By Christos Zampounis

The ending is disappointing, the exact opposite of the beginning which delighted fans of spy series. Since its 2018 debut on Amazon’s Prime Video platform, Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) agent Jack Ryan has been starring in his country’s Central Intelligence Agency operations, escaping the “teeth of the wolf” at the last minute, as must necessarily be the case for the series to continue. The interesting thing about this series is that the main character is inspired by the Tom Clancy books. Who is the gentleman? Let’s say it’s the Gerard de Villiers of the Americans, a writer who knows the world of intelligence from the inside and is mostly inspired by true stories.

The caravan, for example, of refugees from Syria to the Greek coast with the Turkish traffickers is convincingly presented, but that’s in the first episodes, where there is appetite and zeal, both from the writers and the actors. The images, too, of the action in Athens, in the Varvakio Agora and the surrounding neighbourhoods of Psirri and Metaxourgiou, have a certain value, in the sense that they were generously funded by the Athens Film Office, in accordance with the law that subsidises 40% of the cost of any foreign production filmed in Greece. Now, whether Varvakeios will become a tourist destination like the village of Corleone after the shooting of “The Godfather”, only time will tell.