Reacher season 3 review: "Alan Ritchson's hero still rules as we get the best season yet"

Alan Ritchson has taken on many crime-fighting aliases over the years. In Smallville, he wore Aquaman's gold and green outfit long before Jason Momoa woo-ed his way into them. He was one of four unsung Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opposite Megan Fox and briefly soared as one-half of Hawk and Dove in the short-lived Titans series. Now, three seasons into Reacher, Ritchson has demonstrated that he doesn't need a super suit or special powers to save the day. He hardly needs any help at all. Give him a plain tee that highlights the guns he's permanently packing and boots to kick doors into kindling, and that'll be enough.

When it comes to his portrayal of Reacher, this depiction places him firmly among the great action heroes of recent memory. He's the juggernaut in jeans (stop laughing) that has stayed consistently by the book. It just so happens that said book is a hefty, leather-bound volume stained with blood and bone fragments, occasionally smashed into the faces of daring souls who believe they have a chance, any snake in a suit engaging in illegal deals behind closed doors, and school bullies who can't accept that they peaked in high school.

You could argue that following this formula, Reacher – both the show and the character himself – has resulted in a rather one-note delivery since his debut on our screens in 2022. But, so what? It's a note Ritchson has struck with pitch-perfect quality and shows no signs of wavering. It's also why it comes as an even greater surprise that the third season of Reacher takes that formula and creatively shakes things up in an immensely enjoyable way. This time around, not only is he checking off his list of breaking limbs and blowing things up, but it's all while a hero who's regularly seen hoofing it stops to display a side we've never seen before.

Silent(ish) but deadly

From the new season's initial episode, there's no hesitation in throwing Reacher into the heart of the action, albeit in a way that will pleasantly surprise the uninitiated in the readings of Reacher. Without giving away spoilers (refer to the seventh book in Lee Child's Jack Reacher series, Persuader, which this season is adapted from if you want to), there's something off about how our not-so-gentle giant is behaving. Rash and on the run from the law, it's enough to catch the attention of Zachary Beck (Anthony Michael Hall), a corrupt businessman rumored to be involved in some shady criminal activities that have already cost him dearly. Thus begins our fist-fighting protagonist's collaboration with the DEA to take down whatever is happening that shouldn't be, all while Reacher inches closer to some long-overdue revenge against an old enemy.

Admittedly, it still sounds the same old, same old, for our fire-truck-sized protagonist fighting the good fight. Reacher is still pummelling goons into a paste and sizing up situations within seconds of finding himself in the thick of them, like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes with a gym membership and protein-heavy meal plan. The difference, in this incredibly entertaining season, however, is that he's forced to dial back the bull in a china shop standard we're used to, leading to a far more reserved Reacher than we've ever seen and, as a result, Ritchson being the best he's ever been in the role.

His former military police special investigator doesn't have as much backup as he did last season, which might come as a relief for those who disliked season 2 and its heavy supporting cast. Doing so pushes him to fend for himself in what might feel like the most Reacher-heavy Reacher series to date. The show has never been more focused on its day-saving wandering stranger than now, bringing new challenges in many shapes and sizes, demanding change, and not just bringing the usual Reacher habits to the table. In doing so, it verifies that Ritchson is capable of much more than the thrift-store-shopping legend he's been since the start.

There's always a bigger fist

For the past two seasons, Reacher has embodied an almost Terminator-type presence, breaking bones effortlessly with his head and proving to be a nearly unstoppable force against any significant threats lurking in a small town. Season 3, however, places Reacher in genuinely compromising scenarios.

By having to adapt on the fly and keep the villains guessing, this chapter in the Reacher series asks Ritchson to channel not only the one-man action heroes of the past, like Schwarzenegger or Stallone, but also the more relatable and often hilarious everyman avengers we saw from Bruce Willis and Harrison Ford. You know the type – the quick-thinking good guys who were thrown into perilous situations that Ritchson here echoes effortlessly. The show's overly large lead shines, whether through the witty one-liners that hit his foes twice as hard or the occasional befuddlement when something goes according to plan. Honestly, if at any point he told the limited support that he has this season that he’s making it up as he goes, we definitely wouldn't be mad at it.

