REACHER - SEASON TWO (4K): Murder, Mayhem & Mercenaries

REACHER - SEASON TWO (4K UHD)

2023-2024 / 350 min (8 Episodes)

FROM PARAMOUNT

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Princess Pepper😺

Along with saving money on shipping costs during the holidays, Reacher was the main reason I hung onto my Amazon Prime account. Not only does its star, Alan Ritchson, embody the title character the way I think most fans of the novel envisioned, Season One established it as one of Prime’s best new shows. Smart, funny and unapologetically violent, Reacher was one of those rare TV shows where I felt compelled to watch the entire season more than once.

Season Two isn’t quite as good, mainly because I think it strays a little too much from what made the previous season so entertaining…a resilient loner who’s 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. 

Like Season One, these eight episodes are adapted from another Jack Reacher novel, Bad Luck and Trouble. Though the titular character is still the primary protagonist, he shares a lot more screen time with an ensemble cast…with Reacher’s former team of Army investigators reuniting after some of their own have been brutally murdered. Determining that someone is targeting them all, their investigation uncovers a nefarious arms deal involving a major tech company, advanced new missiles and a mysterious mercenary.  

No one reminded Reacher about Casual Friday.

The storyline is interesting, mainly because the narrative structure offers at least one startling revelation per episode. Along the way, there are amusing asides in which Reacher intervenes in crimes being committed against helpless victims. It’s during those scenes - when he’s simply a brute force of nature - that the character is the most engaging. His team, including Maria Syen’s welcome return as Neagley from Season One, is likable and an important aspect of the story, but seeing them repeatedly boast their camaraderie gets a little redundant…and sort-of detracts from Reacher’s persona of an enigmatic loner (as do the frequent flashbacks of the team at work during their time in the Army).

While the show does a good job establishing its main characters, it continues to drop the ball with the antagonists. Like Season One, they’re all basically standard-issue, one-note bad guys, starting at the top with Robert Patrick as Shane Langston, who spends most of his screen times threatening others over the phone. But overall, the second season of Reacher is pretty solid. Perhaps a little too meandering at times, there’s still plenty of action, violence, humor and Jack Reacher’s endearing eccentricities.

TOM CLANCY'S JACK RYAN (4K): The Ass-Kicking Analyst

TOM CLANCY'S JACK RYAN: THE COMPLETE SERIES (4K UHD)

2018-2023 / 1470 min (30 episodes)

FROM PARAMOUNT

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Pepper the Poopy😺

A lot has changed since I last visited the “Ryanverse.” 

I was first introduced to Jack Ryan when a beaten-up paperback of Tom Clancy’s book, The Hunt for Red October, made the rounds where I worked. Back then, he was a bookish CIA analyst accustomed to working at his desk, but put in dire situations where he felt he was in over his head. The character was depicted as such in the early movies, too, even after action icon Harrison Ford took over the role.

My interest in the books waned after Clancy’s dense prose grew too exhausting to enjoy. Still, I loved all the movies, and though it’s not a popular opinion, I even felt Ben Affleck nicely embodied the vulnerable qualities that made Jack Ryan interesting in the first place.

That Jack Ryan is mostly gone in Amazon’s eponymous series, which ran for four seasons (ending in 2023). Earnestly played by John Krasinsky, he’s still the smartest guy in the room, but now an ass-kicking man-of-action who kills a lot of bad guys and regularly defies his superiors. Other than an inkling of trepidation over going into the field during the first episode, he’s essentially fearless and almost invulnerable…

…which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, what’s the point of rebooting a character the exact same way he’s been depicted before? So while the new version doesn’t quite walk-and-talk like the Jack Ryan from the Red October & Sum of All Fears days, he’s still an engaging protagonist. Also on-hand is a similarly re-imagined James Greer (Wendall Pierce) as Ryan’s supervisor, who’s younger, saltier (and amusingly snarkier) than the admiral played by James Earl Jones. 

Another meeting that could've been an email.

After that, it’s full speed ahead into uncharted territory with new stories (one per season), none of which are based on anything Clancy actually wrote. Still, the author is sort-of there in spirit, with each season dropping Ryan into complex narratives rife with conflict, violence, terrorism, disgruntled dictators, criminal underworlds, international intrigue and, of course, large-scale threats to American safety. 

The first season is probably the best one, quickly establishing that this ain’t your daddy’s Jack Ryan while pitting him against a terrorist plot to unleash a deadly virus. This is also where Ryan and Greer meet for the first time, which is an quasi-combative relationship at first. A couple of superfluous subplots notwithstanding, this season is consistently engaging, with unpredictable story turns and well-executed action sequences.  

Season Two is more convoluted, dealing with a South American dictator’s ruthless attempts to stay in power, but it does introduce the best new character to the Ryanverse, all-around go-to guy Mike November (Michael Kelly, who’s terrific). Ryan ends up being railroaded and becomes an international fugitive in Season Three, which has a batch of old-school Soviets attempting to trigger a war between Russia and the U.S. It also introduces Betty Gabriel as Elizabeth Wright, Jack's exasperated new boss.

Another gunfight that could've been an email.

Not everyone is who they seem in Season Four, where a powerful Mexican drug cartel teams with an Asian triad to cripple the U.S. Though it only runs six episodes (compared to the previous seasons’ eight), this one is certainly the most complex, with double-crosses, startling character reveals and the highest on-screen body count. More importantly, this is the season that most-stays on-point, with comparatively few asides. It also introduces the second best new character, Domingo Chavez (Michael Pena), an ex-SEAL with a chip on his shoulder after the former CIA director caused the death of his team.  

With a much greater emphasis on action than any of the films (or the books I read), Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan is almost an entirely different beast. One could even argue the character’s name was copped strictly for brand name recognition. Still, it’s mostly a pretty exciting show, with intricate plots (you really have to pay attention), vivid action and good performances. 

Aside from now being able to enjoy the entire series without an increasingly not-worth-it Amazon Prime account, it’s now being released in 4K as a single collection. The episodes look and sound great, with an overall image displaying clarity and depth (at the very least, it sure as hell beats streaming), as well as a Dolby Atmos audio track that does the job just fine. 

EXTRA KIBBLES

DELETED SCENES - For selected episodes.