After two movies starring the ever so talented actor Tom Cruise as the self-proclaimed hobo: Jack Reacher, Amazon decided to make a show about the character rather than make movies. This was also due to the less than positive critical reception to Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. It’s a good movie, but not as good as the first. Some things are better adapted as series, while others work well enough as movies. It seems that Hollywood is opting to make series out of book adaptations these days: Harry Potter, Reacher, Rings of Power, House of the Dragon, Percy Jackson and more that are still going to be announced. The two Reacher movies were successful at the box office, getting an accumulated value of $380.4 million. That’s pretty good for movies with an average production expenditure of $60 million. However, the movies were not continued despite Tom Cruise’s positive views on the experience, and a Television series was made instead, which Tom Cruise did not want to be a part of. The first season had 8 episodes, and these episodes were brilliantly written, expertly shot and told a complete story that had people gripped from Reacher’s arrival in Margrave to his walk away from the small town. Let’s look at some of the characters.
Jack Reacher
The character whose name is in the title of the show. He is a gigantic man, strong, fast, smart and a wise cracker. He has a tendency to correct people and show them how much he knows. In real life, not many people would like him very much. He is smart, observant, resourceful, and clearly overqualified for whatever hijinks he can get up to in a small town like Margrave. He stands out everywhere, not just because he is freakishly tall (6’2/188cm, but says that he is 6’5/196cm, presumably because the book character is that tall), but he is also very muscular. As difficult as it is to process, really tall people usually don’t get muscle mass. They usually remain slim and don’t go to the gym all that much. It was clear that Alan Ritchson was chosen for the role due to his stature. He’s not a bad actor either, and seems like a really easygoing guy. He read all 24 Jack Reacher books in preparation for the role. He is very dedicated to it and plays it very well. He embodies the character better than Tom Cruise did. Reacher arrived at Margrave because it’s the place where his favourite singer died and he just wanted to see it, then stumbles upon a mystery that involves his brother, who wound up dead. Reacher initially wanted nothing to do with what was going on, and only tagged along when he saw that his brother was killed.
Roscoe Conklin
There’s always a need for a small, unlikely character who shows that they are more than capable of taking care of themselves in these kinds of shows, and in this show, it’s Roscoe Conklin. No, she’s not a man. She’s a woman. Why did they give her than name “Roscoe”? No idea. Just try not to think of Martin Lawrence’s character from Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins. Either way, she’s the leading lady of the show, played by Willa Fitzgerald. She is petit, and right from the start of the show, we can tell that she develops a sort of crush on Reacher. Whether he was aware of it or not is up to the audience’s interpretation. Her family helped build the town but went into obscurity at some point, and then the Kliners moved in and basically shoved every important member in the town’s history aside with all the development they brought with them. She is shown to be very upset about that, and will do anything in order to uncover the sinister plot the Kliner family have going on in Margrave, and is very passionate about it as well. She tries to work as the perfect foil to Reacher but she just can’t quite keep up with him. She’s tough, but her skills can only get her so far when compared to Reacher. For a book written in 1997, it showcased her pretty well. The name is still weird, though.
Oscar Finlay
Then we have the hardboiled detective, who is also overqualified for a job in Margrave…until he finds out the massive conspiracy going on in it. He’s a graduate from Harvard and was in the big city before going to this small town. Everyone around him wonders why he went there by choice. Reacher guessed that it was because he was divorced from his wife. Everyone else was just as curious as Reacher. We then find out that for once, Reacher was actually wrong about something. Finlay went to Margrave as a means of penance for having failed to take care of his wife in her final days. He was a widow. That revelation shocked Reacher in a way we had not seen before, even if he did a good job at hiding it. He was dead wrong about Finlay. For such a simple character, he was pretty complex. Not to mention how he was always picked on by everyone…probably because of his miniature stature, and because he was from Harvard. Yes, that happens…weirdly enough.
