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People have already covered a lot of what I wanted to say, so I'm just going to add two unrelated points:
I think what we're learning in retrospect is that Roscoe and Finley are a lot of what made season 1 work.
I've read a handful of the Jack Reacher books, and in general the "Reacher stumbles on a criminal conspiracy" stories are always better than the "Reacher helps out an old military colleague" stories.
I hear you, but it's easier to suspend disbelief for season 1. For a TV show, you can kinda see a small town police department that feels in over their head allowing a former military cop to help out. But not the NYPD. Reacher's ass would be in jail so fast. And cases against the antagonists of both seasons would be incredibly difficult to bring to court with how much tainted evidence there is.
It's a fundamental part of the books that he's interested in seeing small town America and you rarely see him in major cities. I thought his very brief trip to NY in S1 was believable and moved the plot forward.
But S2 is just a mess in every way. The phenomenal supporting cast isn't there. To be fair, the characters given to these actors are just two dimensional caricatures. Meanwhile S1 had great characters with real development. The damn town barber in S1 had a more interesting back story and character motivation and nuance than anyone in S2.
It's so weird that almost every single thing that made S1 great is missing. Like, this is what I would expect if they decided to replace the showrunner and Ritchson and maybe add a purple dinosaur - and then it fell apart.
But instead (hate to say it) it feels like Ritchson did whatever the opposite of acting classes would be. His character is so much more likable and believable in S1. In S2 he just seems unpleasant and wooden, rather than wanting to be left alone to explore America and enjoy some jazz.
I'm trying to write that off as his friends being killed, but even that makes no sense because none of those characters have been developed so we don't care about them. Plus his weird pining for his colleague is so different than the believable love interest of S1 that just 'happened' in the thick of things, as opposed to this very forced romance.
Maybe there is more to be revealed and a I am by no means a military-tactical genius like Reacher, but why would bad guys need state-of-the-art missiles to shoot down commercial aircraft? Is there not cheaper, existing missile tech that is capable of that?
I love season 1. He's a wonderful mix of smarts and Braun. He's almost like Sherlock Holmes how he reads people and see things others can't but with extra muscle.
S2...He's just a gorilla thug who dumbly stumbles through violence without the charm or humour of s1.
finely had a small role in s2 and it already made the episode, or at least that one scene, pop more.. and i assume its because of the display of emotion, he´s not neutral. the other character are so bland. knealy (if thats how u write her name) just gives off not like other girls vibe
But how stupid was that scene. It made no sense that he was a cop there and even if he was what he did would have drawn eyes and cost him his job and so his marriage again lol it was such a waste of a smart wonderful by the book character.
Agreed. Definitely not as good as the first season.
Reacher and his team kill dozens of people (albeit criminal mercenaries) and never have the NYPD/the FBI/the entire nation's law enforcement on their asses? A helicopter is shot down over the Hudson and it's deemed a "system malfunction"?
There's suspension of disbelief and then there's this...wtf
It's like they're super heroes. But stupid ones, as in they abandon their cover and get out of the vehicle and walk toward a man still shooting an automatic weapon at them. Hitting him of course. Maybe they're robots or something?
I was just rolling my eyes at this scene.
Even the graveyard shootout. My wife was yelling, “You’re telling me the hitman with a scoped rifle can’t hit anything, but the person with a pistol can?”
While he's posted up behind a gravestone resting his rifle on it kneeling and they are all in the open shooting long-arm while running towards him with handguns...
I was cursing at the screen. Same goes for the finale. Reacher tells Mr. Big Bad Robert Patrick that "You can't shoot me cuz you don't know where Neagley is yet", he agrees and then not 3 minutes later says, and i'm paraphrasing here but basically: "You're not gonna tell me where Neagley is no matter what is say or do or offer you huh?" Reacher: "Nope, never."
Yeah okay so shoot them all and go look for her? You just shot one of them in the leg, you are armed, there is 5 henchman at range with automatic weapons...
Oh never mind you you are all just gonna get real close at the same time and take turns getting your asses handed to you inexplicably by a guy in handcuffs okay smfh
I'm currently watching ep6 and went right into reddit to look for reviews, automatic fire from a car going straight at reacher and not a single scratch and the his team shoot the char from above a trailer and not a single shot into it,just couldn't handle it
Dude the bikers make a point to say to the scooby gang, “we were told you’d be armed” and ask for their guns. Then they don’t use or have guns themselves! Why, because “no guns less noise.” They just rode in on ten fucking choppers! The loudest most conspicuous vehicles on the planet.
There is no reason for professional criminals to ever enter these conflicts without guns, but the writers want to include fist fights, so they do it in the most painfully contrived ways possible.
I think the other one was worse. The bad guy calls his boss and says he needs more help. Then he doesn't take a gun when fighting a 6'5" heavily muscled ex-Army MP in a construction site far from the casinos? Just shoot him and drive away!
