From the sublime to the ridiculous: I really hate Reacher Season 3

I love the character of “Jack Reacher”. I love that authors Lee Child (and, lately, Andrew Child) have kept the depiction of the character consistent and predictable, despite him being, shall we say, not quite woke. “Reacher” kills with impunity (because he knows he is on the right side of the law); he walks into a place, rights some wrong, flawlessly deals with evil people, wreaks total havoc, usually has a few narrow escapes, and then walks out again.

Like with zombies, there are established parameters: Reacher does not smoke or drink. He does not kill for fun. He doesn’t get emotionally attached. He has no possessions other than a toothbrush and the clothes he is wearing. He has no home, lover, partner, or children. He mentions only one family member, his brother. His logic and sense of purpose are dead straight, A to Z, no messing about. I was really looking forward to the 3^rd season of Reacher on TV – almost as much as John Wick 4. Finally, it got released on Prime in Canada, and there we were: waiting, slavering.

Spoilers ahead!

But in the 3^rd season, Jack Reacher – Persuader, the writers have lost it. The whole thing has fallen over. I know it is based on Persuader, the 2003 (ages old) Reacher novel, but that should’ve meant that the character is more of the same, being of an earlier vintage. The credits do say “based on”. That should’ve warned me. The writers of this season’s episodes are Nick Santora, developer (creator); Scott Sullivan, writer for television; Cait Duffy, executive story editor; Lillian L. Wang, story editor; Michael J. Gutierrez, story editor, and (phew) Nora Jobling, staff writer.

No Lee Child. Ah-hah. And way too many cooks working in the kitchen.

Listing the digressions

Well, let’s see what went haywire, shall we?

1) Reacher makes mistakes. Too many to list. Just errors in logic, and plot holes all over the place. My husband got so tired of me shouting at the screen and pointing out the obvious that he had to tell me to calm down.

One example is his final fight with “Paulie”, a badass who’s built like a brick sh*thouse, even bigger than Reacher. Reacher throttles him, he hangs him, he drowns him, he beats him to a pulp – dang it, Paulie just won’t die. Really?! Any human being, no matter how strong, would have died from drowning after being strangled into unconsciousness in the tidal whirlpool. But no. The writers drag it out so long it almost gets funny.

2) Reacher kisses his colleague! His female co-conspirator-and-government-agent-colleague! He shags her!! Yow! (Not “Frances Neagley” – a new character called “Susan Duffy”.) I mean, viewers must have visualized Alan Ritchson without his clothes on, and, yep, we do get a glimpse of him in the altogether with his yummy backside on display, but seriously?! This is as uncharacteristic as James Bond getting married and settling down.

3) He makes that mistake that heroes make, even way back in classical Greek literature: he fails to quickly and effectively administer the death blow to his enemy. He doesn’t simply kill his enemy, “Quinn”, immediately when he finds him after years. In stead, he faffs around and talks and plays hide-and-seek. Oh, come now! He shot the guy once before and never checked if he was actually dead – even if he had fallen over a cliff? And the guy doesn’t recognize him now? What, is Quinn blind or brain-damaged or something? At the end, when Reacher finally has to kill Quinn off, I kept saying, oh for heaven’s sake, stop talking! Just shoot him! In the head!! And do it twice to make sure!!

4) There is this weird sub-plot of the female agent, Susan Duffy (played by Sonya Cassidy), having a guilt complex over a junior agent who she sent to almost certain death on a mission. So, this junior agent was naive and dumb. But she volunteered. That’s the breaks. Do I care about her? Nope. And the dialogue and character development for the Susan Duffy character is just abysmal. Obviously she is meant to depict that stereotype that is now so de rigueur, and that I so dislike; “the strong girl boss”.

She goes from dewey-eyed affection to boiling rage, and from speaking normally to swearing like a maniac, in literally seconds, no build-up. Normal…wait for it…mad as hell…wait for it…back to normal…wait for it…mad as hell…repeat… (We were laughing and timing her switches in emotion while we watched.) Can’t blame the actress. She just delivers the lines. Man, that was irritating.

And the worst is…

5) Reacher always walks in and he walks out. No, this time, Susan Duffy walks out on him, after effectively having smooched him into submission. No, Reacher. This will not do, not at all.

Sigh…

I got so bored with Season 3 that I watched with one eye and listened with one ear, just to get through it. The thing is: what makes (or made) the suspense so powerful in the Reacher books is that there is a straightforward emotional and narrative arc, in which Reacher’s consistent strength and stoic-ness, and utterly laconic communications, contrast with the chaos and badness of the antagonists, and causes tension. It works. And the plot always has a clever twist. You need to actually pay attention. But, having deviated disastrously from this recipe, the end result is a boring, tasteless dish.

Maybe next time things will revert to normal. A 4^th season is in production, as well as a spinoff. I’m not holding my breath though.

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