Reacher

 The success of Amazon's ‘Reacher’ is due almost entirely to the perfect casting of Alan Ritchson

Review by John Winterson Richards

This television incarnation of Jack Reacher represents the character coming full circle because it is, indirectly, to television that owes his inception. James Grant had a good job with Granada and was living a comfortable middle-class existence on it until he was made redundant as a result of corporate restructuring in 1995. In order to carry on funding that existence he started writing pulp novels with Reacher as the protagonist under the pen name Lee Child.

The irony is that it was therefore to meet his own family and financial commitments that Grant tapped into the widespread male fantasy of having no commitments at all. The psychology of this fantasy, and its popularity among middle-aged, middle-class family men in particular, requires little explanation: we all long for what we do not have.

It cannot be stressed enough that this is a fantasy. In practice it would be very difficult to live like Reacher, and, even if one could, it would probably not be for long. Indeed, most of the men who read the Reacher novels, or watch the films or the television show based on them, would really not want to be Jack Reacher. It is simply that, surrounded by the cares and responsibilities of modern life, they sometimes dream of how blissful it would be to take a break from them all for a little while. That is what the entertainment industry, in all its forms, offers them, a break for a little while - and a glimpse of a path not taken.

Jack Reacher is apparently free of all care and responsibilities. Although not a religious man or any sort of philosopher, he has apparently achieved the religious and philosophical ideal of living without fear or desire. He has nothing to lose and there is nothing he wishes to gain, so no one has any power over him, because they cannot threaten him or bribe him. He has almost literally no possessions except the clothes in which he stands. When they get dirty, he buys new ones from thrift stores (a bit wasteful it seems, the novels first being written in a less environmentally conscious decade). He has no family except a brother with whom he has lost touch. He travels where he wants as the mood takes him.

The fact that no one else has power over him makes him powerful. So does the fact that the man is built like a Tiger Tank, and is well-trained, highly skilled, and very experienced in armed and unarmed combat. This means that, in addition to his lack of fear of loss, he has no physical fear beyond what is necessary to maintain a healthy sense of self-preservation. He is therefore supremely self-confident and independent in every sense of the word.

He seems to be an updating of a stock character familiar from Westerns, the Mysterious Stranger who rides into town from nowhere, solves all the town's problems - violently - and then, this is the important bit, rides off again into the sunset. As such, there is something anachronistic about him. Could such a man exist in the 21st Century? There is, sadly, no shortage of homeless people, but theirs is far from a life of commitment free travel, quite the opposite. Grant gets around that by giving Reacher a military pension. Yet it is hard to deny that Reacher is still basically a vagrant - even if Reacher does deny it and prefers the description "hobo," with its slightly more romantic connotations.

The Reacher novels had already been adapted into two fairly successful films starring Tom Cruise. They were not bad films in themselves but hardcore fans of the books were unhappy with them because Reacher's bulk is integral to his character and it is fair to say that, for all his undoubted excellence as an actor, Cruise is not exactly famous for his bulk. Now a smaller man can actually be more dangerous than a bigger one, a point well made in one of the best fight scenes in Reacher, but he has to be more aggressive, and in the Cruise films that changed the whole dynamic of the character, who in the books is able to rely on his domineering presence alone to intimidate and can therefore be fairly relaxed otherwise.

Amazon's television adaptation marks a return to that aspect of the character from the books. The first time we meet him, he forces a man abusing his wife to back down just by looking at him. It is a perfect John Wayne or Clint Eastwood moment.

The success of Amazon's Reacher is due almost entirely to the perfect casting of Alan Ritchson in the title role. He in fact a mere six foot two, clever use of camera angles implying he might be book Reacher's official six five, but he exudes the casual self-assurance of a man it would be foolish to cross.

After that relatively passive introduction, he has no shortage of more active opportunities to prove why. He is wholly credible when beating up multiple opponents at once. There is no fuss about it, no showing off, no fancy martial arts. He hits bad guys very hard and they go down. Sometimes he gets hit in return but he knows how to take a blow and carries on hitting. Something similar happens when he eventually gets a gun in his hand and starts killing people.

The fight scenes are exemplary - and for the most part convincing, in spite of some less realistic moments - but it all comes so easily to Reacher that one begins to wonder if there is something psychopathic about him. If there are no real moral dilemmas, because everyone he hits or shoots or strangles deserves it, he certainly goes well beyond necessary force in self-defence. He is sometimes strangely open about his killings, more than he ought to be when talking to police officers, but there are other occasions when he hides the full truth, implying his awareness of criminal culpability.