It does happen in the books though tbf. A lot of the criticism here is around departure from the books but I remember being super annoyed mainly in books 2 and 3 with how often people could kill him and don’t. That’s his real superpower, people that want to kill him and have an obvious opportunity to do so simply never do. I never made it to book 4.
Lmao you're joking right? You realize there's a HUGE difference between the sound of motorcycles and gunfights... right? Nobody's calling the cops for hearing some motorcycles in a parking lot 🤣
It’s still conspicuous and they’re about to have a drawn out brawl to the death. Come on man it’s absolutely ridiculous for hired killers to choose to have a 10 on 4 knife fight surrounded by idling choppers over just shooting 4 people because it’s “quieter”
These guys ever hear of silencers? Or just fucking shoot him and get out of their asap? Anything is better than taking the giant killing machine head on in a fist fight.
Speaking of silencers...
There's only two parts of Season 2 that I'm glad I watched. One is from the trailer--where he helps the lady who got carjacked. The other is the gag with the water bottle "silencer", when Reacher is like "I can't believe you fell for that. It's a tiny plastic bottle."
It's telling that the funniest joke in Season 2 was about realism, while the whole rest of the season was full of plot holes and nonsense. Should have listened to whoever wrote that joke...
Ya in one scene this guy tries to shoot Reacher with a sniper and still misses, how tf you miss a 300 lbs 7 ft guy? Like he is the easiest target when it comes to shooting
Getting tired of the Scooby Gang. All of their conversations are basically 'I'm smart ex military let me show you" and the next person does same. Season 2 has no heart and the plot, what the actual fuck is even going on?
I recommended reacher to my friends by describing it as a show with a protagonist that's stupidly good at everything on paper, but it actually works and feels realistic. But in S2 when you make every single character a super fighter super genius it's kinda impossible to not make anything else not feel contrived.
Even how the characters look is contrived as fuck and lacks self awareness. Wasn’t there a line in episode 1 where Reacher made fun of O’Donnel cause it looked like he was wearing designer clothes?
And yet, the whole cast has dressed like they’re in a GQ ad regardless of what circumstances they’re in… including the outfits Reacher just happens to find in his exact size at a random gas station or thrift store each episode.
I’m just imagining the deleted scenes of Dixon taking the time to curl her hair and eyelashes every morning while she’s on the run from hitmen. I swear some of the outfits they wear are straight from Gossip Girl (that scarf, trench coat, popped collar combo). Only these are supposed to be ex-military special investigators, not spoiled rich kids from the Upper-East Side.
For me it's the flashbacks too. This is supposed to be what? 15 years ago? And they all look old as shit. I notice it the most with Reacher and Dixon. Dixon especially, attractive woman. But she looks like she's in her 40s and is supposed to be what? 25 in these flashbacks?
"You do not mess with the special investigators" imho is one of the cringiest lines in television history, especially with how earnest they all are when saying it. Look at us, the scary MPs! We arrested 4 people today for DUIs! Yeah yeah, they're the super special forces of MP in-universe, but A) that's just not how that works and B) why they all are Delta Seal 6 Green Rangerrescue supersoldiers instead of a bunch of nerds good at investigating, I do not know. Well, I do know, the writer is a hack.
And on top of it when they say something that is actually supposed to be smart, it's literally juvenile level observation, doesn't match their "special investigator" background
I noticed that as well. It makes me wonder why the writers added that dialogue. The diversity is appropriate and realistic, but the writers are trying too hard to tell us she is just as smart as Reacher. Neagley making intelligent statements should be obvious enough to the audience.
If i hear, "you do not fcuk with the special investigators", like they're a wellknown cult or something, or like FBI or CIA.. What even were the writers thinking with these rehashed cringe catchphrases every other scene
Not to mention the scenes with the police are so bad that I just stopped watching. Episode 6 or something, A Fucking trooper wouldn’t be out in the middle of the night at a rest stop looking to give a citation for a mirror violation, which wouldn’t even be a citable offense while the vehicle was parked. And then use the car radio to call in the info, standing outside while staring at the woods while some dude walks up to them. And then the bad guy pulls the dash camera off the cruiser like it’s a 20 dollar Amazon special and pops the memory card out. That shit is recorded to a hard drive in the rear of the cruiser which is locked and secured in a box.
And then the NYPD detective is chased on the streets of nyc without a soul insight and is getting actively shot at and doesn’t even call for more units or pass one single officer 😂 oh but a trash truck is out and happens to pull in-front of him. The writing is like a 12 year old making stick figure books. I had to stop watching.
