Welcome to a new series I’ll be starting at Scribe entitled So What’d I Miss? There’s too much television out there to check out, and there’s only a finite amount of time to watch things with a full-time job and two kids. I’ve been writing for Scribe since March 2022 and although I’ve watched a lot of television this year, I also can’t get to everything. So I’m starting this series as a way to circle back to the shows I didn’t get a chance to watch when it was first released but eventually knocked off my queue. I’m going back through shows from 2022 that I didn’t get a chance to write about and I’ll be trying to knock as many shows as possible off my list, even though the list is pretty long right now.
First up on this list is Amazon Prime’s show Reacher.
Reacher, created by Nick Santora and based on the series of novels by Lee Childs, is about serial drifter and former military Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) as he travels to Margrave, Georgia. After being detained for murder, Reacher partners with local officials Roscoe (Willa Fitzgerald) and Oscar Finlay (Malcolm Goodwin) to solve the crime and weed out the corruption plaguing the beleaguered town. Reacher is eight episodes, originally aired in February 2022, and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Reacher is a tricky show to watch because there’s a lot of history with not only the novels but also with the Tom Cruise movies. I’ve never read any of the books so I don’t have much to go off of from the history of the series. I also see why people are mixed in the Cruise movies because Ritchson is a huge (literally and metaphorically) change for the character. Reacher is a fascinating character who is almost too good at his job. He has a solution for everything and can’t be taken down. This makes Reacher a great character and, dare I say, a little boring at times.
As a series, Reacher reminds me of a lot of movies from the 1980s. We have a mystery for a small town where a local person holds a great deal of power. The individual takes power and turns himself into a local unofficial leader of crime with an endless supply of henchmen, thugs, and goons.
I greatly enjoyed this, as it gave me nostalgic vibes for some guilty pleasure movies from my childhood.
From a performance standpoint, Ritchson is doing great work but the real hero of this season is Fitzgerald. Roscoe has a deep connection to Margrave and as a local cop, she gives Reacher the context he needs to solve the mystery. Roscoe is the anit-Reacher in a lot of ways. She plays by the rules (until she meets Reacher), she has deep roots in the town, and she has to rely on a lot of resources to help her out. It makes way for a stellar team-up between Ritchson and Fitzgerald. Their chemistry is off the charts and I hope that Fitzgerland will use this as a springboard for more opportunities.
The mystery in question is deeply personal for Reacher, as the first victim is someone he knows personally. This helps give the audience some backstory about Reacher and why this mystery matters to him so much. Since he’s a self-identified drifter, Reacher could easily leave whenever he wants but once he gets into the folds of the town, he ends up staying until the very end. The mystery has a lot of intricacies that make it a little tricky to understand. It doesn’t help that Reacher knows how to solve everything out there. However, the mystery is densely layered while also giving the audience a great reason for Reacher to stick around the town to help solve the case.
Props go to the stunt team and the team that designed the action sequences. There are a lot of cool moments, particularly in the final episode of the season which has the big fight at the end, where everyone gets involved. Props go to Goodwin for this scene, as he spends a good amount of the story not living up to his potential, only to showcase it in the final episode. Each episode has at least one okay action sequence, obviously anchored by Ritchson’s portrayal of Reacher.
As far as villains go, Kliner industries are pretty straightforward and generic. KJ (Chris Webster) is the de facto main bad, a corporate entity in the quest for power. The son of corporate magnate Kliner Sr. (Currie Graham), KJ is menacing and mainly all talk when it comes to his tough guy persona. The times we see KJ go toe-to-toe with Reacher are fun, culminating with a fun battle between the two in the final episode. Props go to the final episode for being an all-out fun melee brawl. I enjoyed it.
The last person I will give props to is Frances Neagley (Maria Sten). She’s loyal to Reacher and is someone who can hold her own when it comes to Reacher’s brand of justice. She’s tactical, violent, and a great person to have around. I like Sten and Ritchson’s dynamic together because it’s platonic yet there’s a clear strong bond between them that doesn’t have hopes of becoming romantic. I’m hoping for more of this in the coming seasons.
Reacher offers a compelling mystery, decent performances, and a generally fun freshman season.
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Ritchson makes for a great Reacher and I’m excited to see what Amazon has in store for him and his adventures in the future. Since season two will be in a new location with brand new people, I’m curious to see if anyone else from season two will be making an appearance. Beyond that, I’ll be eagerly awaiting when Reacher will be back in 2023.
Score: 6/10
