Reacher Season 2 Review: Prime Video’s Series Capable of Preserving Its Charisma
Cast: Alan Ritchson, Maria Sten, Serinda Swan, Shaun Sipos, Ferdinand Kingsley, Robert Patrick, Domenick Lombardozzi, Andres Collantes, Edsson Morales
Director: Carol Banker, Julian Holmes
Streaming Platform: Prime Video
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars)
On December 15th Reacher Season 2 arrived on the Prime Video streaming platform. After watching the first, exhilarating season, we had defined Reacher (the character) as a mix between Bud Spencer and Sherlock Holmes. A judgment that we also confirm after the second season, which we talk about in this review, which begins with the spoiler-free plot of Reacher Season 2. We left Jack Reacher intent on resuming his wanderings across the United States after solving the events linked to a series of murders and a criminal conspiracy in the first season of Cold Revenge, published by Child in 2007. Compared to the others dedicated to the character, this is a story particularly focused on the themes of nostalgia and mourning, which are therefore also re-proposed in the new episodes of the series. Almost two years have passed since that moment and finally, the massive former military investigator is ready to return to the small screen with a second season based this time on the eleventh novel of the series, Lee Child based on the books by Prime Video.
Adaptation of the eleventh novel in the series created by Lee Child. Who, we see, enjoys bringing the protagonist’s character and imposing physicality to the stage. He took his measure. Alan Ritchson (Lee Child also participates). Again, in the role of the protagonist, enormous size and heart in the right place, Nick Santora the review of the first season), earning the right to renewal already at the time of the release of the very first episodes, at the beginning of 2022. Showrunner and executive producer, here. Anomalous distribution method, but only for those who don’t realize that it’s a return to the past: the first three episodes on 15 December 2023. Then, one per week (as it used to be) until the grand finale on January 19, 2024. There are eight in total. Sold in more than two hundred countries, the series made its way into the hearts of the public practically immediately (the second season returns to Prime Video with the wait Reacher (Bad Luck and Trouble).
Reacher Season 2 Review: The Story Plot
The new season is specifically taken from the novel Bad Luck and Trouble and is set “2 years, 7 months and 19 days” from the end of the first season. After the terrifying prologue that we won’t reveal to you, here is our beloved Reacher, always wandering around alone at random like a vagabond with his only baggage as his toothbrush, who in the first scene does something very Reacher-like by helping a mother save her son from a criminal. The mission, the case that awaits him, however, is much more difficult and painful, because he learns from Neagley (Maria Sten), the private investigator who helped him last season, that Calvin Franz, one of the members of the gang, has been killed. #39; Special Unit 110 which Reacher directed at the time of the army (and of which Neagley herself was a member).
If you know Reacher you will have already understood that he will not leave the murder of his friend unpunished, but we won’t tell you anything else so as not to ruin your viewing of the series. We’ll just tell you that this second season will also show a lot of Reacher‘s pasts at the time of the Special Investigators team: for the rest, if you want you can watch the trailer for Reacher Season 2, below. More than two years have passed since the events in Margrave. That human mountain of Reacher (once again played by Alan Ritchson) has returned to his aimless wandering around the United States, in a way made of small provincial towns, stops at the diners and cheap motels. An everyday life that is soon interrupted; this time, however, he won’t be the one to find himself in trouble, but the trouble will come looking for him.
Contacted by his old pupil Frances Neagley (Maria Sten), who we got to know during the last adventure, Jack learns how a former member of his investigative team, Calvin Franz (Luke Bilyk), was found murdered in somewhat mysterious circumstances. “This time it’s personal” brazenly tetanized on the poster of Jaws 4: Revenge, not exactly the most successful of the sequels to Spielberg’s masterpiece. But we are not here to discuss the quality of the film directed by Joseph Sargent, but rather for the tagline itself, which perfectly summarizes the spirit of this second season of Reacher.
