Reacher (TV series)

Reacher is an American action crime television series developed by Nick Santora for Amazon Prime Video. Based on the Jack Reacher book series by Lee Child, it stars Alan Ritchson as the title character, a self-proclaimed hobo and former U.S. Army military policeman with formidable strength, intellect, and abilities. During his travels, Reacher crosses paths with dangerous criminals and is forced to do battle.

The first season of Reacher was based on Killing Floor, Child's 1997 debut novel, and was released on February 4, 2022. The second season, based on Bad Luck and Trouble (2007), began on December 15, 2023, and concluded on January 19, 2024. In early December 2023, the series star, Alan Ritchson, revealed that filming of a third season had begun, based on the 2003 novel Persuader.

Premise
Jack Reacher is a former U.S. Army military police major with extensive AWOL investigative and combat experience who prefers to live as a drifter, traveling from town to town across the United States.

In season 1, while visiting the (fictional) rural town of Margrave, Georgia, Reacher is arrested for murder. After he is freed, he teams up with two honest police officers, Oscar Finlay and Roscoe Conklin, to investigate a local conspiracy involving corrupt lawmen, politicians, and a wealthy business tycoon and his son.

In season 2, Reacher is contacted by a former member of his defunct MP unit from New York City when one of their own is murdered under mysterious circumstances. He reassembles his old team to find the murderers and avenge their friend.

Main

 * Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher
 * Maxwell Jenkins as young Jack Reacher (season 1)
 * Malcolm Goodwin as Oscar Finlay (season 1; guest season 2), Margrave PD Police Captain and Chief Detective
 * Willa Fitzgerald as Roscoe Conklin (season 1), Margrave PD Sergeant
 * Chris Webster as KJ Kliner (season 1), the entitled son of Kliner Sr. who is assisting his father's criminal operation
 * Bruce McGill as Mayor Grover Teale (season 1), a crooked politician in league with the Kliner family
 * Maria Sten as Frances Neagley, a corporate security professional who served with Reacher in the Army’s 110th Special Investigations Unit as a Master sergeant
 * Serinda Swan as Karla Dixon (season 2), a forensic accountant in corporate risk management, who served with Reacher in the 110th Special Investigations Unit
 * Shaun Sipos as David O'Donnell (season 2), a lawyer with a family, who served with Reacher in the 110th Special Investigations Unit
 * Ferdinand Kingsley as A.M. (season 2), a seasoned mercenary traveling under multiple assumed identities
 * Robert Patrick as Shane Langston (season 2), a former NYPD detective and the head of security for New Age, a private defense contractor

Recurring

 * Willie C. Carpenter as Mosley (season 1), an elderly barber and longtime resident of Margrave
 * Harvey Guillén as Jasper (season 1), Margrave's medical examiner
 * Christopher Russell as Joe Reacher (season 1), a Secret Service agent and Reacher's older brother.
 * Gavin White as young Joe Reacher.
 * Leslie Fray as Josephine Reacher (season 1), Reacher's mother
 * Matthew Marsden as Stan Reacher (season 1), Reacher's father
 * Hugh Thompson as Baker (season 1), a corrupt Margrave officer on Kliner's payroll
 * Jonathan Koensgen as Stevenson (season 1), a Margrave officer and Paul Hubble's cousin
 * AJ Simmons as Dawson (season 1), Kliner's nephew who works as a hitman and enforcer for his uncle's crime operation
 * Marc Bendavid as Paul Hubble (season 1), a banker strong-armed into assisting the Kliner counterfeiting ring
 * Patrick Garrow as Taylor Spivey (season 1), a corrupt corrections officer paid off by Kliner to kill Hubble.
 * Kristin Kreuk as Charlene "Charlie" Hubble (season 1), Paul's wife
 * Currie Graham as Kliner Sr. (season 1), the owner of Kliner Industries who is secretly fronting an illegal counterfeiting operation for South American cartel outfits.
 * Martin Roach as Picard (season 1), an FBI agent and old friend of Finlay's.
 * Domenick Lombardozzi as Gaitano "Guy" Russo (season 2), an NYPD homicide detective investigating Franz's murder.
 * Luke Bilyk as Calvin Franz (season 2), who served with Reacher in the 110th Special Investigations Unit. His murder triggers Reacher to temporarily reform the 110th and find his killers.
 * Andres Collantes as Jorge Sanchez (season 2), who served with Reacher in the 110th Special Investigations Unit.
 * Edsson Morales as Manuel Orozco (season 2), who served with Reacher in the 110th Special Investigations Unit.
 * Shannon Kook as Tony Swan (season 2), who served with Reacher in the 110th Special Investigations Unit and acts as the assistant director of security at New Age.
 * Dean McKenzie as Stanley Lowrey (season 2), who served with Reacher in the 110th Special Investigations Unit. He is killed in a car accident off-screen before the second season.
 * Christina Cox as Marlo Burns (season 2), the director of operations at New Age.

