Jack Reacher returns to Prime Video with a season packed with tension, but why is it such a hit?

Jack Reacher is back. That means uncovering more secrets than anyone wants uncovered, more action, and at least four people dead per episode at the hands of a protagonist who has no problem getting his hands dirty. One of Prime Video‘s most popular series, if not the most popular, is back with everything we expected from it: a mystery to solve, a Reacher fascinated and irritated by it in equal measure, and a lot of people wanting to cover it up.

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But those who still haven’t seen any of it wonder, why is the series such a hit? At first glance, it doesn’t seem to have anything special. It looks like just another action series. And nothing could be further from the truth. Jack Reacher is a very unusual series in its genre. Because it’s not just that they don’t make series like this anymore: it’s that they’ve never made series like Jack Reacher. Because both things are true. They’ve never been made and they aren’t made anymore.

They don’t make series like Jack Reacher anymore

What’s most fascinating about Jack Reacher is that, although at first glance it may seem like an action series, it’s actually a classic noir series like the ones they used to make. Reacher is a methodical, intelligent detective who knows how to read people and situations perfectly. Sometimes he gets it wrong and gets himself into trouble, but generally he knows where there’s trouble or something doesn’t add up and his obsession takes him all the way to the bottom of it. Making him a fascinating character.

In that sense, it’s as old-school as it can be. And it’s also very human. Reacher sometimes gets it wrong, misreads a person, or what he thinks is a sure clue is actually a trap or a misunderstanding. He also has a short fuse, he’s a solitary guy, and he has serious problems understanding social cues when it comes to anything related to his personal life. All of that makes it easy to empathize with him and makes him feel like a more authentic character, more real. It also makes him feel like a classic character in a detective story. He’s not a hero who can do everything; he’s a person who has to overcome obstacles.

All of that goes against the grain of what’s been standard on TV for the last 20 years. They don’t make detective stories anymore. Procedurals are about forensic experts of every kind, doctors, lawyers, but not detectives. Detective stories are more successful than ever in literature, but television hasn’t picked up on it. Except Prime Video. And it’s proving it with Reacher. Even if he’s a purely contemporary detective.

Jack Reacher is a series that couldn’t have been made before

What makes Reacher distinctive is that it’s not a detective series like the old ones. It’s not even hardboiled like the old ones. Jack Reacher is Alan Ritchson, a man with an intimidating appearance who in practically any situation is the biggest person in the room. Tall, hyper-muscular, adept at hand-to-hand combat and no less adept with firearms, the series often turns into Reacher solving everything in the most violent and intimidating way possible.

This is where Reacher is different. He has no problem using violence liberally and expediently. He not only kills, he also tortures, mutilates, and takes justice into his own hands. Violence isn’t the solution, it’s the question and the answer is yes. Something that gives the series a distinctive balance between its explosions of violence, both explicit and implicit (for Reacher’s one-liners are absolutely exquisite), and the bulk of the series, more centered on the intellectual side of the detective process.

This has led to the series succeeding the way it has. Because it’s different, contemporary, and interesting. It’s a classic detective series, but modern. And that’s why it succeeds. Now, with the premiere of its fourth season, it’s a perfect moment to join the Reacher phenomenon, especially considering that each season is semi-independent.