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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023

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The last season of Jack Ryan was laughably bad.

Standard Hollywood writing where supposedly brilliant characters make completely stupid decisions to advance the plot. Confusion on which countries are NATO members or border Russia. Spec ops dudes travel undetected from the Black Sea to west of Athens in a zodiac.

They’ve also murdered the character of Jack Ryan. He’s no longer a Catholic with a wife and kids, but a rather amoral man with no apparent interest in women beyond casual sex. Book Jack Ryan would end a fight if he found himself in one, but wouldn’t use violence as his first option, typically coming up with some trickery to avoid it. Show Jack Ryan shoots a lot of people as an expected consequence of his uncreative plans.

Yeah. Show Jack Ryan seems to have no arc or development. This is a character who is supposed to be on the trajectory to be selected as a presidential running mate (and eventually be elevated to president). Instead we have a cavalier man-child who conspires with Russians on dubious evidence.