Neagley Series Review
Neagley is an American action-crime television series created by Nick Santora and Nicholas Wootton for Amazon Prime Video. Based on the character created by Lee Child, it serves as a direct spin-off of the hit series Reacher. The show premiered on September 16, with all eight episodes dropping simultaneously.
The story follows Frances Neagley working as a private investigator, whose investigation into the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of a childhood friend spirals into a perilous, high-stakes mission.
The Good
Jack Reacher aside, the popular fan-favourite character from the Reacher universe is Frances Neagley. Introduced in Season 1 as part of his special investigative task force, she has been a recurring character who was conspicuously absent from Season 4 of Reacher… and it turns out the reason was that she was busy working on the spin-off series, which conveniently dropped back-to-back with the Season 4 finale.
Maria Sten proves she can carry the series without Reacher standing beside her. Neagley isn’t a female version of Reacher, she brings her own brand of badass. We already knew she had an aversion to shaking people’s hands or touching people unless she was beating them up… and here we finally learn why she is the way she is.
Neagley has great chemistry among its supporting cast, with Greyston Holt‘s Hudson Riley, Adeline Rudolph‘s Renee Birdwhistle and Jasper Jones‘ Keno, who aren’t just placeholders but are battling their own challenges.
Jasper Jones‘ character Keno is a refreshing breeze and manages to sneak in and steal the limelight while lightening up what could otherwise be some rather heavy storylines about trauma and its exploitation by the unscrupulous.
Unlike the main Reacher series, which largely favours shoving away attachment, with Jack Reacher coasting through life with only a toothbrush, Neagley digs into deeper emotional territory and makes roots. I may have seen more character development in one season of Neagley than four seasons of Reacher.
The Bad
While this series isn’t trying to turn Neagley into a Lady Reacher, it still follows the Reacher formula closely enough that you’re essentially getting a Reacher show, just without Jack Reacher.
Whenever the show moves elsewhere and Neagley isn’t around, you feel it. You find yourself thinking, ooookay, cult vibes… got it. Can we get back to Neagley now?
The villains are ultimately rather cartoonish. It’s as if the writers were sitting around thinking, Okay, let’s make them do some bad things here… more bad things here… why? Because they’re rich and greedy, that’s why.
A question that kept bugging me was: how does someone who doesn’t like touching people get into so much hand-to-hand combat?
Also, Neagley is supposed to be a tactician, but she gets herself into some situations where you can’t help but ask, what was the plan?? Wait for the plot armour to save the day?
The Ugly
I am somewhat concerned about some of their rather unorthodox investigative tactics, whose legality is questionable at best. Any evidence of wrongdoing they end up with could potentially be inadmissible, depending on how it was obtained.
Riley starts out trying to be a good cop, but by the end he seems to be leaning increasingly towards the vigilante approach to justice, which makes for great television, but I’m not entirely sure it makes for great police work.
Final Thoughts
Neagley works best when it allows Frances to be Frances, quiet, lethal, intelligent, emotionally guarded and occasionally surprisingly funny with something the parent series doesn’t always make enough room for: roots.
If you are a Reacher fan, this should be on your watchlist.
Have you watched Neagley? Does it sound like something you would watch?
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