By Cole Gee | Staff Writer
Reacher has managed to be one of Amazon Prime’s most popular shows because it follows a simple formula. Jack Reacher, the beloved behemoth, is a former military investigator who travels around the country with only the clothes on his back and a toothbrush. Throughout various journeys through small-town America, he always finds himself in the middle of a criminal conspiracy.
Reacher hates the big guy who punches down on the little guy — the powerful who take advantage of the weaker and vulnerable. Using the skills he learned in the military, he always manages to stop the bad guys, get the girl and ride off into the sunset.
At its core, Reacher is a power fantasy. It lets its audience imagine a world where injustice doesn’t go unpunished — where a six-foot-three giant like Reacher can show up and save the day whenever needed. It’s this same fantasy that made season one a smash hit years ago. While season three tries to go back to the same basics that made it popular, it unfortunately falls short of the high standard’s set.
Beware! Spoilers ahead.
Reacher season three starts off with a bit of a twist — Reacher ends up working for the father of a young man he rescued from being kidnapped at a vinyl store. However, in reality, Reacher was on the edge of an elaborate plan. He was recruited by DEA agents Duffy and Guillermo to help them save a kidnapped witness whose being held hostage by Beck., the young man’s father. Reacher, however, is more concerned with getting vengeance against a ghost from his past by the name of Quinn who murdered a close friend of his.
Longtime fans of the Reacher books were sent into a frenzy when the plot for season three was initially announced — especially because the show introduces one of the novel’s most notorious villains, Paulie. In the book, Paulie is a mountain of a man who is described as an even bigger and meaner version of Reacher.
The casting directors had their work cut out for them to find an actor who could make the six-foot-three, 230-pound Alan Ritchson look small. They managed to knock it out of the park, casting the towering seven-foot-three Dutch bodybuilder Olivier Richters. Paulie steals every scene he is in and manages to do what no character in the show so far has done: make Reacher look weak and vulnerable.
Season three managed to introduce an antagonist that Reacher simply couldn’t overpower with his own strength and size, making every confrontation between the pair tense. Viewers were forced to watch Reacher become a David vs Paulie’s Goliath. It would take a lot more than a smooth rock and slingshot to bring him down.
The simmering hatred and bruised ego between the two giants made their eventual brawl worth every penny. By the end of the episode, the environment around them looked straight out of a fight in a Marvel movie. Paulie’s defeat was one of the most satisfying endings to an antagonist since season one’s Kliner.
Something I enjoyed was how the show didn’t shy away from the fact that Reacher wasn’t seeking straight justice against Quinn for what he did in the past. He wanted vengeance, pure and simple — and he doesn’t care what he has to do to get it.
If Reacher was like any other show, the narrative would demonize him for not working alongside the law. Instead, he should let Quinn have his day in court and turn him over to the DEA. The writing team, however, has made it a focal point for Reacher. He operates outside the system because the law can only do so much.
The show also makes the correct decision to bring back Neagley, one of the show’s most beloved side characters, so it’s no surprise that the show-runners have already put in plans for her own spinoff series premiering on Prime Video in the future.
Unfortunately, this season does have some major issues that not even the gratuitous violence can make up for. The pacing at times was very slow, and the constant switch brought down the tone of the show heavily. In episode seven, which many would consider the low part of the season, Reacher and Duffy decided to take a quick trip to Los Angeles to help find a suspect.
This entire romp takes up half the episode and the show doesn’t really add anything worthwhile until a major fire fight at the end of the episode. It’s practically a cliché at this point that Reacher gets a new female love interest every season. His quick fling with Duffy wasn’t really all that interesting or dynamic. They had great chemistry as partners forced to work together, but I didn’t feel any real sparks between the two as a couple.
While I do love the way they made Reacher unrelenting in his quest for vengeance against Quinn, the execution of said vengeance is somewhat of a letdown. There’s no monologue or epic battle.
Reacher is known to be a man of few words. However, I think the show could have dragged it out a bit in order to truly let Quinn feel the consequences of his actions.
The show currently is rated 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, tied with season two for the highest score. Amazon Prime has recently confirmed that season four is already on its way. Any fan of classic procedural shows like “Burn Notice,” “The Shield” or “Justified” will easily fall in love with Reacher season three. The only hope now is that season four can relight the fire that set Prime Video ablaze back in 2022.
