Reacher season 2

That first season of Reacher was a very entertaining slice of bold and bloody action let by the hulking Alan Ritchson in the adaptation of Lee Child's straight-shooting novels from the Jack Reacher series. The first story saw Reacher stumble across a seemingly insignificant small town but soon uncovers a sinister side which calls for his former military expertise to put wrongs to right. The villains were bad and the heroes were good. Hardly complex but thoroughly entertaining to watch, having enjoyed the first book, and so many others agreed that a second season was greenlit. 

This time the story is adapted from Bad Luck and Trouble, the eleventh edition in the series, which sees Reacher in New York following the death of a former colleague in his unit, who is found dead in the middle of the woods. Why were they there and who caused this? Before Reacher can act fast enough, word comes that more of his old team have been killed so he reunites with three of the surviving members, including Neagley from the first season, to find out who is responsible and to bring them to justice by any means necessary.

Following the heat of Georgia in the first season, season two takes places along the wintery east coast of America and gets off to a great start. The new cast members are all well written and support Ritchson well, particularly Domenick Lombardozzi, and the showrunners prove to be using their budget well with some entertainingly violent action scenes. But then I suddenly felt the show was racing along before the halfway point in its eight episodes before it suddenly lost some focus and became rather too cartoonish. 

One of the biggest victims to this is Robert Patrick's unashamedly villainous Shane Langston, who spends much of his time barking orders in his flashy factory and there just isn't anything interesting about him. Sadly this goes for much of the plot with the setup being better than the payoff which gets a little too cheesy for its own good at times to the point where it's easier to almost poke fun at the show then to have fun watching it. 

Reacher season two is still entertaining but runs so fast in the first half that it leaves little material left for the second. Ritchson is still great but I really hope the third season drops any other recurring characters and gives him a lone wolf story to play with as I believe that's where the strength of the show lies. Fans and newcomers still won't be left disappointed with this but it just isn't quite on par with that first season.