Reacher (TV series)

Reacher
Genre	Action Thriller Crime drama Detective fiction
Based on	Jack Reacher Novel Series by Lee Child
Developed by	Nick Santora
Starring	Alan Ritchson Malcolm Goodwin Willa Fitzgerald Chris Webster Bruce McGill Maria Sten Willie C. Carpenter
Composer	Tony Morales
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producers	Lee Child Nick Santora Scott Sullivan Don Granger Christopher McQuarrie David Ellison Dana Goldberg Marcy Ross
Cinematography	Ronald Plante
Camera setup	Single-camera
Production companies	Skydance Television Paramount Television Studios Blackjack Films Amazon Studios
Original release
Network	Amazon Prime Video
Release	February 4, 2022 (2022-02-04) – present (present)

Reacher is an American crime thriller streaming television series based on the Jack Reacher book series by Lee Child. The eight-episode first season, based on Killing Floor, Child's 1997 debut novel, was released on Amazon Prime Video on February 4, 2022. On February 7, 2022, the series was renewed for a second season.

Premise

Jack Reacher, a former U.S. Army military policeman, visits the fictional rural town of Margrave, Georgia, and quickly becomes embroiled in a violent clash with a brutal criminal conspiracy.

Cast and characters

Main

• Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher, a decorated former major in the US Army military police, and a self-proclaimed "hobo"
  • Maxwell Jenkins as Young Reacher
• Malcolm Goodwin as Oscar Finlay, Chief Detective of the Margrave Police Department. A Harvard-educated, tweed suit-wearing, police detective who recently relocated to the small town.
• Willa Fitzgerald as Roscoe Conklin, an officer on the MPD, with both a strong sense of idealism and a gift for investigation
• Chris Webster as KJ, Kliner's spoiled son
• Bruce McGill as Grover Teale, the corrupt Mayor of Margrave and Kliner's accomplice
• Maria Sten as Frances Neagley, a former army investigator who worked with Reacher, now employed as a private detective

Recurring

• Marc Bendavid as Paul Hubble, a banker working with a counterfeiting ring
• Willie C. Carpenter as Mosley, an elderly barber with a secret to hide
• Harvey Guillén as Jasper, Margrave's medical examiner
• Hugh Thompson as Baker, one of several dirty cops in the MPD
• Kristin Kreuk as Charlene “Charlie” Hubble, Paul's wife
• Currie Graham as Kliner Sr., owner of Kliner Industries and a powerful figure in Margrave
• Martin Roach as Picard, an FBI agent and old friend of Finlay's

Guest

• Lara Jean Chorostecki as Molly Beth Gordon, a Secret Service agent who was involved with Joe Reacher (in "Spoonful", "In a Tree")
• Christopher Russell as Joe Reacher, Jack Reacher's older brother (in "Pie")

