TL;DR – A solid season that never evolves the manual but does show why it works as well as it does.

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

Reacher Review Introduction

Another season of Reacher has come to a close, and thankfully it was a much better ride than what we got in Season Three. With that in mind, we will dive into what makes the series work as well as it does, and also what might be holding it back from really making a cultural moment.   

So, to set the scene, it is 2:18 am in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. Reacher (Alan Ritchson) is taking one of the last trains for the night when he notices a woman in clear distress, her hands hidden in a bag. Fearing the inevitable disaster, he tries to talk the lady down from the coming disaster. But when he lies to say he is a cop, hoping that will stop the escalation, it has the opposite result. Reacher feels like he failed the woman in her hour of need, but worse, every department in the federal government is now very interested in a suicide on an early morning train. Now, from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

Action

Now, there is no doubt that quite a few people turn out for a new season of Reacher for the action alone, and this season we got it in droves. One thing I did like about the action was that, given the general Indonesian theme of the season, we were much more focused on knives and close-quarters fisticuffs. That creates an intimacy in the fights and also allows Reacher to throw a door at a person and then body slam it, breaking the attacker’s neck. I loved the duel in the library, the car chase through the country, and that one episode that was just a foot chase. In the finale, one of the smartest things a henchman has ever done was use a nail gun on Reacher, even if that did give Alan Ritchson a perfect opportunity to perfect his Wolverine audition.

Narrative

The central core of this season’s story is that Reacher finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and has to put together a ragtag team of associates as he takes down the shady people at the heart of the conspiracy. To be fair, that could have been the same outline of just about every other season of the show, but there are a couple of new touches. The first is that the inciting incident is Reacher stuffing up, which is a nice change, and that his good nature was absolutely taken advantage of. They also decided to do something wild by having a honestly good politician that I liked act sacrificially. It was a cool misdirection. Nothing really stood out as being truly exceptional; they don’t really understand how chemical weapons work, but everything is quite solid, and the characters made it land.

Heart

The one thing I think the Reacher series has struggled with is that Reacher as a character is very one-note, and there are only so many times you can play that note before it gets dull. It doesn’t help when the casting department is so strong, and each season, they fill all the supporting characters with some of the best character actors out there. When Shawn Doyle shows up to be a slimy pesticides corporate boss, you know things will be good. Kevin Weisman as a burned reporter trying to expose the CIA, well you are cooking with fire. Kevin Corrigan as a cop just coasting till retirement is also good, deep down. They all work so well.

I had hoped we would get a bit more from Reacher this season because that guilt for messing up his first interaction with Anna was a good motivator for the character, and the very clear betrayal. But he soon returns back to default settings, which is fine, but you kind of wish it was a bit more because Alan Ritchson has range, and after seeing him play the same character in Runner this year, it is a shame that he does not use it more. The real heart this season is Jacob (Christopher Rodriguez-Marquette). I felt his journey and pain throughout the season, and his throughline was the only thing that landed in the finale.

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend Reacher: Season Four? I honestly had a much better time this season than I have recently with the show. However, I think we are starting to see the extent of where the series can go if they are going to stick to the same formula, over and over again. Have you seen Reacher yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments below.

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

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Reacher
Directed by – Sam Hill, & Gary Fleder
Written by – Nick Santora, Scott Sullivan, Seth Cohen, Amy Pocha, Penny Cox, Cait Duffy, & Mick Betancourt
Created by – Nick Santora
Based on – Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
Production/Distribution Companies – Amazon MGM Studios, Skydance Television, Paramount Television Studios, Blackjack Films & Amazon Prime
Starring – Alan Ritchson, Sydelle Noel, Agnez Mo, Anggun, Christopher Rodriguez-Marquette, & Kevin Corrigan
With – Kevin Weisman, Marc Blucas, Kathleen Robertson, Nick Searcy, Aaron Poole, Dean Armstrong, Jason Diaz, Richard Walters, Byron Abalos, Shawn Doyle, Raven Dauda, & Edie Inksetter
And – Karen Kwong-Chip, Kerby Darius, Michael Gaty, Aldrin Bundoc, Talijah Levene, Chris Owens, Mich Ward, Melanie Phan, Josh Hendel, Kevin Healey, Rodger Edralin, Paul Hopkins, Spencer Glassman, Patricia Tedford, Armando Alera, Joël Owens, Denis Wong, Fane Tse, Manon Ens-Lapointe, Michael Crawford, Alejandra Zapico, Denis Wong, Vicki Kim, Jay Hieron, Kendon Chase, & Manon Ens-Lapointe