Reacher Season 2 | TV Series Review

When Alan Ritchson initially donned Salvation Army jeans and an awfully tight t-shirt for the first season of Prime Video’s Reacher, fans of Lee Child’s books, of which I am one, waited with bated breath. Can Thad from Blue Mountain State capture the imposing nature, the fierce tenacity, the calculated deduction that Child’s character carries throughout his series which spawns dozens of Jack Reacher adventures? Most importantly, can this guy intimidate by saying nothing? It took all of a few minutes for everyone in the audience – fans of the books or otherwise – to settle in and decide that, yes, THIS is the Reacher the world deserves. Reacher Season 2 aims to double down on that sentiment.

For the uninitiated, most of the Jack Reacher thrillers are focused on detached surroundings, meaning there is nothing personal in it for Reacher except for whatever his moral compass dictates. For Season 2, we once again instead pop into a more personal war for the roaming vigilante, as Reacher is drawn out of the wild almost three years after Margrave (though in typical Reacher fashion, he has the time frame locked down to the minute).

Based on Lee Child’s Bad Luck and Trouble, Neagley (Maria Sten) has reached out, informing Reacher that it appears someone is targeting members of their former military unit, the Special Investigators. Being that Reacher never leaves a man or woman behind, the duo set off to locate their team members while diving into another conspiracy, as well as punish anyone who dares wander suspiciously into this walking tire iron’s way.

Finlay and Conklin have no business on this trip, so along for the ride this time are their former compatriots Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan), who Reacher has a bit of unrequited affection for, and David O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos), the resident smartass. The four team-up and attempt to uncover the truth which also features Guy Russo (Domenick Lombardozzi) a cop with questionable motives, and the mysterious Shane Langston (Robert Patrick, who delivers a rather knock-out meta joke).

While Prime Video’s release model has changed (the first 3 episodes will release December 15th, with the remaining episodes releasing once each week), the crux of what makes Reacher work has not. The central mystery breaks down clearer each episode as Reacher and the reassembled Special Investigators refuse to let any misdeed go unpunished, and Jack Reacher himself is the same intellectual bull in a China shop he’s always been. The action is plentiful and satisfying, and the retorts are gleeful.

Once again, Reacher’s castmates elevate the story, with Swan, Sipos, Lombardozzi, and Patrick deftly filling the oversized shoes Season 1’s Malcom Goodwin and Willa Fitzgerald left. Serinda Swan boasts her usual confident intelligence, while Shaun Sipos cracks wise at Reacher’s level, though with half his size. Most importantly, Neagley is back!

As I mentioned at the top, I am a fan of the Jack Reacher books, therefore I care about the continuity and faithfulness to the characters and storylines in this franchise. But occasionally, it is important to allow your fandom to subside and realize that adding a little sip of extra can improve your overall experience, and that is exactly what Maria Sten has done with Frances Neagley.

Neagley is only in a handful of the novels, but this series as a whole greatly benefits from Sten’s dedication to the role. Her ability to seamlessly bounce back-and-forth between insightful vulnerability and quick-thinking action, her measured detective skils, not to mention her obvious rapport with Ritchson’s Reacher. A favorite aspect of Reacher is how, typically, random Reacher’s encounters are, and especially how he works with new characters in each book. Well, I am officially ready for an exception. While I do want the next chapter of this show to shy away from any personal ties to Reacher, Maria Sten has earned, demanded even, the right to always be involved in some way, to keep a platonic eye on his extremely large back. Sten is just that damn good.

Speaking of damn good, how lucky are Lee Child fans that these filmmakers found Alan Ritchson? While I admire Tom Cruise’s attempt at the character (the first Jack Reacher film, coolly alluded to in Season 2, is a stellar thriller in its own right), he could not fill the boots of what readers expected. No one should take that as a slight against Cruise, he made the role his own. Instead, that should demonstrate exactly how fantastic Ritchson is in the part. There is no comparison, Alan Ritchson simply IS Jack Reacher.

The subtle delivery, the slight snark, the effortless disdain for everyday contrivances. So much has been made of Alan Ritchson’s hulking exterior amidst the action scenes, rightfully so, but that does a disservice to his overall performance, which is so much deeper than an elbow to the groin. Ritchson has a huge task, to take a character who normally internalizes everything and find a way to make exposition entertaining, oftentimes endearing. Throughout Season 2, Ritchson elevates his game and keeps punching this character forward, taking Jack Reacher to another level with grit and heart.

As it has already been renewed, all we need for Season 3 is Jimmi Simpson, Brooke Nevin, and Laz Alonso to show up for showrunner Nick Santora to have fully melded Reacher with his former series, Breakout Kings (Simpson, Alonso, Nevin, Swan, Lombardozzi and Season 1’s Malcolm Goodwin were all stars of that short-lived gem). Oh, and we are probably going to need Maria Sten’s Neagley to return once again to lend Big Jack a hand. Just add that to the wish list.

Lee Child has created a thinking person’s pulpy action hero for the ages, and in Season 2, Alan Ritchson has perfected his interpretation for readers and non-readers alike. Reacher might say nothing, but this cast and crew have spoken for him by yet again delivering one of the best TV shows of the year.