TV review
‘Reacher: Season 3’
Credits: Created by Nick Santora, starring Alan Ritchson, Sonya Cassidy, Johnny Berchtold, Roberto Montesinos, Anthony Michael Hall, Olivier Richters, Brian Tee, Maria Sten.
Rating/Running time: Rated TV MA, eight episodes. Streaming on Amazon Prime.
James Grant, aka Lee Child, began writing his “Reacher” series of novels in 1997. To date, the series has grown to comprise 29 books and a short story collection.
Along the way, in 2012 and 2016, respectively, came two movie adaptations, both starring Tom Cruise as Child’s protagonist, former military police officer Jack Reacher.
The “Reacher” universe expanded even further when, in 2022, Amazon began producing a streaming series based on Child’s novels. When enough fans complained that the 5-foot-7 Cruise couldn’t – both literally and metaphorically – fit the shoes of the 6-5 character of Reacher, he was replaced.
The guy who took over from Cruise turned out to be Alan Ritchson. And even though Ritchson is 3 inches shorter than the Reacher in Child’s books, he still looks imposing when walking into a room – or even simply down the street.
To date, three seasons of the Amazon series have been released, with the third season finishing its eighth episode on March 27. Season 3 is based on Child’s 2003 novel “Persuader,” and it features Reacher working with a DEA team to infiltrate what they suspect is a drug-smuggling operation.
To do so, Reacher has to pose as a guy who, seemingly by chance, happens to save Richard Beck (Johnny Berchtold) from being kidnapped. Beck is the son of Zachary Beck (Anthony Michael Hall), who runs the smuggling business.
Both Reacher and the DEA agent in charge, Susan Duffy (Sonya Cassidy), have personal agendas as well. Reacher discovers that the elder Beck is associated with an old enemy, Quinn (Brian Tee), while Duffy wants to find a former confidential informant of hers who has been kidnapped.
Once inside the Beck household, Reacher is confronted by a wasp’s nest of complications, a major one being Beck’s hulking security guard Paulie (Olivier Richters). He also discovers that the whole operation is being controlled by Quinn.
And the rest is typical of the series, with Reacher taking a break from his wandering ways to complete this new mission. He beats up a few people and kills a few more (some of the scenes are exceedingly violent). He barely misses getting killed himself more than once, and he gets ample help not just from Duffy and her partner Villanueva (Roberto Montesinos) but also from his former Army colleague Neagley (Maria Sten).
What’s not typical is how the miniseries differs from what Child puts in his novels.
The novel version of Reacher is simple in his needs, wants and desires. He has a clear view of morality, and he follows his own sense of justice – often frontier justice. Most important, he seldom gets ruffled by anything or anyone.
Maybe it’s because movie and TV productions call for something different, but both the Cruise and Ritchson versions of Reacher are freer with their emotions. Yeah, they’re the same tough guy, but they’re not always in control, either of the situation or of their feelings.
In the dozen or so of Child’s novels that I have read, Reacher seldom if ever meets a situation he can’t bring under control. And he does so with an unerringly cool sense of self.
A fourth season of “Reacher” is reportedly in preproduction. Until it premieres, I’ll be happy to keep reading the books.
I’m a big fan of cool.