He could very easily degenerate into little more than a Terminator type killing machine, but Ritchson gradually reveals more depth to the character. Beneath the brutish exterior, Reacher is actually very intelligent: he has a great eye for detail, a superb memory, and powers of deduction Holmes might envy. This, combined with some awkwardness in his social interactions, suggests he might be somewhere on the autism spectrum. However, although his friendship is not given lightly, that is only because he takes it seriously and it means more when he finally trusts someone. As he becomes more comfortable, he shows more of a rather charming sense of humour. It is a widely held opinion that Ritchson makes him far more likeable than he is in the books.

There also seems to have been a conscious effort on the part of the adaptation to make Reacher seem less of a loner by emphasising his role as part of a triumvirate that also includes two honest members of the local police force of a Georgia town on which he bursts like a tornado. Malcolm Goodwin brings multiple layers to his role as a tightly wound, Harvard educated Chief of Detectives. Willa Fitzgerald manages to rise above cliche as in the less well-drawn part of a young uniformed officer who rather throws herself in Reacher's way as his - temporary - love interest (in the books, the character is, predictably, more into commitment-free casual sex). Both characters are given satisfying character arcs, but it seems a pity that the nature of the Reacher stories means they are unlikely to play much of a role, if any, in future seasons of Reacher, because the three actors had chemistry and built a good team dynamic.

Among the rest of the cast, the only familiar faces are the veteran Bruce McGill as the corrupt Mayor and the fast-rising Harvey Guillen (What We Do in the Shadows, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) as the jolly young Coroner, but everyone does their jobs efficiently.

While the characterisation is therefore solid, it has to be said that the plotting is frankly risible. The whole story depends on two people who have not seen each other in years ending up in the same small town for completely unrelated reasons. After that, there are so many plot holes and conveniences and inconsistencies that a drinking game in which anyone downs a shot after thinking "That seems unlikely" or "That makes no sense" will probably be over very quickly.

That said, the basic storyline is compelling in its simplicity, and there are some great sequences, including a harrowing depiction of prison life in the first episode and several genuinely exciting action set pieces that look mercifully free of special effects.

Above all, the popularity of Reacher demonstrates how viewers are willing to overlook, or possibly forgive, sloppy plotting so long as they are invested in the characters. The snappy dialogue and well-punctuated violent interludes also help keep things trotting along at a fast pace so that the viewer has no time to stop and think too much.

The show was Amazon's most viewed original before Lord of the Rings: the Rings of Power and, given the latter's huge budget, was surely more successful in terms of Amazon's business model. Reacher also enjoyed a much better reception from both critics and viewers. On the whole, it deserves its success. Even if one is unlikely to remember much about it a few months later, it is, like its protagonist, well-constructed, surprisingly fast-moving, and edgy.

Along with a number of other recent Amazon presentations, including Boss Level, The Tomorrow War, and The Terminal List, it also proves that, in our increasingly feminised culture, there is still a huge market for old-fashioned, violent, unashamedly masculine, good-versus-evil action.

Season Two

Season Two of Reacher was a dramatic success, building cleverly on what has been established, keeping the basic formula that works so well but developing it to ensure that it does not go stale.

For a start it puts the eponymous Reacher on a much bigger stage. Season One travelled a little but remained essentially a story about small town corruption. Season Two takes us all over the United States, most notably New York, and involves big business, international terrorism, and a powerful US Senator. Has a US Senator ever been portrayed as honest and competent on film or television? Do not expect Reacher to break tradition in this respect.

The stakes have also been increased. Where Season One was a personal quest for revenge, Season Two keeps that dimension while adding a major threat to countless innocent people and to the United States itself. It is interesting to note how a New York policeman seems unconcerned by the prospect of the deaths of those innocents elsewhere at the hands of Russia, China, or the IRA, but is energised immediately at the prospect of "another 9/11."

Best of all is how we see another dimension of the character of Reacher himself by putting the famous loner in a team. There was an element of this in the previous season as he became closer to two policemen working with him, but it goes to a different level here as he reunites with the people who know him best and are the closest things he has to actual friends.

These are the surviving members of the 110th Special Investigative Unit, the small, hand-picked team he led as a Major in the US Military Police. We get to see them in "flash back," coming together as a team, bonding, and putting their military careers on the line in a big case that does not end well.

Since then all, except Reacher himself, have built lives and civilian careers of their own. Most have been fairly successful, mainly in different forms of private investigation, and all seem well adjusted contributors to the economy. Two have married and had children. Another has a dog. The contrast with Reacher is glaring.

Indeed, their casual conversation with their old commander really puts a spotlight on what an oddity he is. The first season presented his simple, responsibility-free lifestyle as something almost to be envied, or at least a guilty fantasy for heavily burdened middle-aged men. The second begins to deconstruct it, if only a little.

