I’m not sure how it happened, but Reacher Thursdays have become a thing in my life. As I settle down after dinner, ready to doomscroll in peace, my husband will catch my eye and smirk as the Prime Video logo appears, ominously, on our TV.
But try as I might not to care about what’s happening on screen, I can’t help but end up dropping my phone in favour of the insane action… and maybe that’s the secret to its success.
It’s currently racking up huge numbers on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming platform, and it’s no real mystery as to why. Lee Child’s novel series about the former army military police major turned drifter, Jack Reacher, has consistently flown off bookshelves (perhaps quite a lot of those in airport bookshops), while all three seasons of the TV adaptation went straight to number one.
But it’s not because Reacher is groundbreaking TV. This series is like a never-ending bucket of fast food that you want to chomp on as fast as you can. Addictive and greasy, it provides immediate gratification but leaves a lingering aftertaste of unanswered questions – and sometimes regret.
Reacher is to the action genre what Bridgerton is to historical romance – but rather than steamy scenes in horse-drawn carriages, its basis is a bunch of guys beating each other up in a warehouse or something.
From my passive watch-through, there are three key things I’ve noticed that make this series just as silly as it is significant. I consulted my resident Reacher expert for additional information to aid my analysis.
Big men equal big success
My partner informs me that every narrative by Lee Child (or at least, those with his byline – many are written by his brother) can be boiled down to a snappy ‘What if…’ premise. In the sixth book, Without Fail, it’s: ‘What if Reacher has to protect the Vice-President?’ For the latest title, In Too Deep, it’s: ‘What if Reacher had amnesia?’
Season three of the show, based on the book Persuader, has a very simple premise: ‘What if Reacher had to fight someone EVEN BIGGER than him?’ While sure, that may sound dumb, it’s gone down a treat in this household.
Jasper Savage/Prime
Alan Ritchson, the actor portraying Reacher, is an absolute tank. He’s six foot three inches of unalleviated, gristly muscle, which is inexplicable, given that his character claims never to have done a bench press in his life… and let’s be reasonable, nobody could obtain gains like that without a gym membership.
Sometimes, you just want to see a big man fight an even bigger man
So, how do you make this man seem small? Easy. You hire an actor who is seven foot two (yes, seven, not six) and weighs 160kg/350lbs. That would be Olivier Richters, also known as The Dutch Giant – a former bodybuilder turned actor, now playing Paul Masserella, known affectionately by his adorable nickname, Paulie.
Every time Paulie appears onscreen, my husband will exclaim, “Look how BIG he is!”. The cameras make no effort to try and disguise his height difference from the other performers. Instead, they use techniques to exaggerate it – including shots of him standing next to someone else with his head and neck comically cut off like Nearly Headless Nick.
Season 3 is very clearly building towards a WWE-style showdown between Paulie and Reacher, constantly reminding us of the antagonist’s hulking stature – he barely flinches from a punch from our boy Jack. And I hate to admit it… but I am invested. I need to know how our hero will take this guy out using more than just his trademark brute strength.
Sometimes, you just want to see a big man fight an even bigger man. It’s simple but effective. The showrunners know what people want.
The stereotypes are non-stop
Think of every action flick trope you can. Whatever just crossed your mind, it’s probably appeared in Reacher.
Take the end of episode three as an example. He sets a house ablaze to destroy evidence, then runs away as it explodes – not taking a second to look back as he sprints in slow motion. He jumps in his getaway car, and the credits roll to ‘Firestarter’ by The Prodigy.
At the time, I turned to my in-house Reacher fanboy to complain about the rather on-the-nose song choice, and he just replied, “But he IS a Firestarter”, and that’s about as far as that debate went.
Christos Kalohoridis/Prime
There are plenty of shootouts, interrogations, and a love interest who can’t decide whether she wants to hit him or kiss him… so she goes for both. Reacher is the classic ‘men want to be him, and women want to be with him’ character.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an action series without some smart-arse comments from the man himself. The current standout one-liner from this season – which I think you’ll agree is as subtle as it is clever – has to be: “She said the cream came from your mother. Probably because she’s a big fat cow.”
Ironically, this sass is one of my husband’s biggest complaints, because the TV portrayal of Jack ‘talks too much’, in his words. In the books, a lot of the plot is delivered via an internal monologue, which can’t otherwise be translated for screen. As much as we love a strong, silent type, we need to know what the hell is going on in Reacher’s muscle-suffocated brain.
But I can’t fault Richardson’s commitment to the role – he’s born to play a man this blunt, badass, and bulky (but, don’t forget, not as bulky as Paulie).
Realism? Forget about it
After many consultations with my housemate, there are several things I’ve learned about Reacher and how he operates. They’ve left me baffled, to say the least.
First, and most crucially, he only owns whatever he’s wearing at the time. That means one set of clothes that he re-wears for several days until they’re dirty and/or ruined. He’ll then throw those out and get new ones. Talk about waste. This man should be widely shamed for his outsize contribution to global warming.
Reddit has also noticed this particular story element, with one user pointing out how stinky this guy must be, considering he only carries a toothbrush (with no mention of toothpaste or deodorant). Feasibly, would he have women throwing themselves at him, giving his distinctive aroma of sweat, blood and garbage? It’d be a no from me, dawg.
He also hides a burner phone in his shoe, with seemingly no outlet for entertainment. He doesn’t even own a watch to check he’s on time for his latest warehouse brawl, as he can apparently calculate it down to the exact second in his head. Is this man okay?
Courtesy of Prime
As he’s a drifter, he doesn’t own a passport. But does that stop Reacher from traversing international waters in the books? Hell no. It’ll always be some private military plane that gets him there, or he somehow sneaks past the TSA under a fake name, because neither the plot nor Reacher has time to get slowed down by airport security.
But at the end of the day, none of these illogical elements matter. What people want to see is Reacher kill bad guys. That’s it.
And despite me rolling my eyes at first, I’ve been sucked onto this insane hype train myself. Reacher doesn’t apologise for what it is. It leans into the madness… which is double the size this season (pun very much intended – I’m sure Reacher would appreciate it).
Reacher is rolling out now on Prime Video. New episodes drop every Thursday at 3am ET/12am PT in the US, and 8am GMT in the UK. You can watch it by signing up for Amazon Prime.
