Reacher (TV series)
Reacher is an American crime thriller streaming television series developed by Nick Santora for Amazon Prime Video. Based on the "Jack Reacher" book series by Lee Child, it stars Alan Ritchson as the title character, a drifter and former military policeman who battles dangerous criminals throughout his travels. The first season, based on "Killing Floor", Child's 1997 debut novel, was released on February 4, 2022. A second season has been ordered. Premise. Jack Reacher, a former U.S. Army military policeman, visits the fictional rural town of Margrave, Georgia, and gets arrested for murder. After he is  freed, he teams up with Oscar Finlay and Roscoe Conklin to investigate a huge conspiracy with corrupt police officers, politicians and businessmen. Production. Development. On July 15, 2019, a TV series adaptation of Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" series was announced by Amazon. Nick Santora, who created "Scorpion", was set to write, showrun, and produce the series through Paramount Television and Skydance Media. On January 14, 2020, the TV series was greenlit, with Don Granger, Scott Sullivan, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Marcy Ross, and Christopher McQuarrie as executive producers with Child. The first season was announced as an adaptation of  Child's novel "Killing Floor". In July 2021, it was announced M. J. Bassett had joined the series as a director. Adapting the books to screen the writers decided they would need to make Reacher verbalize his thoughts more often, but that they would keep his dialog short and direct and have him only speak longer to people he respects. They also decided to introduce Neagley to the series far earlier than in the books. Casting. On September 4, 2020, Alan Ritchson was cast in the titular role. On March 22, 2021, Malcolm Goodwin, Willa Fitzgerald, and Chris Webster were  cast as series regulars. On May 19, 2021, Bruce McGill, Maria Sten, and Hugh Thompson joined the main cast. On June 11, 2021, Kristin Kreuk, Marc Bendavid, Willie C. Carpenter, Currie Graham, Harvey Guillén, and Maxwell Jenkins were announced to have joined the cast in undisclosed capacities. Filming. A temporary townscape was built in North Pickering, Ontario to support filming of the show. The entire fictional city of Margrave was built from the ground up in a leased farm field in Ontario. Other areas of filming include Toronto, Port Perry and Pickering. Principal shooting of season 1 took place between  April 15 and July 30, 2021, in Toronto. During filming, Ritchson broke a bone in his shoulder which required surgery and tore an oblique muscle during a fight scene. Release. The series was released on February 4, 2022. On February 7, 2022, Amazon Prime Video renewed the series for a second season. Reception. Critical response. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 90% approval rating with an average rating of 7.30/10, based on 63 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, ""Reacher" captures the trademark bulk of its titular hero while trading away some of his definition, but  fans of the novels will find plenty to love about this faithful adaptation." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 68 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Lucy Mangan of "The Guardian" said, "This rollicking adaptation of Lee Child's man-mountain ex-military sleuth is hugely fun, packed with punchups and far better than Cruise's movie efforts." Michael Hogan of "The Telegraph" wrote, "Reacher is huge, pulpy fun and far classier than you might expect." Joshua Alston of "Variety" wrote a nuanced critique that, although positive about the casting of  Ritchson, criticizes the fundamentals of the character as being unsuitable to carry this kind of show. He opined that "the longer it runs, the more obvious its protagonist-shaped void becomes". Dan Fienberg of "The Hollywood Reporter" called it "frustratingly over-faithful to the source material", saying, "I wouldn't mind another season, but I'd probably still rather read another book." Ratings. "Reacher" was the most streamed television series for the week of February 7–13, 2022, according to the Nielsen streaming rankings -- the first Amazon production to be such.