TL;DR – They take the format that worked from the first season and bring in a team to elevate it.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime subscription that viewed this series.

Reacher Review –

Lee Child is an author that I know by name, but I have never gotten a chance to read any of their work. But I do get to see some of their adaptations from time to time. The films with Tom Cruise were fine, but back in 2022, they found the right combination when they cast a mountain of a man as Reacher and let them loose on a corrupt town. Today, we look at the first part of the second season to see if they can strike lighting twice.   

So to set the scene, it has been two years since Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) spent time in Georgia and took down a corrupt town and their money laundering program. Since then, he has continued to float around America, moving from town to town with nothing but his toothbrush holding him down. When he tries to get some cash out of the ATM, he first takes down a carjacker and then realises that someone has left an SOS in his bank account. One call later and he is on a plane to New York to meet up with Frances Neagley (Maria Sten) because someone is targeting their old MP unit. Now from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.  

I was interested to see where they would go from the first season because the way that Reacher flitters from town to town could almost give the series an anthology vibe to it. So far in Season 2, we sort of get that vibe, but we also get an amplification of Season 1. Bar one guest, only Neagley and Reacher make the jump across this season, but by basing this on the unit they used to work with, you build upon a lot of the backstory the first season was built on. This creates an exciting dynamic for the show that has intrigued me so far.

The opening, when Calvin Franz (Luke Bilyk) gets yeeted out of a moving helicopter and falls to his death, feels like a provocation to both the character Reacher and the audience. It also inserts immediate energy into the show because, to quote every film from the 1980s, “This time it is personal”. Much of these first four episodes have been about progressing the investigation while also revisiting the past when Reacher put his team together and how they took down major cases (also, this is the point where I speculate that their boss is 100% dirty, but I digress). I liked the jump between the two different times because the past sections give the foundation for the rage that comes in the present.

There is always a bit of joy when there is a narrative about ‘getting the gang back together’. I mean, Star Trek Picard just built their entire final season around that premise. What makes this more interesting is that Reacher has chosen a solitary life. However, he clearly works better in a team. There was the makeshift one he constructed in Season 1 and then bringing his old team back together in Season 2. It creates this odd dichotomy that just works. Bringing the old team back together also means that all the banter does not need to start from nothing, and you can start swinging from the word go.

I thought that Alan Ritchson was a mountain of a man back in Season 1, and somehow, he is more mountainous here. I mean, they literally have him Kool-Aid Man himself through multiple walls in a chase sequence. It does give an immediate physicality to each action scene, and you 100% believe he could take out an entire biker gang. I also like that he still takes hits, which gives the action scene a bit more weight compared to some similar action stars who never take a hit, so you wonder why bother siting through the scene.       

As far as the mystery, I like what we have gotten so far. It is nice that the bad guys are not fools and are a real threat. You feel if they were up against even someone slightly less competent, then they would have won. Add in some illegal arms trades and millions of dollars going missing, and you have a compelling hook. Then we have A.M. (Ferdinand Kingsley) just floating around murdering people left and right, and you know they are on a collision course with our team. I wouldn’t say I like to typecast people, but if you need someone to be a big bad military-industrial complex villain and Robert Patrick is not at the top of your list, then you are making a mistake.  

In the end, do we recommend Reacher Season 2 so far? Yes, yes, we do. They took everything that worked from the first season and amplified it. The action is solid, the characters work, and the mystery is compelling enough to bring you along.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Reacher yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Reacher
Directed by –Sam Hill & Omar Madha
Written by – Nick Santora, Scott Sullivan, Penny Cox & Cait Duffy
Created by – Nick Santora
Based on – Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child
Production/Distribution Companies – Skydance Television, Paramount Television Studios,     Blackjack Films & Amazon Studios
Starring – Alan Ritchson, Maria Sten, Serinda Swan, Shaun Sipos, Ferdinand Kingsley & Robert Patrick with Malcolm Goodwin, Domenick Lombardozzi & Joris Jarsky and Andres Collantes, Edsson Morales, Arlen Aguayo Stewart, Lochlyn Murno, Luke Bilyk, Shannon Kook, Gavin Fox, Dean Monroe McKenzie, Tea Helena Carini, Nolan Gahan, Kevan Kase, Neven Pajkic, David MacInnis, Christina Cox, Josh Blacker, David Majeske, Lorna Wilson, Geoff Williams, Josh Blacker, Al Sapienza, Kyle Mac, Kamiran Aldeo, Boomer Phillips,    
Episodes Covered – ATM, What Happens in Atlantic City, Picture Says a Thousand Words, A Night at the Symphony,