Geek Review: Reacher – Season 2 (Amazon Prime Video)

There are few shows that hit it out of the ballpark in its freshmen year, and return for a bigger, better and more brutal delivery for its second, and Amazon Prime’s Reacher has managed to achieve all and more with Lee Child’s titular character.

A lot of it has to do with the sharp writing and delivery, which now takes the 11th book in Child’s series of 26, for the second season, but the majority of the show’s success can be pinned on the ridiculously broad shoulders of leading man Alan Ritchson, who perfectly embodies the military man turned drifter who aids people at their time of need.

While the first season followed the first book, and established the lone soldier traveling without ties and burdens, the second season takes a closer look at his military background which was lightly touched upon in the previous season. Reunited with his former Master Sergeant, Frances Neagley (Maria Sten), she informs him that a member of their old team, the 110th Special Investigations Unit, has been murdered and the duo assembles former teammates they can find, to determine who is bent on taking them out.

At 6’2″ (1.88m), Ritchson is close to Reacher’s 6’5″ stature depicted in the books and his enormous presence is what makes this adaptation’s Reacher a no-nonsense, dangerous and  forceful opponent, but Ritchson also imbues him with a self-assured, funnyman charm that was somewhat missing from the first two Reacher films starring Tom Cruise.

Much has been said about how the relatively short Cruise was not a right fit for the role, but there’s no denying that part of the reason why this TV adaptation works is because both of Cruise’s films did enough to educate a global audience on the character, and Ritchson has taken on the reins of character and taken it to new heights. Whenever thugs corner Reacher, there’s this knowing knowledge in the audience that they are going to be taken down in the most violent and satisfying way that includes more than just broken bones and a powerful blow to the face – they deserve it and Ritchson deserves the credit for making it look so effortless yet somehow making audiences think that he’s also holding back a bit.

Like Batman without his suit, his Reacher is a violent vigilante meting out justice on his own terms, with two fists and the occasional headbutt in civilian wear, which is ironic given that Ritchson has played two costumed DC Comics superheroes on TV before – Aquaman aka Arthur Curry in Smallville, and Hawk aka Hank Hall inTitans – and neither took advantage of what the actor delivers here – the confidence, assuredness and expert delivery.

This time, he’s joined by his comrades, and fellow DC Comics superheroes really, from his old unit – forensic accountant Karla Dixon (fellow Smallville alum Serinda Swan, who played Zatanna), lawyer David O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos, who played Adam Strange on Kyypton), and Neagley, whom we met last season (while not a superhero, Sten played a journalist in TV’s adaptation of DC Comic’s Swamp Thing). 

Like a gang of Titans going after Shane Langston (Robert Patrick, Terminator 2: Judgement Day), the quartet is relentless in their desire for revenge, and each episode is like watching a star basketball player score gracefully with each successive shot, supported by equally capable teammates. The only pauses are with the short flashbacks that establishes Reacher’s relationship with each former teammate, and his regrets in not staying in touch, even though you know things will never change and he’ll be alone again when this is all over. 

Unlike the first season, which dropped all at once, Amazon Prime has opted to release new episodes weekly, and while there are reasons for extending the conversation for a weekly drop of a new series, this one makes you come back for more. It may lack the big budget stylings of Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Netflix’s One Piece, or Apple TV+’s For All Mankind, but Reacher is testament to the rich source material, a concise episode count to tell a good story, well-choreographed action and proof that good casting goes a long well in producing good content.

Brutal, realistic and stylish in its own violent way, Reacher is a contination of the lone warrior, drifter trope in fiction, but unlike The Mandalorian, he doesn’t have a rich history of a galaxy far, far away to lean back on – just a good mystery and some bad guys that deserve violent justice. One wonder how Ritchson would have been if he was cast as Batman instead.