If you want to hold a problematic position in 2018…be patriotic. Whether it’s being an unapologetic supporter of Capitalism, standing during the national anthem, refusing to blame America for all the world problems, believing Karl Marx was wrong, or simply disagreeing with the notion that America was never great. The fastest way to guarantee a bad review for a television show or movie…be patriotic.

That is what John Krasinski’s Amazon Prime show Jack Ryan is guilty of according to Vanity Fair writer Sonia Saraiya who says “Watching this show feels like falling down a Fox News rabbit hole.”

In a review of the series entitled Jack Ryan Is a Patriotic Nightmare, The writer begins her article by immediately taking issue with the character of Jack Ryan by stating:

“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. Both its protagonist and its plot are based on the foundational, unquestioned notion that American-military might—the best-funded killing infrastructure in human history—is helping to save the world.”

Right off the bat, the writer takes exception to the fact Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan portrays the American Military as the good guys.

It isn’t just American Exceptionalism that Saraiya has an issue with. Outside of her anti-military stance, she continues by attacking toxic masculinity and entitlement

Its other primary story objective is proving that Jack Ryan deserves his white male entitlement—which indicates just how closely American myths of masculinity are intertwined with international dominance. From frame to frame, Jack Ryan is an astonishing case study in toxic narratives. I watched it twice, slack-jawed in amazement; I do not know if this is an endorsement or not. 

Coming from you, it’s probably an endorsement. Don’t roll your eyes yet because the kicker of this piece comes at the very end where Saraiya ends her piece by taking a not so subtle jab at the country itself.

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.

Saraiya’s thoughts and sentiments of the series reeks of an Anti-American, Anti-Patriotism progressive narrative that wins over the crowd in New York City and Los Angeles but falls flat with the rest of the country begging the question, why did Vanity Fair call on her to review the series in the first place? Oddly enough, this isn’t the first time this year liberal actor John Krasinski has taken progressive heat for his work. Earlier this year, during the release of the hit film A Quiet Place, Krasinski found himself the target of Progressive critics from The New Yorker, The Economist, and Impulse Gamer who all objected to the film’s “Pro-family, pro-gun, or pro-life” narratives. Pro-family, pro-life, pro-gun, and pro-America is what is considered negatives in the world of progressive entertainment. Well if Sonia Saraiya disapproves of your content, you may in doing something right (in everywhere outside of Manhattan…or Brooklyn).

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