We also wouldn't blame him, given the new challenges that he's up against this year. More specifically, one that stands at seven feet and two inches, and asks of another first for Ritchson – to look up at someone when he's talking to them.

Providing Reacher with his own personal eclipse this season, the fan-favorite character, Paulie, finally debuts as the henchman to end all henchmen. Played by Dutch bodybuilder Olivier Richters (who coincidentally starred as the muscle in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), his earth-shaking top soldier for this season's villain takes an immediate dislike to this stranger that's wandered onto the scene, ensuring television gold with every encounter.

It adds a thin layer of levity between the tension in a show that, up until now, has often got most of its laughs from playing itself too seriously. It also perfectly hypes up their inevitable throwdown that ranks as Reacher's best one-on-one battle, evoking elements of Indy and Die Hard in equal measure. But while season 3 has upped the attention on our favorite action magnet, there's a slight imbalance elsewhere, both in his past and how it meets with the present pandemonium he's found himself in.

Reaching out to old acquaintances

Ritchson might be doing his regular heavy lifting in the role he's now synonymous with, but the real struggle is handling Reacher's history, which bleeds into his current vendetta against this season's big bad. Again, not going into spoilers, but the Berlin-born brute's motivations are warranted and brilliantly established in one episode that again allows Ritchson to show another side to his humble ex-military man as a flawed one still haunted by a past mistake. What makes it a little bittersweet is that there isn't enough time on-screen between Reacher and the fellow who's reignited a fire in his marble-cut stomach.

Brian Tee, as the man of mystery driving Reacher into chaos, checks all the boxes for a good old-fashioned villain with psychotic tendencies. Unfortunately, other cast members get the brunt of his unsettling outbursts when the show's star isn't even present, leading to missed opportunities that could've turned the tension up that little bit more. Admittedly, keeping their character collisions to a minimum might've helped pacing issues as this season flies along without a dip in quality (bingeing the three-episode premiere is strongly advised), and there are, of course, just as many allies as enemies in Reacher's world that need attention too.

Joining the season as the new bit of backup is Sonya Cassidy as DEA agent Susan Duffy, who might be the show's best stand-in support for our guy yet. Barking orders at our tank in a T-shirt down his hilariously small phone for most of the season, Cassidy and Ritchson's chemistry is off the charts, continuing the trend of supporting talent so enjoyable to watch, you hope this won't be another one-and-done partnership before Reacher moseys on to his next adventure. Unthinkable as it may be, it almost outshines the routine double-act of our boy and his cereal-obsessed BFF, Neagley, once again played by Maria Sten. Nowhere near as involved this season (which might irk fans) but just as invaluable when she is, it's another chance for Ritchson's recurring co-star to prove why that signed-off spin-off show for her character should go straight to the top of watchlists whenever it arrives.

That's the brilliance of this show. Like the stupidly massive man at the center of it, it's a solid bit of television built to last, leaving you hungry for any action it's willing to dish out, and with a bookshelf of titles to keep pulling from, we hope it never does. Reacher's third season proves that even with our screen-filling frontman, there's still space for improvement and room to add a little extra to his routine process of punching his way through problems and stopping to show some humanity in between, giving other action men of late a run for their money. Even with reports of Ritchson publicly speaking about being interested in taking on the next Batman in James Gunn's developing DCU, he really doesn't need to. He's fortified his place as Lee Child's book-based behemoth, assuring that he might very well be the one Gotham deserves, but Reacher is without question the hero we need right now.

Reacher season 3 begins on February 20 and is available on Amazon Prime Video. Never miss an episode with our Reacher season 3 release schedule.

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