David Farnor | On 17, Dec 2023

It’s been a little over 18 months since Alan Ritchson strolled on ot our screens as Jack Reacher and made everyone’s TV screens feel several inches smaller. There was no doubt that he was perfectly cast as the towering hero, even if the first season sometimes struggled to rise to his formiddable height. For Season 2, Ritchson only feels bigger, but the show does too. Season 1 established him as the wandering drifter, who floats from place to place with nothing but a toothbrush for company. Some flashbacks to his past gave him some initial depth, but it turns out that we he needed all along was company – and Season 2 delivers it with all the confident swagger of its protagonist.

A cold open sets the stakes firmly at personal, as we see a lieutenant from Reacher’s army days thrown out of a helicopter under the orders of a slimy corporate villain (played with relish by Robert Patrick). Cut to a cash machine receipt with a coded message on it that alerts Reacher to something bad going down, and he swiftly meets up with an old friend to find out more – but not before thwarting a carjacking with brutal efficiency.

The friend in question is Neagley (Maria Sten), who briefly appeared in Season 1. She’s one of the Special Investigators, Reacher’s crack military unit, and it’s not long before Reacher is reunited with the whole gang: Dixon (Serinda Swan), a forensic accountant, O’Donnel (Shaun Sipos), a wisecracking lawyer and private eye. The moment they’re on screen together they’re instantly believable as a battalion, trading warm banter and in-jokes – “Am I the only one who doesn’t have that photo?” quips Reacher, as they all look back at an old picture of the group.

Ritchson’s comic timing is crucial to his ability to inhabit Lee Child’s laconic righter of wrongs, so it’s a treat to see him get the opportunity to lean into that with other people who are funny in return. They tease him about his loner lifestyle, from his attachment to his toothbrush to where on earth he sleeps at night. But they share more than just a sense of humour: they’re skilled and smart, making them a convincingly effective unit, and they share Reacher’s thirst to avenge their old comrade’s murder. Plus they all know the words to Elton John’s Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.

Flashbacks this time lean into the ensemble approach, as we see Reacher bringing the ragtag bunch into a closeknit team. Some steamy exchanges add tension to the mix, balancing out the clear-cut platonic ties elsewhere.

The result makes it all the more satisfying to see them working together, whether that’s splitting up to take down henchmen in a building site or helping each other to crack codes and solve puzzles. Most of all, though, there’s the thrill of seeing Ritchson swagger into action when the time is right – and the show’s spot-on pacing knows just when to unleash him and just when to let him hang with his buddies.

Reacher still moves with intimidating purpose, as capable of triggering an air bag in a car with his foot as he is crushing a man’s hand without breaking a sweat. Ritchson nails that forceful, intimidating calm without losing the enjoyably eccentric charisma that underlines just what an odd figure this man is – at once righteous and a rule-breaker.

“There’s someone hellbent on taking out the Special Investigators. And they’re coming after us,” he mutters at the close of an episode. He pauses, then adds: “Good.” And it really, really is.

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