Reacher S3 is yet another solid season and a good time

I don’t even remember why I decided to watch the first season of Reacher. I had not read the books, I hadn’t seen the Tom Cruise movie, I wasn’t particularly a big fan of any of the actors. I just had a lot of time on my hand I guess and I had zero expectations going on. I think I ended up binge watching it, that is how riveting it was for me. For the second season, I was worried. Will the show be able to continue what it had going on from the first season? Yes, it was. The second season of Reacher was perhaps even better than the first one. As much as I enjoyed those two seasons, they didn’t stick in my mind. So I sort of forgot about the third season, plus I was very busy when it came out earlier in 2025. Nevertheless, I was able to watch it 8 months later. What trouble does Reacher get into this time?

Being the nomad that he is, this time Reacher is in the town of Abbottsville in Maine trying to sell some old records to make a quick buck. As we know him, it doesn’t take much or long for him to get into trouble. Shortly after, he finds himself interrupting the kidnapping of a seemingly important kid that was being driven home. After saving this kid, Reacher gets further involved with the father and his business, as he suspects there may be a connection with a familiar name from his past. The DEA will be involved in this as well with their own motives and agenda, but Reacher is out for blood and has his eyes set on the elimination of one person. That said, he has to try and get along with the DEA and their involvement if both parties are to come out successful in achieving their goals.

I have said how Reacher has surprised me with its qualities. In my opinion, the most important has always been the writing and pacing. The show has never been really action-heavy. There is action here and there but there are a lot of scenes that are simple dialogues, investigations, flashbacks, these kinda things. Despite that, I never found myself being bored with these and just looking forward to the action. The dialogue and slower scenes are just an important part of the show as the action. I haven’t read the books but either way, the writer(s) of the book and/or show did a fantastic job keeping me invested during the scenes that are not as dopamine-heavy as the action scenes. There are a lot of scenes that are just people talking to each other and discussing things but these always have at least one objective: to push the plot, to reveal more about a character, the offer a moment of levity and relief, to lighten the mode with a joke, to establish the danger of the threat, etc. They are never just exposition.

The story itself is a mixture of detective, revenge stories about uncovering the truth behind a shady business and finding an old enemy and taking them out. Nothing extraordinary but it is done well. There are important beats placed frequently, each episode ends with an important event/twist, most characters have a role to play in the story. It is nothing to write a thesis about. I simply enjoyed it. There were some convenient moments and situations that were very lucky for the characters, but not that many.

Another reason why I never got bored is that the main characters are likeable. Do not get me wrong, there is no deep character dive here nor complex development or exploration of belief and ideas, but the characters that we have are played well and written well. Obviously the most important character is Reacher himself, played by Alan Ritchson, and he is as big, smart, big-hearted, strong, and ready as ever. I don’t know how but it never annoyed me and I never found it cringe or anything that our main character is good at so many things. Props to the writers and actor again, as I usually find myself bored with these kinda characters, that’s part of the reason I’ve never been able to get into a lot of Shonen anime.

Perhaps what made this season stand out was that this time there was an actual physical threat to Reacher, Paulie played by Olivier Richters. Reacher has always been able to hold his own fights, be it in one-on-ones or in group fights. He has gone against trained killers before that gave him a run for his money, but we never saw him physically threatened or inferior in any way. What better way to do this than to make one of the antagonists a 2.15m monster of 153kg of muscle. It has been done before in shows and movies where the protagonist suddenly comes across a big enemy goon, but those moments are never done seriously. You usually react by thinking something like “Damn that is a big mother$!&*” but you never perceive them as a threat that should be taken seriously. That is not the case here. They establish well the actual threat that Paulie represents to Reacher, be it by the reaction of people seeing him for the first time, or getting glimpses of what his capable of in combat. Most important, even Reacher himself, a 1.9m 110kg beast, acknowledges that he would prefer not to cross paths with Paulie. You know it is real and Reacher says something like that.

The bits of action we get in the episodes are done well too. They range from hand-to-hand combats to all-out shootouts.

I have pretty much been only positive about this show and this season. Despite that, I will probably forget about it in the next couple of weeks the same way I did with season 2. There really isn’t much to breakdown and review in details because at the end it is a simple show, and this simple nature extends into every aspect of the show. If you are looking for something to watch, something that offers action but also good dialogue, characters and writing, Reacher is just a decent show. Each season is 8 episodes so it doesn’t require that much investment in terms of time, plus the episodes go by rather quickly because they are entertaining.