@thearmag3ddon here with yet another Amazon Prime Original Series Review that You Didn’t Ask For:
Ok, let’s talk about it.
Reacher Season 2 to me suffers from the Batman movie problem.
What do I mean?
Batman movies from Tim Burton on, tell a very effective and compelling origin story or first adventure out of the gate that focuses on Batman himself. Then after that, it’s almost like there’s nothing left to tell about him or do that’s interesting or that can go any deeper than what was covered in the first outing, and so, they throw in 2 villains to fill the space, then 3, and the story isn’t even about Batman/Bruce Wayne anymore. He’s just there mostly hanging out while his supporting cast has the actual story and character arc, and well, he shows up to punch someone when the situation requires it, but otherwise is pretty inconsequential to anything that happens.
Reacher Season 2 is kind of like that. And it doesn’t bode well for a Season 3 on multiple fronts, one of which is, I’m not even sure audiences will come back in any substantial numbers after what they experienced with a lackluster in comparison season 2. Even if Season 3 goes on to fix the issues that Season 2 suffered from.
Now, I’ve heard a lot of comments and opinions stating this season is flat out bad, but I actually disagree, even if I do think it has issues. Bad is kind of a relative word I think and generally most people use it for “I did not like that.” All things are ultimately subjective, but it would be hard for me to say objectively this was awful. I just think that based on what I said above about Batman, it registered as relatively more boring than the first season. I mean, I still love Batman Forever. I wasn’t in love with this season, but..I don’t think it’s bad either.
The problem for me with Reacher Season 2 wasn’t that the writing was bad, it was that it felt like I was watching a penultimate Season 5 before a final season 6 of Reacher, and not a Season 2 which gradually built off the proven formula of Season 1 (and the book series.) It was like they jumped the gun on telling this story before we as the audience were ready to experience it. And…
I had this feeling throughout while watching in the middle of the season (that took me much longer to get through because I was realizing I just wasn’t that invested) and asked a friend who’d read the book series if the story this was based on was like the 4th or 5th book, and sure enough, Season 2, which is based on the book Bad Luck and Trouble was the ELEVENTH book in the series. So yeah…that was it for me.
I’m not some Reacher expert and think for the most part it exists as an entertaining, borderline brainless action thriller so I’m not going to really dissect it to any great degree as though it was trying to be Shakespere. But it did seem to have the same energy that say, Buck Rogers Season 2, or Galactica 1980, or name your show that absolutely retooled the premise that resonated in Season 1 and instead gave us the wish.com version in Season 2. I don’t think it was really that either actually but…it just really FELT like that.
The direction taken was a deliberate choice made from decisions I’m not privy to but can deduce a bit. Writing 8 episodes of what is basically a singular long-form detective/mystery show with only 1 main character and 2 co-stars like in season 1 isn’t the easiest of tasks. So why not bring in 5-7 more co-stars? And then we can pad out the season with more scenes with other characters to help stretch it out to 8 episodes? Our main character doesn’t have to be the POV one exclusively anymore. And now you can get a flashback with INSERT NEW CHARACTER HERE. Because of the approach they took, it moved Reacher to the background, almost making him react to things making him passively move through the season, whereas before he was the disruptor bringing change. We were therefore asked to care deeply about the fates of people we didn’t really know, and ironically weren’t given the time to deeply care even if the goal (I’m assuming) was to pad out the season with more scenes with them. Add to that being the main plot of them trying to find a former colleague that may or may be dead that we’ve never met other than a few flashbacks with even more characters, and well…I didn’t care?
Yeah. This season I don’t think is bad per se, but in an alternate universe, this would have been Season 5, that changed the formula just in time for the show to have one big send off in Season 6. But like I said before, after this season I’m not sure it will even get past a Season 3, as I don’t think people will be flocking to it enough to justify a Season 4. Because now…they’re lost. Unless…they retool yet again and get back to basics, which is kind of Wild to say for a show that’s only had 2 seasons…but here we are.
Reacher Season 2. Not bad. Not great. Maybe just stop at Season 1. Adding this to yet another show or movie where I wish I could have been a fly on that wall to hear why they made the choices they ended up making. Looking at you Wonder Woman 84.
I give Reacheer Season 2, 2 on the nose Terminator 2 references because the T-1000 was the bad guy here out of 5.
Until the next review no one asked for @thearmag3ddon, signing off.