The investigation in which the blond giant is involved, in fact, this time is closely connected to people from his past, with all the consequent baggage of emotional involvement compared to the previous story, which Jack stumbled upon by chance. An opportunity to explore, through functional flashbacks, the period spent in the ranks of the military police of the future vagabond vigilante. A past, head of the 110th investigative unit, made of friendship and camaraderie. That type of trust and respect is obtained only after years of service spent together, between solving intricate cases and evenings of leisure at the officers’ club, with relative fistfights, always watching each other’s backs. An investigation that will lead Reacher, for the first time on screen, to join forces with a cast of supporting characters almost at his level, to whom he is deeply attached and whom he knows he can trust blindly.
Reacher Season 2 Review and Analysis
It takes courage to face it head-on. But it’s precisely the kind of choice that makes Reacher Season 2 a second season superior to the first, from every angle: humor, action, and psychology. The key word is psychology. The strength of the character, starting from the novels of Lee Child and then moving on to the cinema – the anomaly Tom Cruise – and ending up on streaming, so successful that earning an encore a few days after the release of the first episodes and now we know that there will also be a third, is its greatness. To be understood not only in terms of exuberant physical size and related consequences (on action and humor), but also in terms of the complexity of character, intransigent morality, and lifestyle.
Reacher Season 2 is the story of a wandering prophet who has no desire to put down roots, with a compassionate heart and a remarkable talent for detail. Blues fetishist, a death machine at the service of a just cause; he’s the type you can joke with, under certain conditions. The second season succeeds where the first was not able to, perhaps for fear of daring. He tackles the protagonist head-on. He questions his stubborn loneliness, changes the station on the radio (it’s not just the blues), and forces him to deal with the concept of family, or something similar. He seduces him with the promises and comforts of civilization, making him reflect on the limits and strengths of his wandering choice. He celebrates his way of being, making fun of him a little. But Reacher Season 2 is in no hurry to change its protagonist. He just wants to broaden his gaze.
If this is possible, it is not only thanks to the intelligent and lucid writing of Nick Santora but also the casual confidence of Alan Ritchson. He has taken Reacher‘s measure, he knows what is expected of him from an action point of view, and, above all, he is not afraid to contaminate the protagonist’s massive profile with points of vulnerability. Once again, the irony of fate forces the solitary Reacher to work as a team and it is the strength and credibility of the team that supports the action credentials (and more) of the story. Good, our chemistry with all three: Serinda Swan, Maria Sten, and Shaun Sipos. They watch Reacher‘s back, but not only; they are supporting actors with sufficiently structured psychologies, with the right depth. Reacher Season 2 has the merit of broadening its gaze even beyond its hero, noticing those around him.
Part cliché, part wisdom pill to be taken for what it is but without exaggerating: a series progresses in quality as the story progresses and the seasons accumulate. It depends on many factors: the confidence that only the awareness of success can give, and the passage of time which always helps to take the measure of the story and characters. The review focuses on the first three episodes of Reacher Season 2, but the impression is that things went like this: success and habit have shaped the story, definitely improving it. The action is tense and fast, the tone self-deprecating, without messing too much with the prestige of the protagonist, Alan Ritchson very partly. There is also room for psychological digging. That’s good. In addition to the purely emotional aspect, the preview episodes of the second season of Reacher do not fail to focus on the investigative aspect of the character.
As happened in the previous season, Reacher does not act alone, but if previously this interaction seemed forced and often complicated by a trust to be built, the reconstituted unit of the Special Investigators operates according to a well-established practice, allowing itself to be ironic and tease each other, taking advantage of a familiarity now free from constraints of degree. Faithful to the narrative style of the series, there is no shortage of action scenes in which Ritchson’s physicality dominates the scene. As previously, we do not witness choreographed fights or displays of great acrobatics, the military matrix of the setting favors tactically rapid and Spartan clashes, with solutions that consistently aim for efficiency. A stylistic identity is perfectly assimilated by the directorial choices, through camera movements that support the action by moving in parallel to the action itself, heightening a sense of explosiveness that conveys the speed of the scenes.
