In the Dark Reviews

Amazon's 'Reacher' shows a rare sensitive side

Kirk Boxleitner | Mar 06, 20250

Courtesy photo

With the arrival of Olivier Richters, Alan Ritchson is no longer the biggest dog on the porch in Amazon Prime Video's "Reacher."

The third streaming season of "Reacher" is well underway on Amazon Prime Video, and what's made it increasingly refreshing is how much it's heeded the advice of Optimus Prime.

In "The Transformers" franchise, voice actor Peter Cullen has played heroic Autobot leader Optimus Prime from the 1980s cartoons on through the 21st century Michael Bay movies.

Peter Cullen's brother, Larry Cullen, was a decorated U.S. Marine who'd served in Vietnam, so when Peter told Larry he was auditioning for the role of "a hero truck," Larry told Peter that, if he was going to play a hero, he should "be strong enough to be gentle."

Admittedly, actor Alan Ritchson's portrayal of novelist Lee Child's character of military veteran and vigilante Jack Reacher has not especially distinguished himself through his gentleness, since he's the size of a house and all the branches of his problem-solving tree lead to violence.

But as Reacher pursues vengeance against an old foe from his time in uniform, we learn how personal the stakes are for him, and we get another glimpse of Reacher, not just in his current guise as a civilian drifter, but as an officer responsible for safely commanding enlisted troops.

The previous two seasons of "Reacher" introduced Maria Sten as an ally of Reacher from his years in the Army, the hyper-competent security expert Frances Neagley, and the current third season has flashed back to Reacher's stint with Dominique Kohl, played by Mariah Robinson.

Both Neagley and Kohl are younger enlisted Black women who are dwarfed by the towering Reacher, but he insists they refrain from calling him "sir," and treats them as equal partners.

Indeed, "Reacher" risks getting its title character branded as "woke," by showing how conscious the huge white dude is of his own societal privilege, when Reacher takes care to ensure Kohl receives credit for her hard work and keen insight, so it can't be dismissed due to "quotas."

Given how much Reacher typically eschews any hint of tenderness, it's heartening to see him decline to take credit for an operation's success so he can bolster Kohl's career instead.

It's a rare moment of Jack Reacher serving not just as an effective team leader, but also as a caring mentor, because like Chris Hemworth's Thor in Marvel's "Avengers" movies, Reacher is genuinely pleased to see his smaller friends succeed because he knows they've earned it.

In case I'm making this season sound too touchy-feely, rest assured that Reacher's preferred interactions with other people remain brutally merciless physical fights, but even then, the show pits Ritchson's Reacher against Olivier Richters as the even bigger Paulie van Hoven, a mean bodybuilder bodyguard from Child's books, who forces our hero to apply his strength creatively.

Moving on to the latest episodes of the second season of "Severance" on Apple TV+, we're only three weeks away from the reveal of "Cold Harbor," but in the meantime, we're finally treated to a retrospective study of the marriage of Mark (Adam Scott) and Gemma (Dichen Lachman).

Just as "Severance" has depicted an authentic sibling bond of mutual concern and habitual bickering between Mark and his savvy sister Devon (Jen Tullock), so too has it rendered Mark and Gemma's developing relationship with the alternating turns of casual affection and cold spots so common to many actual marriages. An understated heartbreaking touch is how their last brief conversation, before her "death," shows how much he's come to take her for granted.

We're also shown Lumon's "testing floor," which not only subjects Gemma to an assortment of maddeningly placid torments, on top of its underlying existential horror, but it also hints at the manipulation on the other side of the screen, during the employees' "macrodata refinement."

Yet again, this show's stunt-casting managed to blind-side me, without sacrificing its capacity to disturb me, with Sandra Bernhard and Robby Benson contributing deeply creepy performances.