Guest

 * Lara Jean Chorostecki as Molly Beth Gordon (season 1), a Secret Service agent who was involved with Joe Reacher
 * Lochlyn Munro as David Wright (season 2), chief of security for the Neptune Casino in Atlantic City, where he is acquainted with Reacher
 * Al Sapienza as Drew Marsh (season 2), an NYPD lieutenant and Russo's boss

Development
On July 15, 2019, a TV series adaptation of Lee Child's Jack Reacher series was announced by Amazon. Nick Santora, who created Scorpion, was set to write, showrun, and produce the series through Paramount Television and Skydance Media. On January 14, 2020, the TV series was greenlit, with Don Granger, Scott Sullivan, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Marcy Ross, and Christopher McQuarrie as executive producers with Child. The first season was announced as an adaptation of Child's novel Killing Floor. In July 2021, it was announced M. J. Bassett had joined the series as a director. On February 7, 2022, Amazon Prime Video renewed the series for a second season. To adapt the books to screen the writers decided they would need to make Reacher verbalize his thoughts more often, but that they would keep his dialogue short and direct and have him only speak longer to people he respects. They also decided to introduce Neagley to the series earlier than in the books. On December 2, 2023, ahead of the second-season premiere, it was revealed that filming of a third season had begun.

Casting
On September 4, 2020, Alan Ritchson was cast in the title role. On March 22, 2021, Malcolm Goodwin, Willa Fitzgerald, and Chris Webster were cast as series regulars. On May 19, 2021, Bruce McGill, Maria Sten, and Hugh Thompson joined the main cast. On June 11, 2021, Kristin Kreuk, Marc Bendavid, Willie C. Carpenter, Currie Graham, Harvey Guillén, and Maxwell Jenkins were announced to have joined the cast in undisclosed capacities.

On September 14, 2022, Shaun Sipos joined as a series regular for the second season. On September 21, 2022, Serinda Swan, Ferdinand Kingsley, and Rory Cochrane joined the main cast while Domenick Lombardozzi, Luke Bilyk, Dean McKenzie, Edsson Morales, Andres Collantes, Shannon Kook, Ty Olsson, Josh Blacker, and Al Sapienza are set to guest star for the second season. Goodwin, Swan and Lombardozzi already starred in Santora's Breakout Kings in 2011. On May 5, 2023, Robert Patrick was cast to replace Cochrane who left due to a scheduling conflict with the second season.

On February 8, 2024, Anthony Michael Hall and Sonya Cassidy were cast as series regulars for season 3. On March 6, 2024, Brian Tee, Johnny Berchtold and Roberto Montesinos were cast as regulars of the third season, whereas Daniel David Stewart will play a more recurring role. On May 2024, bodybuilder Olivier Richters, also known as "the Dutch Giant", was cast as Persuader's secondary antagonist Paulie.

Filming
A temporary townscape was built in North Pickering, Ontario to support filming of season 1. The entire fictional city of Margrave was built from the ground up in a leased farm field in Ontario. Other areas of filming include Toronto, Port Perry and Pickering. Principal shooting of season 1 took place between April 15 and July 30, 2021, in Toronto. During filming, Ritchson broke a bone in his shoulder which required surgery and tore an abdominal muscle during a fight scene. Filming for the third season was underway by December 2023, announced as part of the season three renewal.

Release
The first season's episodes were released on February 4, 2022.

For the second season, the first three episodes were released on December 15, 2023, with an additional episode released each week through January 19, 2024.

Audience
Reacher was the most streamed television series for the week of February 7–13, 2022, according to the Nielsen streaming rankings, the first Amazon production to achieve the feat.

Critical response
For the first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 92% approval rating with an average rating of 7.3/10, based on 75 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Reacher captures the trademark bulk of its titular hero while trading away some of his definition, but fans of the novels will find plenty to love about this faithful adaptation." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 68 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Lucy Mangan of The Guardian said, "This rollicking adaptation of Lee Child's man-mountain ex-military sleuth is hugely fun, packed with punchups and far better than Cruise's movie efforts." Michael Hogan of The Telegraph wrote, "Reacher is huge, pulpy fun and far classier than you might expect." Joshua Alston of Variety praised the casting of Ritchson but said the character was unsuitable to carry this kind of show: "the longer it runs, the more obvious its protagonist-shaped void becomes". Dan Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter called it "frustratingly over-faithful to the source material", saying, "I wouldn't mind another season, but I'd probably still rather read another book."

The second season has a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 43 critic reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critics consensus states, "Brawny as Alan Ritchson's biceps, Reacher swaggers confidently into its sophomore season as rock 'em sock 'em pulp with a sly wink." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 79 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Conversely, Forbes panned the second season as "one of the worst shows on TV", adding that "there’s just not enough going on to make him (Reacher) a particularly compelling protagonist".