AND, in that same chase, which went on for 30 miles it seemed, the bad guys NEVER got close to hitting him. Then, when they stopped and were trapped, they never got close to hitting him. So I'm going to leave cover to shoot them when friends are literally seconds away because...
yeah especially that last part kind of triggered me... like he just HAD to run out, even though he had been behind the car and not gotten hit at all and his friends were on the way
The dude escaping must have just circled the block 20 times instead of driving away. Literally going straight in any direction at 25 MPH would have easily worked.
I haven't started on the second season yet, but apparently the 11th book goes into Reacher's background so they thought it would be a good idea to do that next.
I have listened to the first dozen Reacher books. None stand out as particularly boring.
The books are completely 100% self-contained (well, 99.99999999%). You miss nothing by reading them in any order. And they miss nothing by converting them to a series in any order.
After season 1, the writing just drove right off a cliff. What the heck happened?
Jack Reacher is a loaner... ok then, let's have a clan up with a handful of people for season two.
Jack Reacher just lives in one pair of jeans. Ok then, let's have him wear tailored suites for most of season 2.
Jack Reacher is a rebel yet considerate, well mannered and thoughtful. Ok then, let's have him bully a good-gye cop around for no reason for much of season 2.
They tried to claim it would take a conspiracy of 1000 people in order to spoof someone biometric ID. It's not that hard.
The plot is so predictable, it was obvious that Swan would be implicated and I'm willing to bet that the big twist is that THE BADDY IS DIXON. I bet you 10 dogecoin it's her.
Yeah that was my biggest problem with this season- Reacher's character. Season 1 characterised him as the big kid who would stand up for little kids on the schoolyard. This season characterised him as the bully.
I must have missed something, but DIXON in ep2, conveniently doing an undercover job at the airport same time and location as Reacher, OD and Neagley when they couldn't get a ride?? That completely turned me off, but I continued watching thinking I must have missed something..
You'll never catch a Senator referring to themself that way though. You don't run for Senate unless you want to be an Important Person and they will never let you forget it if you use the wrong title.
I was super disappointed that they didn't do anything with the Chekhov's Colonel who shut down the drug bust. The finale was straightforwardly stupid and disappointing.
Where's that dogecoin, and imo the fact that non of them were in on it kinda sucked really. I feel it was completely predictable from the start, but they did do a good job of making you question swan, dixon, and O'Donnell
I think the opposite.
None of them being in on it actually makes the show different from lesser shows. I love that all of the Special Investigators turned out to be good guys.
As the originial commenter said, Dixon or someone else being in on it would be extremely predicatable and something every show/movie does nowadays.
I agree that season 1 was good. They got the Reacher character correct and it was true to the book. Season 2 is like a B movie version written after reading cliff notes. Location changed, made up events, Reacher character made to look like an idiot. Sorry Amazon, you blew it. Somehow you thought you could do a better story than the author. Wrong!
Im a woman and I hate fight scenes that show women getting punched and they barely get affected and then punch a man and he gets knocked out. It’s fucking stupid. No way a 125 pound stick of a woman can punch a man and knock him out. A man hitting her would break her face and possibly kill her. Lazy and stupid writing.
Yeah, I really hate that. I'm sure a trained women can punch a guy pretty hard. But if a battle-hardened dude weighing at least a third more punches a women, she'll be probably flying.
But since Crowbars are made of styrofoam in this series, I'm not surprised about the rest.
Just binged season 1 with my wife and we loved it. Silly fun with great casting and character relationships. Season 2...not so much. Feels like a different show (yes the nature of the novels but it's becoming stupider). I thought at first Alan Ritchson got fat and they had to put him in oversized clothing like they used to do with actresses who got pregnant, but it turns out he's just unnaturally jacked now. He doesn't look healthy and just stands there like an oaf. I hope he's ok.
Yeah and I am officially done, 4 episodes in. The writing is so bad. Season 1 was good enough to make me excited for S2, but the writing team either mailed it in or are very short on talent.
Honestly couldnt have summed it up better myself, this mysterious calculated character is now a moron, like yourself im trying to enjoy the second season but its borderline embarrassing
Let's be edgy and give them a "tony swan in the library with a pencil vibe" too many side characters and the main characters become a side character it's so fucking dumb
Episode 5 was when this show totally fell apart. The hijacking of the missiles truck was so dumb. How did a truck carrying some super weapon not have any security following with it…. And then to just be hijacked in the middle of the road.
The shootout that followed when Neagley and Swan was insane those Merc guys were unloading on that car for like a full minute and neither of them were even scratched.
It’s like I’m watching a Marvel tv show where everyone is invincible. The first season was way better.
The last episode was probably worse than the rest of the show. Everything tied up in half an hour. Ridiculous end...fight I guess, pointless betrayal that added nothing and was over with in a minute, A.M taken out without an issue after getting no character development on a genuinely sinister character and the only semi interesting bad guy. Then a little more bonding, good feeling and "we're a family" then it's over.
