The Reacher Finale Makes Clear That This Show Is Better In The Binge Format
This article contains spoilers for "Reacher" season 2.
One of the biggest questions (at least among those who haven't read the original Jack Reacher novels) many viewers had going into the "Reacher" season 2 finale regarded the mysterious A.M. (Ferdinand Kingsley). The show has constantly cut to this enigmatic man, who's gone by many names with those initials, throughout its second season. He's been on a dangerous mission across the country to transport some illegally contained missiles, and he's casually murdered multiple people in his quest to pull it off.
But beyond that, A.M.'s been irrelevant. For seven episodes straight, he hasn't shared a single scene with any of the other main characters, nor has he actually done much to affect their goals. Many viewers probably assumed this meant the series was saving the best with him for last. Maybe the season 2 finale would reveal some extra bit of game-changing information about A.M., or at least have A.M.'s storyline connect with Reacher's early into the episode, allowing them to interact directly for more than 30 seconds.
Instead, A.M. doesn't meet Jack until the very end of the finale, when all the other bad guys have been defeated. A.M. is then easily outnumbered, casually shot down, and that's it for him after a whole season of build-up. It's hard not to feel disappointed, even if this is all technically faithful to the series' source material. The point of it all seems to be to underline how badass Reacher's team is — that even this slick evil spy is no match for our favorite wandering loner. But while that might've worked in the original books, which are written as page-turners meant to be sped through in two or three sittings, it's a disappointing resolution when you've waited five weeks for it.
An anti-climactic conclusion
In my piece a few weeks back, I speculated that "Reacher" was going to make former special investigator Tony Swan (Shannon Kook-Chun) a bad guy. I turned out to be very wrong on that, but in my defense, the prediction came from a misplaced optimism that the show would improve on the weakest element from its source material, the Reacher novel "Bad Luck and Trouble." The book's surprise bad guy reveal is underwhelming; it has zero effect on Reacher and barely changes the story at all. I (mistakenly) assumed that the show would use its longer format to give us something juicier, a twist that would actually sting and give Reacher some interesting questions to wrestle with. If Swan was a bad guy, as the season kept playing around with, that would've put Reacher in a completely new situation. "If Swan's dirty, this will be the first time in the show Reacher turns out to be wrong about something this important," I wrote.
But "Reacher" is not interested in ever letting its namesake be wrong about stuff. The series is a straightforward power fantasy where the hero gets to easily beat people up and instantly figure his way out of any tricky situation. He can even pick out a perfectly fitting new shirt after casually perusing a store's clothing rack for just two or three seconds — the guy is superhuman. There's no real tension because we know Reacher will always win, and there are no moral dilemmas because we know Reacher and his friends will always do the right thing. For season 1, this approach worked with great success, but with season 2, it seems like it's starting to wear some viewers down.
Viewer discontent
"The writing for 'Reacher' season 2 seems significantly lower quality than that of season 1," wrote one user on the Television subreddit, and there are plenty of posts on the "Reacher" subreddit arguing the same thing. Viewers will point to the show's questionable decision to skip over 10 books between the first and second seasons or argue that Roscoe and Finlay were too good for the show to leave behind. Still, the big points of contention seem to be stuff that was always there: The nonsensical action scenes, the good guys' plot armor, and the repetitive dialogue.
"'You do not mess with the special investigators!' may be the lamest line in the history of media and yet ... they keep saying it every episode," one viewer complained. Also grating on viewers are lines like "Did I ever tell you how smart you are, Neagley?" and "In an investigation, details matter." All these lines are repeated ad nauseam in a self-satisfied tone, even more so than they were in "Bad Luck and Trouble," but that's nothing new for the show. Season 1 also couldn't resist making characters repeat the same lines over and over again, but that seemed to go down much easier.
Maybe the most unforgivable sin of "Reacher" season 2 is just how empty it's revealed its main character to be. Much like in the books, Jack is a completely static character who never changes and is always right. For many viewers and readers, this is his whole appeal, but for others, it just makes him kind of boring to a degree that's starting to become unbearable. There are a lot of reasons why Jack's one-note nature seems more damaging to the show this time around, but maybe the biggest one is the way it's been released.
To binge or not to binge
When it comes to its release schedules, Prime Video has found a middle ground in the binge/weekly model debate. It will typically release the first season of its shows all at once; subsequent seasons will then begin with a three-part premiere, followed by the rest of the episodes airing one week at a time. This approach worked out great for "The Boys," which has developed a strong online fandom that gets together every week throughout a season, happily discussing each new episode and speculating on where the show's going. The approach of other full weekly shows like "Succession," "The White Lotus" and "True Detective" on HBO has also been great for helping their ratings improve through word of mouth and fostering a sense of community among fans.
Although shows released all at once can still be big hits, trying to talk to other fans about them in the days after their release is often frustrating, as every viewer watches at their own pace and you constantly have to worry about accidental spoilers. Worse is the way the binge model makes the episodes tend to blur together in viewers' heads; in fact, viewers' memories of a show as a whole tend to be lost a lot faster than they are with a weekly release schedule. It's a model that encourages passive viewing, allowing viewers to doze off or look at their phone without feeling the urge to rewind and make sure they haven't missed anything. For a subtle and tightly-packed show like "Succession," this approach is a disaster. "Reacher," on the other hand, has never been either of those things.
Sometimes, forgetting is good
"Reacher" doesn't give its viewers a whole lot to talk about between episodes. There are rarely any juicy character revelations, plot twists, or conflicts that can't be solved through predictable violence. Most of the bad guys are interchangeable goons, and most of the disagreements between the good guys boil down to the same mild question of whether the ends justify Reacher's means. (The usual answer: Yes.)
It's not a show designed to keep you thinking about it in the gap between episodes, but thanks to its new weekly release schedule, that's exactly what viewers are left to do. People have had weeks to think about what the show's doing with its main cast of special investigators (not much), how A.M. will end up connecting to the other stories (he doesn't), or if all that foreshadowing over Swan being a bad guy will go somewhere interesting (not a chance). Perhaps most harmful is the way the release format has exposed viewers to others' complaints mid-season; once someone points out how repetitive the dialogue is, it's hard not to notice. Back in season 1, most viewers wouldn't hear those complaints until they'd finished watching every episode.
Rather than allow the season to blend into a comfortable blob (one that could be quickly consumed and remembered fondly), Amazon has forced "Reacher" viewers to actually sit with what they've just watched. For a show as thematically empty as "Reacher," it's the meanest thing a streaming service can do. That's why, when Prime gets around to releasing the already-confirmed season 3, it might be best for it to back away to from season 2's weekly release model. People still love a fun, silly action series — just maybe not when it's released like this.
"Reacher" season 2 is now streaming in its entirety on Prime Video.