REACHER - SEASON THREE: New & Improved (and 100% Ad-Free!)

REACHER - SEASON THREE (Blu-ray)

2025 / 388 min (8 episodes)

Paramount

Review by Carl, the Couch Potato😺

Christmas and Reacher continue to be the only reasons I’m still hanging on to my Amazon Prime account. However, I’m getting increasingly disgusted with being forced to sit through commercial breaks for a streaming service I’m already paying for, which is why I’m glad that every season of Reacher has been made available on Blu-ray. In addition to being Amazon’s best show, it’s the only current series where I’ve been inclined to sit through entire seasons more than once (but not if I had to continue enduring ads).

Not only does its star, Alan Ritchson, embody the title character the way most fans of the Lee Childs’ novels envisioned, Season One established Reacher as smart, funny and unapologetically violent, with a compelling well-paced story. Season Two wasn’t quite as good, because I think it strayed a little too much from what made the previous season so entertaining…a resilient loner unwittingly dropped into a situation where everyone he encounters are either hopelessly outmatched and - friend or foe - at a complete loss at how to deal with his methods. 

Season Three, however, is a nice return to form. Based on the seventh book in the series, Persuader, this one has Reacher hunting for an elusive military criminal he thought he once killed, but has since become a powerful, ruthless arms dealer. When his search results in a run-in with the DEA, he’s coerced into working undercover to investigate rich businessman and suspected drug smuggler Zachary Beck (Anthony Michael Hall), who might be responsible for the disappearance of Agent Susan Duffy’s (Sonya Cassidy) informant. 

"I saw you come out of the restroom. Did you wash your hands?"

Through a clever bit of narrative sleight-of-hand, Reacher manages to work his way into Beck’s organization by staging a fake kidnapping and rescue of the man’s teenage son, Richard (Johnny Berchtold), eventually earning Beck’s trust. Eventually, Reacher learns it’s actually weapons, not drugs, that are being smuggled, with Beck being forced to work under orders of Xavier Quinn (Brian Tee), the very man Reacher has been searching for (and not to bring to justice). That’s the nutshell summary of a complex, engaging story that plays more like a six-hour action-thriller than a television show. 

But while the plot is the primary focus of these eight episodes and Reacher himself remains stoic, driven and very funny without intending to be, Season Three surrounds him with characters who are nearly as well developed. Duffy is amusingly brash, while Richard earns our sympathy by loving his criminal father but hating how he makes a living. There are even revelations about Beck that ultimately change the way we look at him. Adding menace (and a few chuckles) is Paulie (Oliver Richters) as a towering bodyguard with an immediate grudge against Reacher. The minute he appears, we’re certain he and Reacher are eventually gonna throw down. And of course, Maria Sten make a welcome return as Neagley, Reacher's tough and reliable back-up.

Fast, funny and often ferociously violent, Reacher - Season Three is nearly as fun as Season One. While they are inevitable lapses in plausibility (no way could Reacher overturn a car, no matter how big he is), the overall quality of the writing and action make it easy to overlook such moments. And watching it ad-free this time around makes it a much more enjoyable experience. Here’s hoping Reacher continues for as long as Alan Ritchson wants to play the character.