The new season is a loose adaptation of Lee Child’s seventh JackReachernovel, “Persuader,” and finds Alan Ritchson’s titular character embroiled in yet another major criminal conspiracy. This time, he comes to the rescue of an undercover DEA informant while confronting demons from his past.
The first two seasons ofReacherhave been great, but the second season left fans divided. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 77% audience score, compared to 91% for Season 1. This isn’t a major cause for alarm, since the Tomatometer score for both shows is still above 90%. However, fans determine a show’s future more than critics, and if the producers wish to keep the show around for long, they’ll have to make some improvements. Hopefully, Season 3 doesn’t have these Season 2 mistakes.
6Make Reacher Less of a “Superhero”
Season 1built Jack Reacher into a cool action hero who could obliterate just about anyone. That works because the character is equally competent in the novels. However, Season 2tried to make him more of a superhero, causing him to lose part of his appeal.
In one interesting scene, a conspirator takes off in a vehicle and Reacher gives up on running after him. When he learns the vehicle’s location, he throws an outdoor grill from miles away and hits it. Then he is seen running towards the car, in a different direction from where the grill was thrown.
A Weaker Reacher Is a Better Reacher
Jack Reacher is justa former military policeman with extraordinary fighting skills.He is no Captain America, so he should obliterate everyone but not pull off gravity-defying feats. For the character to remain likable,he needs to have weaknesses.
Most importantly, everything needs to be realistic.Reachergrew a huge fanbase in the first season because it was different. It subvertedmost genre tropesandhandled the one-man-army formula cleverly. Making it the same as the rest of the action shows that are available out there certainly won’t help.
5Avoid Too Many Flashbacks
The second season kept jumping between timelines, giving us some insight into Jack Reacher’s past life, but, at some point, it all became too much.A single episode would have been enoughto tell us everything we need to know about the past.
Let Things Flow
A good movie or TV showpulls fans into the story and keeps them there without throwing them from one timeline to the next.Reacher’s Season 2 flashbacks achieve the opposite effect. Instead of making viewers understand the story better, they make everything more confusing. Even worse,some of the flashbacks, like that of a drug bust gone wrong, are unnecessary.
4Avoid Silly Factual Errors
Several factual errors stained the second season. For example,a U.S. Senator refers to himself as a congressman. Was he a congressman all along? No. He had been referred to as a Senator several times before the remark. In the real world,senators are never addressed as “Congressman” or “Congresswoman.”
The Little Facts Matter
A show whose conspiracies touch on the military and the political class islikely to have a viewer base consisting of buffs from both fields, hence it cannot avoid such mistakes. We trust showrunner Nick Santora to iron out these wrinkles. After all, he has worked in shows likeThe SopranosandPrison Break. He knows how important it is to have an airtight script.
10 Best Supporting Characters in Reacher, Ranked
When it comes to Reacher, there are plenty of great supporting characters to choose from.
3Keep the Setting Small
Jack Reacher is like John Rambo. Hethrives in small-town settings. The choice to pluck him from Margrave, Georgia, and install him in New York City didn’t work. The urban environment was a huge departure from the quiet and dread that fans were used to. John Rambo, too, stopped being interesting when the story shifted to the geopolitical arena.
Fans Might Have To Get Used to It
Unfortunately, the writers will always struggle with this if they intend to honor the source material. Even though Margrave is cool,Jack Reacher is a drifter, so he cannot always stay in the same place.Season 2 also had a proper explanation for him heading to New York as he needed to avenge the murder of a former colleague. Still, the writers can try.
Fans have a reason to be hopeful about Season 2 since Lee Child’sPersuaderblends both urban and remote settings. We thus might get the same small-town vibe we did in Season 1.
2An Engaging Relationship Arc
Jack Reacher’s relationship with Roscoe was one of Season 1’s highlights.Compassionate, with an unwavering thirst for justice,Roscoe is the kind of romantic partner everyone would wish for. Understandably, she couldn’t drop everything to follow Reacher, but in her absence, the season felt dull.
Replace Her or Bring Her Back
Season 3should bring back Roscoe to replace her with someone who’s just as good as her.Roscoe isn’t present in “Persuader” but a few creative liberties can be taken to ensure she is a part of the story. After all,Reacherisan archetypal dad show, and for it to work, the protagonist needs to have a proper love interest.
1Keep the Action Focused on Reacher
Most ofReacher’s best fight scenesare from Season 1. The only memorable fight from Season 2 is when Jack Reacher beats up a carjacker who is coercing a woman to withdraw money from an ATM. Unsurprisingly,that beatdown takes place in a small townas the protagonist is heading to Arkansas to collect his pension check.
Season 2’s Ensemble Is the Main Problem
Season 2’s fight scenesaren’t impressive because every member of the ensemble is the “tough” type who wants to get in on the action.Attention thus keeps shifting from Jack Reacher to the rest of the characters.
Sure, the former military policeman had a cool team in Season 1, but none of the members were fighters. Jack Reacher was the only one we could count on when someone needed to knock enemy teeth out.Roscoe and Finlay assisted him in other warm ways, and things were better that way. Hopefully, Reacher gets to fight alone, most of the time, in Season 2.
