John Krasinski takes on CIA hero Jack Ryan for Amazon series

Delivering a water cooler series, the kind of buzzy TV show that people can’t wait to talk about at work, takes considerably longer.

The streaming service has found some critical success since debuting its first two series, the political satire “Alpha House” and the tech comedy “Betas,” in 2013. Jeffrey Tambor won consecutive comedy acting Emmys for “Transparent.” “Mozart in the Jungle” picked up a best comedy Golden Globe as well as a comedy acting Globe for its star, Gael Garcia Bernal. And “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” the 1950s-set stand-up series from “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, has more Emmy nominations — 14 — than any comedy other than FX’s “Atlanta” heading into next month’s awards.

But none of those is the sort of can’t-miss, shun-your-social-media-to-avoid-spoilers sensation on which television is becoming increasingly reliant.

That could be about to change as Amazon is taking some mighty big swings — none bigger than the $250 million it spent just for the rights to make a series based on “The Lord of the Rings.”

First up, though, the company that began as an online bookseller is pinning its hopes on another literary franchise with “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.”

At the beginning of the eight-episode first season — a second season is already in the works — Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) is a cubicle-dwelling analyst, relying on his economics degree to monitor covert transactions in Yemen as part of the CIA’s Terrorist Finance and Arms Division.

His days aren’t exactly the stuff of thrillers. Early morning rowing. Biking to work. Take-out dinners eaten while providing all the questions to “Jeopardy!” alone in his apartment.

Despite Ryan’s inexperience — he’s been on the job less than four years, following work on Wall Street and a discharge from the Marines — he is already showing signs of the insight and determination featured across 21 novels and five movies.

Even though he clashes with his new boss, James Greer (Wendell Pierce), who’s been busted down to TFAD amid whispers about what went wrong when he was a station chief in Pakistan, Ryan’s instincts are quickly proven correct. It’s not long before he’s accompanying Greer to a black site in Yemen’s Sarawat Mountains, where the “enhanced interrogation techniques” include blasting the prisoners with Toby Keith’s “Big Ol’ Truck.” (Ha!)

Greer is a familiar name to Jack Ryan fans, having been portrayed by James Earl Jones in the first three films in the franchise. Cathy Muller should ring a few bells as well, although here she’s Dr. Cathy Mueller (Abbie Cornish), a government epidemiologist. They’ll have to help Jack stop Syrian-based terrorist Mousa Bin Suleiman (Ali Suliman) from unleashing an attack on America.

The former Marine is refreshingly closer to Krasinski’s Jim from “The Office” than his private security contractor Jack Silva from “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.”

His Jack Ryan is also constantly trying to prove himself, as Greer insists he’s “not there yet.”

The explosive, globe-hopping “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” isn’t quite there yet, either.

But it’s well on its way.

The sum of all Jack Ryans

Hollywood finds new Jack Ryans about as often as the 1990s swapped out its Batmans.

Across six movie and TV projects, “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” star John Krasinski is the fifth actor to portray the brainy hero.

Here’s a look back at the first four:

■ Alec Baldwin

“The Hunt for Red October” (1990)

To give you an idea of Jack Ryan’s humble film beginnings, Baldwin wasn’t even the movie’s top-billed actor. That honor went to Sean Connery, who portrayed rogue Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius.

■ Harrison Ford

“Patriot Games” (1992) and “Clear and Present Danger” (1994)

Jack Ryan was aged considerably as Ford portrayed the character after he had retired from the CIA. He returned in “Patriot Games” following an attack on his family. By “Clear and Present Danger,” he was the agency’s acting deputy director.

■ Ben Affleck

“The Sum of All Fears” (2002)

The fresh-faced Affleck was hired to portray a younger version of Ryan, bringing the character back to his roots as a CIA analyst, in this reboot.

■ Chris Pine

“Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” (2014)

Yet another reboot, “Shadow Recruit” was the first movie in the franchise to put “Jack Ryan” in the title. It was also the first that wasn’t based on one of Clancy’s novels. Despite inflation, the film barely cracked $50 million at the domestic box office, compared with the $122 million haul for “The Hunt for Red October” 24 years earlier.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.