Reacher takes the gentle mockery of old friends in good part. Some of his eccentricities are very amusing - there is a great running joke about a toothbrush in which Reacher himself has the best line - but he also admits to things that actually sound a bit pathetic. He seems to be realising that himself now that he says them out loud for the first time.

That he is now with people with whom he can joke means that there is much more humour in the second season than in the first, mostly at the expense of Reacher himself. This is another improvement and is generally well handled. The quips are not overdone, as they are in too many recent productions, but some dark humour is definitely needed to lighten the tone because the actual story is pretty grim.

The reunion is occasioned by the horrific murder of one of the married members of the team, which we are shown in full. Needless to say, Reacher is out for justice. Equally needless to say, his notion of justice has little to do with arresting suspects and putting them in front of courts of law for a fair trial. From what we see in the "flash backs," it never did, even when he was employed by the Military Police.

If Season One suggested it, Season Two leaves us in no doubt that Jack Reacher is by any definition a murderer. Even within the vigilante context in which he has to operate, many of his killings are unnecessary. Some are deliberately cold blooded with no possible defence of justifiable homicide. There are several torture scenes but by far the most eye watering is perpetrated by our supposed "hero." He could actually teach the baddies, who just beat people up ineffectively as baddies always do in these things, how more calculated cruelty can be used to obtain information more reliably. There are definite echoes of 24 in this respect. The viewer is supposed to go along with this because the baddies are baddies and Reacher is the goody, but there comes a point when even those of us who accept there are grey areas in life begin to feel a definite line has been crossed and perhaps we should not be sympathising quite so much with a protagonist capable of such things.

There is a half joking remark about Reacher being a sociopath. In fact he seems a lot closer to the clinical definition of a psychopath. The way he says in advance, even in front of public officials and children, that he is going to kill people suggests he has no conception that what he is doing is wrong. This is actually the legal definition of insanity.

Perhaps more disturbing is how the members of his team not only do not challenge what he does but copy his example. Is this because he selected them on this basis or trained them to obey him without question or both? High functioning psychopaths are often, at least in some respects, very effective leaders, or rather they are very good at manipulating other people into doing things they would otherwise never do. Even in the "flash back" sequences, the standard operating procedures followed by the 110th seem to have more in common with John Wick than any police organisation.

No wonder Alan Ritchson, who plays Reacher, has come under friendly fire from some fellow Christians for the violence of his show and the amorality of his character. In fairness, there are plenty of Biblical precedents for deeply flawed people being used as instruments of righteousness. Indeed, there is more than a passing resemblance between Jack Reacher and Samson, a not headed, feckless, irresponsible womanizer and heavy drinker who nevertheless had great personal strength and proved very effective at smiting the Philistines.

Incidentally, talking of heavy drinking, the product placement by Budweiser is not exactly subtle. They obviously came to the conclusion that the best antidote to the self-induced PR problems they suffered last year as a consequence of misjudging their target market was to have to have their beer being seen drunk copiously by Jack Reacher. They may not be wrong in that.

As an actor Ritchson seems more secure in the role and is willing to play with it a little, especially in the self deprecating scenes where he is allowed to show a little more humanity and humour. He is actually very good at this.

Maria Sten returns as Reacher's streetwise former Master Sergeant. To be honest, she seemed a little out of place in the previous season, a convenient plot device, but here she is given more room to breathe and develops into a very likeable character.  One other character from the first season also turns up but in in a very brief surprise cameo, which was nevertheless welcome.

Serinda Swan seems an unlikely Military Policeman and accountant but is more credible as Reacher's love interest - or more like sex object - of the season. Shaun Sipos does well as the fourth member of the team in a role that nevertheless seemed to be crying out for Alan Tudyk. Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, Sons of Anarchy) and Ferdinand Kingsley, Sir Ben's son, are unambiguously villainous villains. The former is given a very amusing in joke which really sets the tone for the whole season - we are not meant to take any of this too seriously. By contrast, Domenick Lombardozzi (The Wire) brings some real emotional energy to a character who keeps us uncertain about him almost to the end, which is very powerful as a result.

Otherwise there are very few surprises in the plot. There are the usual twists but you can see most of them coming a mile away. Where the first season strained credibility, the second gives up on it completely.

Reacher has been described as a "Dad show" and the absurd storylines are indeed reminiscent of the far less violent episodic American action thrillers of the 1970s and 80s. Season Two is basically The A-Team, except with much better fight choreography and, partly as a consequence, a much, much higher body count.

Take it on those terms and there is a certain catharsis to be found in Reacher's merciless elimination of those we are led to assume are all bad people - so long as you are able to switch off your moral judgement for a while and do not think too hard about the plot.