10 Years Ago, Prime Video Doomed Patriot, An Absurd Spy Thriller Better Than Jack Ryan

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Prime Video’s Patriot was a promising show that, unfortunately, didn’t quite live up to its potential. The quirky spy comedy debuted on Amazon in 2015 and managed to get a second season, but it was canceled soon after those episodes aired in 2018. Now, Patriot remains a little-known show on Prime Video – a frustrating example of a series with strong ideas that didn’t quite succeed.

Prime Video has also found success with the spy series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, which starred John Krasinski and ran for four seasons. Plans are now underway to continue the story with a series of Jack Ryan movies. While Jack Ryan is Amazon’s most successful show in this genre and has been heavily promoted, critics generally consider Patriot to be the better series. This raises the question: why didn’t Patriot achieve the same level of success?

Prime Video Doomed Patriot With Its Original Streaming Strategy

Prime Video’s series Patriot was one of their first TV shows, so the platform was still developing its approach to streaming. In 2015, Prime Video worked like traditional television—they only created a single pilot episode. Amazon would then decide whether to make a full season based on how well that first episode performed.

The show Patriot premiered in 2015, but the rest of its first season didn’t become available until 2017. In those two years, the world of streaming TV changed dramatically. What began with just a few original shows quickly grew into a huge selection of content across many different services. As a result, Patriot easily got overlooked. The excitement around the first episode faded as new shows constantly appeared.

Patriot Had A Better Critical Reception Than Prime Video’s Jack Ryan

The way Patriots was initially released meant many people didn’t discover it until after it was removed from Prime Video – and that’s when they realized how good it was. This quirky spy drama follows John Tavner (played by Michael Dorman), an intelligence officer who pretends to be a regular employee at a pipe factory. It’s a brilliantly dark comedy, and critics and audiences alike loved it – it has a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a 90% audience score.

While Jack Ryan has generally positive reviews – 80% from critics and 73% from audiences – it didn’t score as well as Patriot. Although these are still good numbers, the fact that Patriot was more popular suggests Jack Ryan could have been even better.

Patriot Is Still An Excellent Binge Series

It’s a shame that Patriot didn’t get a proper conclusion, especially because of Prime Video’s indecisiveness about the show. Even so, it’s still a series worth watching from beginning to end. With just two seasons and 18 episodes, it’s the perfect length to really get invested. While the show’s cancellation leaves some plot threads hanging, Patriot remains an enjoyable experience.

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2025-12-22 00:28