6 Shows Like ‘Jack Ryan’ to Watch if You Like Spy Action Thrillers

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan recently wrapped its fourth and final season on Prime Video. If you're looking for more action-packed spy thrillers to watch while you wait for updates on the potential Ding Chavez-focused spinoff, here are five shows like Jack Ryan to hold you over. 

If you like conspiracy thrillers: 'The Terminal List' 

There's no show on TV more like Jack Ryan than The Terminal List. You get the feeling Amazon looked at Jack Ryan's viewer data and said, "Let's make another show just like that." Chris Pratt — an NBC sitcom actor from the 2000s (Parks and Recreation) who transitioned into action roles, just like Jack Ryan star John Krasinski (The Office) — stars as James Reece, a Navy SEAL commander who goes on a mission to find and terminate the people who betrayed him after his platoon and his family are killed. It's a conspiracy thriller based on a dad-friendly series of novels. 

Rotten Tomatoes: 39% critics, 95% audience

Watch on Prime Video

If you like globetrotting spies: 'Citadel'

Jack Ryan was Prime Video's first spy show of its ilk. Citadel is its latest, and it goes even bigger than Jack Ryan. The sci-fi inflected series stars Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas as agents of Citadel, a clandestine operation of no nation at war with Manticore, a nefarious rival organization. It's goofier and pulpier than Jack Ryan, but it has equally impressive action scenes and international scope.

Rotten Tomatoes: 51% critics, 63% audience

Watch on Prime Video

If you like sophisticated CIA dramas: 'Homeland' 

If you love Jack Ryan and haven't seen Homeland, you need to fix that quick. The Showtime espionage drama ran for seven seasons, following Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), a CIA agent with bipolar disorder, as she carried out missions all over the world. Some seasons are better than others, but at its best, Homeland is an even better geopolitical thriller than Jack Ryan, especially its Outstanding Drama Series Emmy-winning first season. 

Rotten Tomatoes: 85% critics, 86% audience

Watch on Hulu

If you want a show with a female Jack Ryan: 'Covert Affairs' 

Like Jack Ryan, Covert Affairs is a show that starts with an underprepared CIA agent getting thrown into the field and having to figure it out. Piper Perabo stars as Annie Walker, a CIA trainee who suddenly and unexpectedly gets promoted to field officer due to her facility with foreign languages. And it turns out she's actually pretty good at it. The series aired on the USA Network from 2010 to 2014, so it's lighter in tone and less expensively made than Jack Ryan, but it's even more purely fun. 

Rotten Tomatoes: 93% critics, 77% audience 

Watch on Freevee

If you like shows about CIA agents in over their heads: 'The Recruit' 

In a very similar vein as Covert Affairs — the shows even share an executive producer in Bourne Identity director Doug Liman — The Recruit is a spy action thriller with a lighter tone than Jack Ryan but starts with a similar premise. Noah Centineo stars as a newbie CIA lawyer who gets caught up in a high-level conspiracy that forces him out from behind his desk and into a dangerous world of international espionage. It's more comedic and less intense than Jack Ryan, but spy show fans may like both.  

Rotten Tomatoes: 69% critics, 85% audience 

Watch on Netflix

If you like Ding Chavez: 'Narcos: Mexico' 

Before he was covert operator Domingo "Ding" Chavez in Jack Ryan Season 4, Michael Peña was a DEA agent in Narcos: Mexico. He played Kiki Camarena, an operative gathering intelligence on the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980s. Like Jack Ryan, Narcos is an intense, violent thriller about alphabet agencies working on complex criminal and geopolitical situations. 

Rotten Tomatoes: 90% critics, 79% audience 

Watch on Netflix