Reacher Season 3 drops on Prime Video soon with a triple-decker premiere, immersing audiences in an over-the-top adventure pitting some underdogs with good intentions against a bad guy who is stone-cold evil. While Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) never seems to go far before trouble finds him, this time, the trouble is seasoned with personal history, emotional complications and potentially global repercussions.
We were fortunate enough to screen the entire eight-episode season in advance and can confirm the season packs in well-paced suspense and unexpected human connection with the bonkers violence that has become the series’s trademark move. Ritchson owns his scenes as he continues his faithful portrayal of Lee Child’s iconic hobo hero.
Prime Video’s Reacher Season 3
“Based on Lee Child’s novel Persuader, in the third season of the action-packed series, Reacher hurtles into the dark heart of a vast criminal enterprise when trying to rescue an undercover DEA informant whose time is running out. There, he finds a world of secrecy and violence—and confronts some unfinished business from his own past.”
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At face value, Reacher is the last person who should be tapped to be an undercover operative. By nature, he stands out and draws more attention than the average Joe. The fact he can “sneak” anywhere while embedded in the heart of a criminal enterprise speaks more to the enterprise’s vigilance than anything else. That said, his brain has always been his strongest muscle. Considering the adversaries he’s facing here and the sudden pivots required to survive, it’s that mental acuity that carries him through.
Trouble Doesn’t Get Any Bigger
In Lee Child’s books, Jack Reacher is described as 6 feet 5 inches tall and 250 pounds. Casting the sculpted Alan Ritchson — who stands at 6 feet 3 inches — was a brilliant choice as he easily projects the impression of the literary character’s dimensions. However, in the novel Persuader, Reacher finds his physicality matched by Paul “Paulie” Masserella, the 7-foot-tall enforcer. For the television adaptation, the showrunners hit the jackpot with Olivier Richters, a 7 feet 2 inches tall Dutch bodybuilder weighing in at 350 pounds.
Paulie and Reacher conflict repeatedly as Reacher attempts to climb up through Zachary Beck’s (Anthony Michael Hall) Bizarre Bazaar carpet import business to get to the Big Bad, Quinn (Brian Tee), the true villain and Reacher’s reason for getting involved in the op.
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Johnny Berchtold as Beck’s son Richard is another casting finesse as he perfectly suits a role Anthony Michael Hall could easily have played in his youth. Berchtold conveys all the desperate fury and despondent hopelessness the traumatized and captive young man has bottled up inside. Although Reacher uses Richard as a patsy to open the doors to Beck’s organization, the connection the two develop is genuine enough to raise Beck’s ire as a father.
Reacher’s Team
Reacher’s corner is crowded with a trio of misfit DEA agents. Bostonian Susan Duffy (Sonya Cassidy) leads the team on this off-the-books attempt to rescue an asset deemed lost. Coming in hot with noble (albeit guilt-ridden) intentions, she has zero objectiveness and makes questionable decisions.
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Furthermore, her feelings for the about-to-retire Agent Villanueva (Roberto Montesinos) and painfully inexperienced Agent Elliot (Daniel David Stewart) are distracting and dangerous to their chances of survival. Even Reacher is initially skeptical of her approach. There’s an obvious effort to show the similarities between her and Reacher’s motivations, but it’s a stretch.
As Reacher digs deeper into Bizarre Bazaar’s dealings, his tactics give Duffy, Villanueva, and Elliot pause. While effective, the body count climbs quickly. Anyone who thinks they’re still operating on the right side of the law won’t want to think too hard about it. To be fair, the dead guys are quantifiable bad guys. It’s a slippery slope that Reacher’s pretty at home navigating, but Duffy’s team has a harder time with his brand of pre-emptive death.
Neagley’s Back
While we’re on the topic of being comfortable with killing bad guys, YAY for making Frances Neagley (Maria Sten) a part of the action again. Like Reacher Season 1, Neagley doesn’t appear in the source novel, but her inclusion makes things that much more awesome.
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With her spin-off series greenlit at Prime Video, Neagley’s appearance here provides some general framework for her life in Chicago. Sten’s cool and collected performance made her a fan favorite early on. Author Lee Child explained that her expanded role in the series offers Reacher a partner who thinks as he does. Because puzzling things out in the books is largely done in Reacher’s head, having Neagley there provides a way to externalize the process.
Revenge or Retribution?
There’s a tonal shift in this season’s raison d’etre. While he’s taken on bad guys to end their criminality or to defend those he cares about, Persuader‘s plot drives Reacher to mete out punishment for a bad act long in the past. Yes, it’s deserved. There’s no denying Quinn needs stopping. As a bonus, Reacher helps out Richard. And there is that DEA asset who needs saving. However, the endgame here is and always is killing a man. And to achieve it, a lot of other people end up dead.
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While Reacher works with law enforcement out of necessity, he left the service a long time ago and has no intention to play by those rules ever again. So buckle up for some Reacher-style justice, complete with vigilante beat-downs and dead-pan quips. Oh, and prepare to see a lot more of Ritchson au naturel than in previous seasons. And it’s not all swimming-related. Seriously, woah.
Reacher Season 3 premieres with a three-episode drop on February 20. New episodes will air weekly until March 27. Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on Prime Video.
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