As TV thrillers go, Amazon’s Reacher hits pretty close to the mark in terms of supplying white knuckle suspense and high-octane action. The eight-episode series is certainly not without its flaws — it sags a little in the middle and occasionally diminishes the effectiveness of its central star in order to make room for side characters — but overall delivers an effective adaptation of Lee Child’s popular action hero that fans should appreciate.
Starring Alan Ritchson as the titular hero, a massive drifter boasting a comic book physique, a whip-smart personality, and an overt disdain for authority, Reacher repurposes The Killing Floor (the first of Child’s sprawling Jack Reacher series) for the small screen and mostly sticks to the narrative without too many diversions. Fans will likely recall every twist and turn in vivid detail, while newbies will have fun putting the pieces together whilst exploring Reacher’s violent universe — its reprehensible villains, intricate plots, and bone-breaking action.
Events occur in modern-day Margrave, one of those quiet American towns where “nothing ever happens”, and when something does happen, the denizens don’t seem to notice or care. Into this fold drops Jack Reacher, a former military police officer who quit the service in favor of a quiet life roaming the States. He’s a tourist looking for a former blues singer and ends up neck-deep in murder after local authorities mistake him for a suspect and whisk him away before he can munch down on a slice of warm pie.
At the police station, we get to see Reacher A, the smart, charismatic, Sherlock Holmes-like investigator who sees every detail before anyone else. When his logic fails to convince the local authorities, including Chief Detective Oscar Finley (an excellent Malcolm Goodwin) and officer Roscoe Conklin (Willa Fitzgerald), Reacher heads to prison where we get a dose of Reacher B, a lethal combat machine capable of obliterating waves of enemies with little more than his bare hands — think Steven Seagal with deltoids.
As the plot thickens, Reacher must use his brain and brawn to unlock the mystery behind a violent series of crimes and protect those he cares about most.
In many ways, Jack Reacher works quite well on the small screen, particularly in terms of unfolding its labyrinth plot. The episodic format allows the big guy to travel all over the country without negating the pacing, explore side characters in greater detail, and magically mend Reacher’s battle wounds in-between episodes.
Of course, the need to sustain audience attention requires head-turning cliffhangers at the end of each episode, which becomes more absurd as the series drags on. As the preposterously high body count grows, it’s fair to question whether our heroes are striving to achieve anything beyond a moral victory.
But that’s me applying too much logic to a logic-defying show.
The key to the series’ success lies in Ritchson’s performance. For me, he looks the part of Reacher, even if the former CW Aquaman star can’t quite match Tom Cruise’s swagger (in the 2012 film Jack Reacher or its misguided 2016 follow-up Jack Reacher: Never Go Back). Ritchson has room to grow in the role (provided the studio opts for more) and possesses a natural charm that’s hard to overlook. There are times the series seems to cut around his performance, notably when he must deliver long lines of exposition-heavy dialogue, but he carries himself well in the action scenes and makes for a believable badass.
Supporting characters are a mixed bag. Of the lot, Goodwin enjoys the strongest arc as he forms a budding relationship with Reacher that believably plays out over the series. Fitzgerald tries to infuse Roscoe — Reacher’s love interest-cum-damsel in distress in the novel — with a little more swagger, but her frequent assertions that she “doesn’t need Reacher’s help” counter the predominant point of his character — isn’t he on the job because everyone needs his help?
Maria Sten pops up as Reacher devotee Frances Neagley, an interesting side character introduced in later books who feels shoehorned into this production, and operates more as an extension of Reacher than a distinctive character. She doesn’t have much to do (outside of smacking a few drunks at a strip club) and only appears when the plot necessitates another body to thrust into the action. Although, I suspect the showrunners will expand her role in future adventures to greater effect.
Speaking as a fan of the book, I’m fine with fleshing out the supporting players, but not to the detriment of Reacher. The appeal of the character is his ability to win battles on his own accord, be it through detective work or sheer show of force. The relationships he forges along the way serve as catalysts that propel him into fights he would otherwise disregard — an aspect of the character Christopher McQuarrie understood to perfection in the aforementioned Jack Reacher film with Tom Cruise — and his willingness to run headfirst into the fire to save lives is the type of character-defining trait that sustained a sprawling 25-book series over the course of two decades. By robbing the character of his notable lone wolf persona, you rob the show of its uniqueness.
It’s Reacher, not Reacher & Friends, if you catch my drift.
Perhaps that’s a personal issue, stemming more from my fervid devotion to the novels than the show itself. Time will tell.
As is, Amazon’s Reacher provides sturdy, bite-sized entertainment tasty enough to devour on a Friday night. I’m curious to see how the series evolves, whether or not the fans embrace this new iteration, and where Jack Reacher’s path ultimately takes him.
SCORE: 8/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the art succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact.
