Reacher Season 3 Review – Just Cast Alan Ritchson as Batman Already

Reacher Season 3 faced an uphill battle following the fanfare that came before it. The first season of the show introduced the audience to Alan Ritchson’s Jack Reacher, while the second turned it into a Team Reacher adventure where the former military police officer joined forces with his old friends to face the demons of their past. Now, in Season 3, Reacher is all on his own as he goes undercover into the criminal world to look for a missing DEA informant.

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The action show turns the focus solely back to Alan Ritchson’s Jack Reacher

Based on the Lee Child novel Persuader, this season is a back-to-basics approach, turning the focus on the main man himself. It proves to be the best possible choice, because Ritchson shakes off the ghost of Thad Castle past to cement his place as an A-list action superstar. Not only does he get a chance to play more with Reacher’s quiet and stoic charisma, but he also beats the tar out of bad guys in innovative and violent fashion. That isn’t to say he didn’t do it before, but there are a number of standout action scenes here that take the show to the next level, including one that feels straight out of Rambo’s most brutal playbook.

While the previous seasons of Reacher featured their moments of gripping storytelling, Season 3 keeps the audience biting their nails and clawing onto the edge of their seat because of the nature of the plot. With Reacher going undercover, there’s the constant threat that his cover will be blown. It also doesn’t help his cause that the baddies he’s dealing with are smart, ruthless, and have their own connections too, so he needs to be on the top of his game to throw them off his scent. Naturally, everyone can guess that his cover will be blown at some point, so it’s up to him to think or fight his way out of tricky situations.

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The new cast members are outstanding

If you have seen the trailers, you are well aware that Reacher faces a major threat here: The hulking Paulie (Olivier Richters). This hired muscle is a head taller and almost 100 pounds heavier than Reacher, so he’s the first foe the hero’s faced where he doesn’t have the strength advantage. Expectedly, Reacher and Paulie’s interactions throughout the season turn into David and Goliath encounters, even though Reacher could be considered a Goliath in any other fight. To borrow from wrestling terms, it’s big meaty men slapping meat here.

Like the seasons before, there are new characters that join the main cast. In Reacher Season 3, the people in Reacher’s corner are DEA agents Susan Duffy (Sonya Cassidy) and Guillermo Villanueva (Roberto Montesinos). Duffy is strong willed and fierce, but remains determined to extract their DEA informant who has gone missing. Nearing retirement, Villanueva acts as a father figure to Duffy – he’s on the cusp of exiting his law enforcement career, but he has one last hurrah left in him. More importantly, they prove to be more than adequate backup for Reacher when he finds himself in a pickle.

On the bad guy front – apart from Paulie – there’s Brian Tee’s character. Now, no spoilers here (not even his name), because he’s an important part of the overall storyline. While Reacher has featured a number of memorable villains, Tee’s antagonist takes the cake. He’s sadistic, violent, and remorseless, committing the type of crimes that feel like they’re from a David Fincher movie. Tee puts in a powerhouse performance that’s likely to get his agent’s phone ringing with countless offers, because he plays such a good bad guy that you want to see more of it.

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Is Reacher Season 3 worth watching?

With Reacher Season 3, the Prime Video series hits its undisputed peak. It’s thrilling blockbuster entertainment that refuses to quit and gets better with each passing episode. Also, if James Gunn and the DC Universe don’t cast Alan Ritchson as the next Batman after this all-action display, then everyone might as well pack it all in, because no one will be a better Dark Knight than him.

Reacher Season 3
Reacher travels to Maine in search of a deadly foe from his past and ends up entangled with rogue DEA agents and a mysterious family business.

	Creator: Nick Santora
	Cast: Alan Ritchson, Maria Sten, Brian Tee, Olivier Richters, Sonya Cassidy, Johnny Berchtold
	Genre: Action, Crime Drama, Thriller
	Number of Seasons: 3
	Streaming Service: Amazon Prime Video