All this by transmitting practical and functional violence, with rare moments of feral cruelty linked above all to the revenge that animates this investigation, in which even the staid Reacher allows himself personal, scathing satisfaction. After watching the previews of the second season of Reacher we are left with the feeling of a series capable of preserving its charisma, while still exploring new paths that allow us to show peculiar sides of its protagonist, helping to consolidate his mythology. This Prime Video TV series is, in its relative simplicity, one of the most mentally satisfying we’ve ever seen. It’s incredible how this two-metre-plus boy thrills us with every action he takes: when he beats and kills the bad guys, we can’t help but laugh, and when he uses his extraordinary intelligence to make brilliant deductions, he leaves us speechless.
Reacher is the friend, brother, father, or companion that every person deserves in the difficult and dangerous moments of life. It’s the one that should pop up when an intruder approaches a woman with bad intentions, or the one we would like to send to that employer who treated us unfairly, or the bully who tormented us at school. But it is also what would help us solve an impossible puzzle of the Settimana Enigmistica, and perhaps even understand what doctors write in medical prescriptions without having to obtain a degree in pharmacy. Perhaps we are exaggerating, but these images came to mind when thinking about how useful a friend like Reacher would be to us, someone who we can always rely on for every problem, as long as he is on the side of justice. A superhero without superpowers is impossible not to love.
This melancholy, or more generally the attention to the intimacy of the characters, is therefore a very welcome ingredient, which however does not replace the investigations, action, and humor that the first season had already well defined. This time too there is a particularly compelling case to solve, with just enough clues provided from episode to episode to encourage continued viewing. With the elements placed on the table from time to time, the spectator is actively called upon to try to solve the case in turn, ideally anticipating the intuitions and movements of the characters. Therefore, we are not left out by the evolution of this investigation. When necessary, we have no problem resorting to a bit of healthy violence which also in this case is surprising for its brutality and total lack of mercy. It is in these moments that we are reminded how complex a character Reacher can be, capable of great acts of love but also of killing in cold blood without thinking twice (obviously always and only those who “deserve” it).
But even the most serious and dark moments never remain so for long, thanks to a delicate humor which, between verbal jokes or physical gags, allows the series to endow itself with a lightness that makes viewing particularly more pleasant. This second season of Reacher also confirms the value of this product from Prime Video’s ability to best manage his Jack Reacher both in the most dramatic moments and in the funniest ones, or maybe because of his brilliant exchanges with the sidekick Frances Neagley or in this case it will be for the compelling management of the new story and its tones, but also these new episodes are the demonstration that this is a series with a lot to offer and the confirmation that a third season is in phase of realization is to be welcomed with great enthusiasm. Alan Ritchson, not only thrilled fans but also made new viewers passionate about the protagonist’s events.
Reacher Season 2 Review: The Last Words
After an acclaimed first season, Reacher returns with a bang! The character born from the pen of Lee Child in this new adventure will have to face an echo from the past together with two new entries that enrich the excellent cast. The first three episodes were promoted, now we just have to wait to find out more! After watching the previews of the second season of Reacher we are left with the feeling of a series capable of preserving its charisma, while exploring new avenues that allow it to show peculiar sides of its protagonist, helping to consolidate its mythology. The second season also adds to all this a veil of melancholy and nostalgia that accompanies the deepening of the protagonist’s past, which contributes to the evolution of him as a character and to the establishment of the series as a quality product.
Reacher Season 2 Review: Prime Video’s Series Capable of Preserving Its Charisma - Filmyhype
Director: Carol Banker, Julian Holmes
Date Created: 2023-12-15 16:57
4
Pros
- Respect for the character
- Choral dynamics well integrated into the mechanics of the series
- Promising first episodes
Cons
- It remains to be seen how all the clues from the first episodes will be united
- Ritchson sometimes too rigid on stage