KJ
Every show has that one character that everyone hates. In recent shows, it happens with characters that the writers are trying to make important, like that one character who said the ever-so famous line “We are the Flash” on a certain TV show. Sometimes, characters are written to be hated but end up being the favourite ones or the best ones. An example of this is Fred Jones in the critically acclaimed, box office-wrecking show Velma. He was written to be hated but it turns out that he’s the fan favourite character. It’s really weird how that works. In this show, it works out exactly the way the writers made it out to be. KJ is the son of the man who rebuilt Margrave and is the ‘spoilt kid’ kind of guy. He seems pretty harmless until it turns out that he killed his dad for not being willing to go as far as he was, and he carried on the operation until Reacher and friends started catching on. He was also the one who killed Reacher’s brother and kicked off the story of the show. Let’s just say that when he was set on fire, it wasn’t enough to say that he got what he deserved, because it wasn’t nearly as much as he deserved.
Mayor Teale
The crooked mayor of the small town of Margrave. He displayed very suspicious behavior from his first scene, and always seemed to be getting in the way of things, but in an incompetent, clueless kind of way. He made himself the chief of police midway through the show, and got Roscoe kicked off the force. He also benched Finlay eventually. We end up finding out just why he did that. He was in on the whole deal.
Picard
Picard was the friend of Finlay who helped out a family that was being targeted by the villains of the show. He provided the location for the witness protection tactic they opted for. At first, he seemed to be that innocent character who would be dragged into the situation to help his friend and then dies at some point, getting some sympathy from the fans as a response. That wasn’t the case. He actually was in on the whole deal. It was really weird how Finlay ended up calling someone who was part of the conspiracy to help stop the conspiracy. It feels like it’s a small world sometimes. We could say that he was still a good friend. He tried to derail Finlay from the case in order to avoid having to kill him. But then again, he had no problem in doing so. Did anyone notice that he looks like an African-American Vince Vaughn?
Neagley
Neagley is another one of those butt-kicking characters who usually seem helpless. She gave off the impression that she was a free spirit. For some reason, no other name is given throughout the show. She is shown to be very close to Reacher, and serves as that character who provides some sort of insight into Reacher, since he doesn’t really talk much. In fact, it’s a running gag in the books how it is always said “Reacher remained silent.” He doesn’t like answering questions in the show either, and that was a major hurdle the police had to deal with in the first episode, until he felt easy enough to start talking to people. Neagley follows Reacher’s orders, but still will talk when she disagrees or feels that Reacher is off. She must be his anchor to make sure that he doesn’t get too far ahead of himself.
The show’s story is simple: a man wanders into a town and helps solve the mysterious issues going on in its underground. This show plays it expertly because instead of trying to expand on its universe, set up other things, show propaganda and enforce some sort of life lesson that’s not organic with the show’s plot, it just sticks to what it’s doing until the end. That is its greatest strength: to stay strong with what it meant to do from the start. That is –hopefully- what the show will continue to do in order to keep its very passionate fanbase.
Though there are mostly high points for the show, there are some that could have been left out without influencing the story or the interpretation of the characters at all. One such moment is when they take a couple of minutes to show Neagley subduing a guy who was trying to keep a pole dancer on his laps while she refused and then gave her his money after, saying that she deserves it. It did nothing for the story and didn’t really give us any insight into Neagley as a character. Another moment that comes to mind is one that comes with Neagley again. Reacher tells her to stay out of the situation because it is escalating and she says that he is not her commanding officer anymore, despite one of the first things she calls him when she sees him in person is, “boss”, and the fact that she followed all of his orders after that scene. We also have the fact that Reacher never loses a fight. Although he comes close to death quite a few times throughout the season, he never actually loses a fight. He at times gets as good as he gives, but it may be a bit more thrilling if he does lose a fight or two throughout the show. These are minor nitpicks, and do not have a big impact on the show, but they are things that can be looked at.
Another point of interest is the romance. It plays it cool with the romance, but one could see from the beginning that Roscoe liked Reacher. Their chemistry was great, especially because it seemed he was completely oblivious to her attraction to him despite being so street smart. There was actually a lot of “will they/won’t they” in the show, and there were many cliché and trope-y moments that came up where it was expected to happen, but it didn’t…and then it did. They hooked up. It was a nice moment for both Reacher and Roscoe. They had it coming.
The show is a solid 8/10.
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