Stream Away With ‘Jack Ryan,’ ‘Ozark,’ and ‘Place to Call Home’
A critical checklist of notable Friday TV and streaming premieres:
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (streaming on Amazon Prime Video): John Krasinski (The Office, A Quiet Place) is the latest to take on the persona of Tom Clancy’s iconic action hero, now tailored for binge-watching. The eight-episode first season introduces him early in his career, as a CIA desk-jockey analyst who only reluctantly enters the field, where his Marine training comes in handy. The global terrorism thriller builds to impressively harrowing action scenes in Yemen, the French Alps and other exotic locations.
Ozark (streaming on Netflix): The Emmy-nominated crime drama returns with Marty and Wendy Byrde (Jason Bateman and Laura Linney) once again immersed in deadly intrigue, when all they want is to escape this treacherous backwater with their long-suffering teenage kids. The second season revolves around their efforts to open a casino as a money-laundering front for the relentless cartel, whose icy lawyer is played by the ferocious Janet McTeer. The most compelling anti-hero in this mix may be Julia Garner as scrappy local Ruth Langmore, who’s trying to do right by her cursed family while keeping her jailbird dad (Trevor Long) from causing too much mischief.
A Place to Call Home: The Final Chapter (streaming on Acorn TV): The popular Australian family saga, an Acorn staple, embarks on its sixth and final season, with the Blighs heading into the 1960s and toward a reckoning with their turbulent past. A two-episode premiere will be followed with new episodes on Mondays (starting Sept. 10), with healing and transformation the theme for what promises to be an emotional climax.
Inside Friday TV: PBS’s American Masters begins a three-week Friday series of “Artists Flight” documentaries, profiling notable visual artists. First up: Eva Hesse (9/8, check local listings at pbs.org), remembering the German-born American sculptor who caused a stir in the New York art scene in the 1960s until her untimely death at 34 in 1970 of a brain tumor… SpongeBob SquarePants’ Tom Kenny, Scrubs’ Sarah Chalke and Speechless star Cedric Yarbrough are among the voices on Netflix’s new adult animated comedy Paradise PD, about the “worst responders” of a hapless precinct in the deeply shallow South.