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"Welcome to Margrave"	Thomas Vincent	Nick Santora	February 4, 2022 (2022-02-04)
At midnight, a man later identified as Pete Jobling is shot dead just outside Margrave, Georgia. The following morning, Jack Reacher arrives on a Greyhound bus and walks into town, where he is arrested at a diner for the murder. He is sent to be held in the local prison with Paul Hubble, a banker who falsely confessed to the murder. Spivey, a crooked guard, puts them in with the general population, where Reacher brutally foils an attempt on their lives. Hubble explains he confessed to cover for a criminal organization that would have otherwise killed him and his family. After being released, Reacher is verbally threatened in town by the son of a local businessman, Kliner. When he later returns to the police station, he is informed about a second killing. At the morgue, a discussion about both the recent murder and another one earlier in the week leads him to identify the first victim as his older brother, Joe.
2	"First Dance"	Sam Hill	Scott Sullivan	February 4, 2022 (2022-02-04)
Reacher teams up with Finlay, the local police captain, and a cop named Roscoe to investigate his brother's murder and the recent disappearance of Hubble following his release from custody. Finlay's boss, Ed Morrison, is gruesomely murdered at his home; Reacher deduces that he was killed for not taking care of Hubble. The mayor, Grover Teale, appoints himself as police chief and orders Finlay to conduct a sham investigation into Morrison's death. Finlay's friend, FBI agent Picard, agrees to take Hubble's wife and children into unofficial protective custody. Reacher sets a meeting with Spivey but gets ambushed by two South American ex-soldiers, allowing Spivey to escape. Roscoe then takes him to a bar, where Reacher begins to open up about his past. While driving home, they learn that the road is washed out and are forced to spend the night sleeping in the same motel room.
3	"Spoonful"	Stephen Surjik	Aadrita Mukerji	February 4, 2022 (2022-02-04)
Roscoe returns home to find evidence of a break-in; at Reacher's urging, she gives him a gun. The group contacts Joe's colleague, Molly Beth, at the Secret Service, learning that Joe was in Margrave on a confidential assignment to investigate reports of large-scale counterfeiting. Reacher intimidates one of Kliner's lawyers for information on Jobling while Finlay checks Spivey's house for clues - and gets beaten by police after they mistake him for a burglar. The two men then visit Kliner in person. Kliner claims he knows nothing and makes threats to drop the investigation. Reacher convinces Roscoe and Finlay to move out of their homes temporarily. While buying supplies, Roscoe is approached by Kliner's son KJ, who warns her that Reacher is a murderer. Reacher himself is again ambushed by the ex-soldiers, but this time manages to kill them. He then finds Spivey's corpse in their car trunk.
4	"In a Tree"	Christine Moore	Cait Duffy	February 4, 2022 (2022-02-04)
After meeting with Finlay, Reacher takes Roscoe to help him dispose of the bodies. He also reveals the truth behind KJ's warning: while serving in Iraq, Reacher killed three civilian men who were sexually assaulting a group of young boys. After the evidence is dumped at an Atlanta airport, Reacher pays for a hotel room and he and Roscoe wind up having sex that evening. The next day, they visit the home of a former Kliner employee and find empty AC boxes that Reacher suspects were used to move the counterfeit cash. Picard gives them a lead on the motel Joe stayed at before he was killed; Reacher finds a hidden note before he and Roscoe are jumped by more mercenaries. Roscoe saves Reacher's life, and Reacher admits that he put himself in danger to protect her. Molly Beth arrives in Atlanta with Joe's files on the case, but someone kills her and steals the files seconds before Reacher finds her.
5	"No Apologies"	Norberto Barba	Scott Sullivan	February 4, 2022 (2022-02-04)
Feeling guilty for Molly Beth's murder, Reacher takes out his frustration by attacking KJ after he vandalizes Roscoe's truck. Kliner declines to press charges, but Roscoe learns that Teale has fired her for "subpar" police work. Desperate for new leads, Reacher finds a key and trunk left by Roscoe's deceased former boss Gray, containing research that confirms Reacher's suspicions that Margrave is the heart of Kliner's counterfeiting operation, but with no useable evidence. Traveling to Memphis, Reacher meets with his old comrade, PI Frances Neagley, to find a hitman who may have been Joe's murderer. After Roscoe punches Teale upon learning that he murdered Gray, Finlay gets her out of town by having her replace Picard as the Hubble family's bodyguard. Reacher and Neagley survive an attempt on their lives by a crooked Memphis cop. Finlay breaks into Kliner's office only to find that Kliner has just been killed.
6	"Papier"	Omar Madha	Aadrita Mukerji	February 4, 2022 (2022-02-04)
Finlay and Reacher follow one of Kliner's trucks. Finlay tells Reacher the real reason he came to Margrave wasn’t due to divorce, but because his wife Sharon died after a long illness. After finding the truck empty, Reacher goes to New York City to meet with one of Joe's contacts, Professor Kate Castillo, having found that another contact had been murdered under the guise of being mugged. He determines that Kliner had been shipping counterfeit money to a client in Venezuela, using “super bills” made from the specialized paper used in printing dollars. Assassins find Roscoe and Hubble’s family, but Roscoe dispatches both men in the woods. While waiting for Picard, Hubble’s wife Charlie shares the details of their involvement with Kliner, explaining that Paul was tricked into laundering money and was then forced to watch a man be crucified to ensure his loyalty. Reacher arranges for Castillo to get police protection and uses his necktie to strangle an assassin sent to kill her.
7	"Reacher Said Nothing"	Lin Oeding	Scott Sullivan	February 4, 2022 (2022-02-04)
Officer Stevenson and his wife are murdered by a hit squad seeking information about the Hubble family. Teale fires Finlay on a pretext the next morning. Reacher pretends to confide in the last Margrave officer, Baker (who Reacher believes is corrupt), sharing a fake plan to search Hubble's house. Finlay goes in person to inform Stevenson's parents of his death. The hit squad goes to Hubble’s house, planning to kill Reacher, but he traps and kills them all, including Kliner’s nephew Dawson. Based on the information he's gathered, he realizes Kliner was bleaching $1 bills to get the paper needed to print his money. Reacher checks in with Roscoe, who shares his discovery with Picard. Reacher helps Finlay evade mercenaries who track him to his motel due to his visit to the Stevensons'. Reacher and Finlay return to Jobling’s house, which has been burned to the ground. They search Jobling’s parents’ house and find boxes of counterfeit bills. They arrange a meet with Picard, but when they arrive, Picard is waiting with KJ and Teale.
8	"Pie"	MJ Bassett	Nick Santora	February 4, 2022 (2022-02-04)
KJ shows Reacher a live stream of a captive Roscoe, and sends him and Picard to find Hubble. Reacher tricks Picard into stopping to fix a tire and shoots him; Picard is able to escape. Reacher immediately finds Hubble, who reveals he was working with Joe and Jobling (who feared that he would be murdered for stealing counterfeit bills) to stop Kliner’s operation. Finlay is being held at the precinct; Reacher rams and kills Baker, and frees Finlay. Neagley arrives, and Reacher gathers weapons and torches Kliner's factory with gasoline. Picard attacks Finlay, who manages to kill him with a hydraulic press. Roscoe subdues and handcuffs Teale before killing him. As the warehouse burns, Reacher splashes KJ with flammable chemicals and kicks him into the fire. A flashback reveals how Reacher’s mother died after a long illness and gave Reacher his French grandfather’s Croix de Guerre. Roscoe tells Reacher she plans to rebuild Margrave and Reacher tells her she should run for mayor, while Finlay decides to move back to Boston and start over. After burying the medal where Joe died, Reacher quietly walks out of Margrave and sticks out his thumb for a ride.

Production

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. Adapting the books to screen the writers decided they would need to make Reacher verbalize his thoughts more often, but that they would keep his dialog short and direct and have him only speak longer to people he respects. They also decided to introduce Neagley to the series far earlier than in the books.

Casting

On September 4, 2020, Alan Ritchson was cast in the titular 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.

Filming

A temporary townscape was built in North Pickering, Ontario to support filming of the show. 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 oblique muscle during a fight scene.

Release

The series was released on February 4, 2022. On February 7, 2022, Amazon Prime Video renewed the series for a second season.

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 90% approval rating with an average rating of 7.30/10, based on 58 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 wrote "the longer it runs, the more obvious its protagonist-shaped void becomes" and although positive about the casting of Ritchson, criticizes the fundamentals of the character as being unsuitable to carry this kind of show. 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."

External links

• Reacher at IMDb