PRIME’S ‘REACHER’ IS A GRITTY BUT GOOD LEE CHILD ACTION SERIES

by 

Amazon Prime re-makes the popular Lee Child novels. From Tom Cruise to a new titular role actor, this series drops the first name and tries to be Reacher, season one. It’s a story that has the same, but different elements.

Reacher, Season One(2022) Amazon Prime TV Review

Murder rocks a small Georgia town. While Detective Finlay (Malcolm Goodwin) is not pleased by this turn of events, the Margrave department is distracted. More concerning is the arrival of a silent stranger. Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) steps off a bus, and not in town long enough to eat a piece of pie, he’s arrested. Silently he sits in custody listening to Finlay talk and accusations fly. Meanwhile officer Roscoe Conklin (Willa Fitzgerald) finds nothing suspicious about this man inside her police station.

Taking everything he knows from training, Jack Reacher breaks his silence to share his theories on this crime. Soon he’s roped into entering prison to try to get information from the man who confesses, but seems the least likely suspect.

PRIME'S ‘REACHER’ IS A GRITTY BUT GOOD LEE CHILD ACTION SERIES #REACHER #AMAZONPRIME #PRIME #TVSHOW #ALANRITCHSON #LEECHILD Click To Tweet

This is one of those Prime originals that did earn lots of publicity. Not unlike their version of the Jack Ryan novels, this series takes a wholly different approach to its feature film counterpart in which Tom Cruise stars. While Ritchson may be closer in appearance to Jack Reacher, I think the script or Cruise does a better job with the essence of the character. Or at least a good cinematic character, a distinction I have to make given I have not read the book. There’s more mystery surrounding Cruise and how they approach his character as well as his investigative skills.

NETFLIX REVIEW | ‘THE ADAM PROJECT’: A NETFLIX SCI-FI POPCORN FLICK THAT’S ACTUALLY FUN

All this to say, Prime’s version is still good. There’s plenty of excellent acting and the characters who are put forth as heroes are likable in unique, and even broken ways. One character I vacillate between finding impressive and annoying is Roscoe. There’s these shining moments where I think the writers’ strike the best balance between strength and appreciation of the actions of Jack. Then there are moments where I find her extremely annoying; she often puts down the importance of Jack being able to respect and honor her. Point is, writers actually do her a disservice by again making her into a female who scoffs at protection. Her reactions are nearly always silly rather than allowing her ability to speak for itself. Beyond this, I like the characters and enjoy their kind of love-hate relationships that leads up to a solid team effort end game.

The show seems to have good production, and for the most part, the story keeps the viewer engaged through eight episodes. The series did so well that it already has a season two. If you’ve seen the films, you know that most likely the series will set up something entirely new with only the titular character. One who is imposing enough to make us forgive the lack of carry through.

PINTEREST PIN – SAVE & SHARE


PRIME'S ‘REACHER’ IS A GRITTY BUT GOOD LEE CHILD ACTION SERIES. A REVIEW OF AMAZON PRIME'S REACHER, SEASON ONE WITH ALAN RITCHSON. TEXT © RISSI JC

Content: this one is all about the TV-MA rating. There’s sexual and non-sexual nudity (side, front). One involves a gruesome murder of a man who has his genitals cut. We see the investigators at the scene discovering this. There’s a shower sex scene (we see some nudity before she wraps her legs around him when the shot then cuts away). There’s also multiple F-words (there’s about two episodes where it’s in extreme succession) or less depending on the episodes. Other profanities like GD, sh*t, etc. pop up. There are multiple examples of violence (graphic prison fights, murder, necks snapping, gun fire). The final two episodes up the violence ante. There’s a climax of fire, guns and fist fights; someone goes up in flames, a bullet into another’s eye, there’s sniper fire, etc. Another scene in the prior episode involves a “trap” where there’s intense battle (stabbing, fists, etc.). Long story short, this is a very adult series.

Photos: Amazon Prime

About Rissi JC

amateur graphic designer. confirmed bookaholic. bubbl’r enthusiast. critical thinker. miswesterner. social media coordinator. writer.

3 comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

(Enter your URL then click here to include a link to one of your blog posts.)

Optimized by Optimole