‘Reacher’ Season 3 Review: Alan Ritchson’s Big Guy Faces His Biggest Threat

The Prime Video hit Reacher is back for its third season, with Alan Ritchson front and center as the titular character once again to punch first and ask questions later. Season 3 is based on Persuader, the seventh book in Lee Child‘s Jack Reacher series. In this adventure, Reacher’s path crosses with DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) agents Sarah Duffy (Sonya Cassidy), Guillermo Villanueva (Roberto Montesino), and Steven Elliot (Daniel David Stewart) as their hunt for a missing informant is mysteriously linked with a foe from Reacher’s past.

Reacher goes undercover seeking employment in the security detail of Zachary Beck (Anthony Michael Hall), the owner of a rug company. Since this rug company businessman has a gated mansion alongside the rocky waters of Maine, some sort of criminal activity is sure to be at hand.

‘Reacher’ Season 3 Is a Return To Form

While Season 1 of Reacher adapted the first book in Lee Child’s series, Season 2 adapted the 11th book in the series, which did provide some needed backstory for Reacher, but the jump from saving small towns to full-scale global espionage felt a little jarring. Season 3 brings back that small-town feel to the series, mixed in with some undercover nuance from Reacher as he tries to hunt down a man he thought he took care of years ago. Since Reacher is undercover, his usual punch-first attitude takes a backseat showcasing his disciplined military past as he navigates his way up the ladder within this criminal enterprise. Season 3 allows the best parts of Reacher to shine — his physical strength as well as his mental strength, paired with a moral compass determined to always catch the bad guy, by any means necessary.

Reacher forms a bond with Beck’s son Richard (Johnny Berchtold) that proves to be the emotional core of the season, in addition to the personal investment in the mission already instilled in Reacher and Agent Duffy. Unfortunately, the anthology feel of each season makes it hard to get too attached to any new characters, leaving certain moments to fall a bit flat on an emotional level.

What Reacher Season 3 does deliver on is its antagonists; not only is Beck involved in some dirty business, but so is his bodyguard, Paulie (Olivier Richters), who somehow makes Reacher seem small — and to top it all off, it’s intertwined with the devious blast from Reacher’s past, Quinn (Brian Tee). Like Season 2, Season 3 of Reacher gives a small glimpse into Reacher’s past, which eventually leads to the involvement of the only other reoccurring cast member, Frances Neagley (Maria Stern).

‘Reacher’ Season 3 Explores the Line Between Justice and Vengeance

One of the key selling points of Reacher is watching that insanely muscular brute beat the living hell out of very bad people, and Season 3 delivers that in spades. Reacher certainly leaves a prominent body count in his wake; it does beg the question of whether his willingness to kill is the right thing to do. Having the DEA counterpart to Reacher in this search for their missing informant shines a very harsh light on Reacher at times, one that is important to understand the necessity of his actions, because at the end of the day, they’re meant truly for justice. Even when that justice means taking the life of someone, as we see in a lot of superhero content, sometimes it’s the only way to get the job done.

Reacher Season 3 hits the ground running with hard-hitting action and intrigue, resulting in an all-out war gunfight made from an action fan’s dreams. But a true emotional through-line could take this good series to a great one.

Reacher Season 3 premieres with two episodes on Prime Video on February 20. New episodes air every Thursday.