All eight-episodes of Reacher season 1 debut on Prime Video on Friday, February 4, 2022.
Synopsis
Reacher is a drifter, carrying no phone and the barest of essentials as he travels the country and explores the nation he once served. When Reacher arrives in the small town of Margrave, Georgia, he finds a community grappling with its first homicide in 20 years. The cops immediately arrest him and eyewitnesses claim to place Reacher at the scene of the crime. While he works to prove his innocence, a deep-seated conspiracy begins to emerge, one that will require Reacher’s keen mind and hard-hitting fists to deal with. One thing above all is for sure: They picked the wrong guy to take the fall.
Review
With over 25 literary appearances under his belt, it’s surprising that Jack Reacher has struggled to make the jump to either the big or small screen. After two movies fronted by Tom Cruise, it’s now the turn of the small screen to attempt to tackle the nuanced and complex hero.
Showrunner Nick Santora quickly exhibits a deeper understanding of Reacher lore. Often Reacher’s actions speak much louder than his words. In the opening minutes of the series this equates to zero dialogue and 100% body language and action. In the books, much of Reacher‘s story is told in first-person narration. Here Santora channels that narration in to traditional serialised, episodic TV.
The first half of these eight episodes present a very measured story. Ritchson’s titular character doles out equal amounts of knowledge and pain, illustrating both his intelligence and his brute strength. A sequence set in a prison in the opening episode perfectly illustrates just how Reacher approaches its hand-to-hand combat. Whilst a crime scene glimpsed in episode two shows the series isn’t afraid to confront its villains violent actions head on.
The pacing is slow but once it begins to put its foot on the gas it doesn’t let up. Reacher doesn’t come firing out of the gate at full speed. There is plenty of time to build up the wonderful supporting cast which includes Willa Fitzgerald as Roscoe, Reacher’s love interest, and Malcolm Goodwin as Finlay. Both are excellent in their roles and round out the main cast in surprisingly compelling ways.
Ritchson and Fitzgerald have excellent chemistry but then so do Ritchson and Goodwin. The series doesn’t prioritise either relationship over the other. Instead opting to put equal amounts of development into personal relationships between all three of the leads. Santora’s adaption of Killing Floor builds on Child’s foundations to round out both Roscoe and Finlay for TV. Also encouraging is the strength shown by Roscoe across these eight episodes. She absolutely stands her ground alongside Reacher and is never treated as a love-interest or damsel in need of saving.
There’s no escaping that Ritchson fulfils the brief of playing the hulking hero. His size is dominating on screen and is even utilised in what is arguably the series best kill in episode 6. Yes there are moments where he is miraculously without a shirt but even in these moments the series isn’t purely objectifying him for his physique. This is typical of the series inspired choices. Don’t expect the obvious because Reacher isn’t your generic crime procedural.
Verdict
Alan Ritchson is a force to be reckoned with as the series’ titular character. Reacher presents a tonally consistent and well written adaption of Lee Child’s’ first book in the long-running series.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
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