ryan is nothing like Reece, even if both get pulled back in to working for the government.
 
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Sanrith Descartes

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Enjoyed it. The new world we live in means I have adjusted my rating system to pre-woke Hollywood and post-woke Hollywood. It was pretty good for post-woke Hollywood. Not a grand masterpiece but it wasn't intended to be. Decent revenge porn.
 

Animosity

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yeah, I'm trying to come up with a good comparison. but coming up blank. I know they exist.. but any specific names escape me. its not dexter, or Reacher, Ryan, etc. Closest maybe Punisher, but not even that really.

Shooter(movie) x law abiding citizen?
Sounds like Shooter with Marky Mark lol
 

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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I just started this. I like it but I could do without the weird psychological part where I am questioning if he's hallucinating shit.
 
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Guurn

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I'm not done but it's pretty good, I really appreciated the brain issues. The kept it reasonably accurate. I expected more action but what was there was decent.
 
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Gravel

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I appreciate the 'less trick fighting more omg I'm gonna die' style of combat in the fight scenes. Lots of kill-confirm double taps and doing whatever it takes to take the other guy out.

Jai Courtney is also underappreciated so it's good to see him get work.
Only just watched the first episode, but you can definitely tell they had a SEAL as a consultant. Not that I really know fuckall about how the SEALs operate. But it's close enough to what I do know that it's super believable.

I remember many, many years ago that when we did combatives they brought in a couple professional MMA guys to teach us, but it was always in the "your sidearm isn't an option anymore, so this is life or death now" scenario.

I was kind of surprised at a lot of the jargon they used that isn't explained whatsoever. I could see someone not understanding what the hell they're talking about because they used enough that a lay person would be clueless.
 

Sanrith Descartes

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I was kind of surprised at a lot of the jargon they used that isn't explained whatsoever. I could see someone not understanding what the hell they're talking about because they used enough that a lay person would be clueless.
I actually like when shows dont explain every single acronym or term. Make people go look stuff up.
 

pysek

It Didn't Happen, It Should've, and It Will.
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It's called jargon and serious writers always use it well because it adds verisimilitude, which this show has in spades for vets, as I understand it.

First show I've started in a couple of years that I made it past the first episode without turning it off, so that's high praise. Plus little barrel-chested Sean Gunn is getting work so yay!

1658855027577.png
 
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Gravel

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Finished it. I really enjoyed it, up until the final episode where it all went off the fucking rails.

First, why the fuck would the SecDef assume Reece would come after her next? There was nothing connecting her to it that Reece was aware of, outside of the reporter (which she wouldn't know about because of the secure phone). And even she is making the connection based on wild guessing.

Why would SecDef then bring the journalist there to "correct the record" when by the middle of the episode she makes it very clear she's willing to kill the journalist. It all just seems too convoluted and convenient for drama.

And then the big one, we have Reece who goes so far out of his way to not kill innocents that he almost doesn't go through with the first bomb, but then almost gets caught because he wants to save some random FBI agent. But then we get to the SecDef compound, which is being guarded by contractors -- who earlier were explained as mostly former team guys. He then goes on to mow down countless numbers of them as "faceless bad guys." So I guess fuck all those guys?

He goes into the compound literally without a plan, after we've seen him spend a ton of time planning out target packages where, you know, the chance of success doesn't rely on just blasting through people. What if that dude just doesn't open the door? What if he doesn't exist? What if you accidently shot him because he wasn't standing next to it? What if our character actually gives a shit about innocents and doesn't go killing these guys just pulling security. Oddly, this is something SEALs actually do, pull VIP security, so he should understand that these guys are literally just doing a job.

Also, what happened to the guys that went after Ben when they saw the Barrett flash? Maybe he saw them coming and bounced and they just cut that scene?

And finally, as you all said, the last name on the list. They tried to tie it up as him being the guy behind the bad intel, but what's his motivation prior to that? What motivation does he have prior to any of this happening to go along with team "fuck the SEALs I used to be on the same team as, let's do medical experiments on them?" Why would they even need a CIA agent for that? If he was brought on afterwards...why the fuck would they pick a CIA agent that used to be on the teams? None of this makes sense. It was purely done for the "twist" and it's stupid.

But prior to the last episode I enjoyed all of it, even if it was a bit unbelievable.
 
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DickTrickle

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Finished it. I really enjoyed it, up until the final episode where it all went off the fucking rails.

First, why the fuck would the SecDef assume Reece would come after her next? There was nothing connecting her to it that Reece was aware of, outside of the reporter (which she wouldn't know about because of the secure phone). And even she is making the connection based on wild guessing.

Why would SecDef then bring the journalist there to "correct the record" when by the middle of the episode she makes it very clear she's willing to kill the journalist. It all just seems too convoluted and convenient for drama.

And then the big one, we have Reece who goes so far out of his way to not kill innocents that he almost doesn't go through with the first bomb, but then almost gets caught because he wants to save some random FBI agent. But then we get to the SecDef compound, which is being guarded by contractors -- who earlier were explained as mostly former team guys. He then goes on to mow down countless numbers of them as "faceless bad guys." So I guess fuck all those guys?

He goes into the compound literally without a plan, after we've seen him spend a ton of time planning out target packages where, you know, the chance of success doesn't rely on just blasting through people. What if that dude just doesn't open the door? What if he doesn't exist? What if you accidently shot him because he wasn't standing next to it? What if our character actually gives a shit about innocents and doesn't go killing these guys just pulling security. Oddly, this is something SEALs actually do, pull VIP security, so he should understand that these guys are literally just doing a job.

Also, what happened to the guys that went after Ben when they saw the Barrett flash? Maybe he saw them coming and bounced and they just cut that scene?

And finally, as you all said, the last name on the list. They tried to tie it up as him being the guy behind the bad intel, but what's his motivation prior to that? What motivation does he have prior to any of this happening to go along with team "fuck the SEALs I used to be on the same team as, let's do medical experiments on them?" Why would they even need a CIA agent for that? If he was brought on afterwards...why the fuck would they pick a CIA agent that used to be on the teams? None of this makes sense. It was purely done for the "twist" and it's stupid.

But prior to the last episode I enjoyed all of it, even if it was a bit unbelievable.
The contractors were from the mercenary company that Jai Courtney ran (I don't remember any of the names). They weren't former Seals. While it's completely incomprehensible that she would decide to get rid of all military protection and hire mercenaries, that was the show's way of making them be acceptable murders instead of regular soldiers or cops.

Yeah, that last episode was too much.
 

Gravel

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I thought at some point they explained that Talos was all (or mostly) former SpecOps guys.

Regardless, they were innocent. You could also argue that Jai Courtney's security guards were unnecessary casualties. Sure, they fired back at him, but he initiated contact. They were just providing security. Is their boss an asshole? Sure, but that doesn't mean they deserve to die.

How is that really any different than his encounter in the mountains with the FBI/SEAL team tracking him?

It helps when you're writing characters that they're consistent. When they have a set of principles, they don't just abandon them because the writers were lazy.

Oh, and I did want to mention something I forgot from that Drinker review above; that intestine scene. God damn was that fucking brutal. Can't say I've seen something like that outside of horror movies, which are intentionally ridiculous.
 
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