Reacher Season 2
Reacher is an action crime television series developed by Nick Santora for Amazon Prime Video. It is based on the Jack Reacher book series by Lee Child. Season 2 of Reacher is based on Lee Child’s eleventh Reacher novel – Bad Luck and Trouble. The second season premiered on Amazon on 15 December 2023 with an episode airing each Friday.
In season 2 Reacher, rejoins with members of his old unit after they suspect someone is after them when former team members start to go missing and are unreachable… the investigation leads to rogue contractors, corrupt politicians, police officers, as Reacher and his team mete out justice…
The Good
Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher is an old school sort of action hero who will save your life and barely acknowledge your thanks with a grunt… reminds me of The Witcher… hey Reacher rhymes with Witcher… coincidence?
Lee Child describes Reacher as… “the age-old hero, the noble loner, the mysterious stranger, the knight errant, who comes to town with no yesterday, no tomorrow, he’s just there today. He fixes the trouble and then moves on”.
Season 2 shines by introducing supporting characters instead of Reacher being a lone wolf, there is a pack of equally capable team members who can hold their own and crack one liner dad jokes at Jack Reacher.. Having others share the spotlight makes it less of a one man army trope doing impossible things like it’s a regular Tuesday at the Impossible Mission Task Force.
The screen chemistry between Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) and Frances Neagley (Maria Sten) holds the series together and I kept thinking they got together like an old married couple that understands each other completely… than the actual love interest.
I was pleasantly surprised to recognise the guy who played the T1000 from the old Terminator movies of yesteryear… There is an easter egg line that references the movie franchise that gets dropped in the opening episode just after Robert Patrick as Shane Langston gets fully introduced..
The series manages to keep an intrigue and suspense that will keep you watching, trying to get to the bottom of things… In its downtime the series gives flashback of how the old team came to be which helps endear the team of special investigators whom you do not mess with.
The Bad
Lets face it, its procedural and thus predictable, what you see is pretty much what you get, with a couple twists here and there which arent unanticipated.
The story could be compressed to less than the 8 running episodes and just be an action packed fiesta but instead you have to content with some bad karaoke and team building bar brawls which you could do without.
I am sure someone has counted how many times Reacher tells Neagley “have I told you are smart Neagley” and she replies “not nearly enough..” Its cute, at first and then becomes annoying like a dad joke told one too many times just like the other one liners that pop up…
Suspend disbelief because Reacher is die hard.. he is an unstoppable force of cliché and action hero trope with an almost supernatural strength able to kick a car so hard the airbags pop out… not mention how everyone who shoots at him misses and he never misses, ever.
The Ugly
The series has excessive and gratuitous violence, there is torture, corruption and terrorism without much in the way of a redemption arc…
Watching Reacher will not make you a better person or question the meaning of life and everything but it might make you want to be a cooler dad, who can take on the world at your own terms
Final Thoughts
The 8 episodes breeze by so fast, though I feel season 1 of Reacher did it better… Season 3 was approved and filming is underway so Reacher will be back and according to the grapevine so will Maria Sten as Neagley…
Becoming The Muse 
Your thoughts.. if you will?