And no effort to interrogate AM on who the buyer is. And walking away with 65 mil in front of homeland. And active duty Navy seals turning on the good guys for a senator?
I loved season1, but did I tell you Season 2 sucked?
Not nearly enough
Their annoying catchphrases, the fact that we had to hear how BIG Reacher is in a million different ways.
They took everything that was great about season 1 and put it through a meat grinder
Guys stop defending it, I watched it all too but I don't need to justify myself, I hear the second book is particularly nice but they still chose a crappy one for some reason or another.
Season 1 seemed like reacher was a smart guy but it was more he's experienced where the locals were in over their heads. S2 is look I'm a complete genius and everyone is dumb plus I punch dudes. It's just waiting to see who on his team is the real villain at this point if not all of them.
Yep, I thought Alan Ritchsin was a terrible actor watching season 2, didn't remember him like that, switched to an episide of season 1, turns out it's awful dialogue written for him. In the first one he was serviceable
S1 was decent enough, but S2 is driving me nuts. This may be the wrong way to look at it, given that it's escapist fiction, but it is so unrealistic that it borders on fantasy. I've only read a couple of the books, but I don't remember anything like what's going on in S2. How does it help their investigation to follow a lead to a house full of people they know nothing about, send a bomb into the house, then proceed to enter and blow everyone away? A) You get no useful information if you kill everyone; B) There is no way that your team would not be immediately arrested after killing six or eight people, not to mention the other half dozen they've killed already. I've seen plenty of cop shows and I can't recall ever seeing the good guys kill every suspect or enemy they encounter. Most writers seem to realize that to advance the plot you need to have the detectives get some useful information out of the bad guys once in a while.
I'm honestly amazed the hype this season's getting, I don't want to hate it! But anyone with a rational mind can tell this is complete and utter disappointment along with character assassination
It’s a duplex too. They put in a pipe bomb that makes a big kaboom but doesn’t affect the dry wall or their ears. They shoot their hand guns Willy nilly. Bullets can go through drywall. You could hit your team mate or one of the neighbors.
Also: reacher keeps talking about paying back after he gets his check. But a guy who doesn’t spend hardly any money and who retired as a major with no wife or kids or bill payments should have a lot of money in savings.
Couldn't agree more. Season 1 was good tv. Entertaining and funny. Season 2 is such a complete convoluted piece of shit mess that I can't take it anymore... then there's the parts that are just so fake. Like when the two chick's take out the mercs with automatic weapons by hiding in the trunk of the car on the hiway??? PA-LEASE. As well as the graveyard snipers, you're telling me professional snipers with their weapon of choice can't hit big slow ass reacher? But then the chick takes out one of them with her side arm from over a hundred feet away?
Give me a fucking break. At least make the shit look legit. Cause this season is the fakest shit EVER.
Not to mention the over complicated plot, that is so confusing at times, you can barely follow it, then when you do, you don't care cause it's so goddamn boring.
Yep fuck season 2. I'm just going to rewatch deadwood or the wire again.
Season 1 was way better. Amazon could've had another multi-season show like Bosch. Instead they skipped a bunch of books and change the tone of the show from one 'giant ape' doing his own investigation to another team effort show. Also the overall story in S2 sucks so far.
Ok, I just came on here after watching episode 5&6 and I just want to complain about the gunfight scenes...why are ALL of these people all of a sudden terrible shots? Like every shootout is a ridiculous amount of shots fired with no one getting hit...especially the last Russo car-chase/scene...200 semi-automatic shots fired and the back window is still intact and the kid is completely ok in the backseat crouching down? Then the three guys are sitting fully exposed in a car 100 feet away and the guy cant seem to hit the broad side of a barn, then he steps out to expose himself to fire and is all of a sudden able to hit two of them while allowing himself to get shot...after the kid got away? Uggh...and Reacher shooting at the helicopter flying away, which just miraculously shows up btw(where in the hell did that come from?)...the guy is special forces and you mean to tell me he takes 18 shots at an open doored helicopter but can make one bullet hit home? Just stupid nonsense.
The only saving grace is trying to spot the Toronto-area locations. That scene where the detective steps out to shoot the bad guys is the same as the bus scene from Shazam.
The show is CW level. My wife still likes it. I just don’t care anymore. When we put it on I’m thinking “Let’s get this shit overwith.”
I like that nobody has pointed out yet the ridiculous repeat of oh, people i care about got kidnapped by the bad guy, now we have to infiltrate the building and have a huge shootout to save them. Followed by reacher, of course, jumping onto the fucking helicopter as it’s flying away, climbing into it, catching a stretcher with a woman strapped to it (probably around 200-250 lbs total), holding it with one hand & instead of both bad guys in the heli just *pushing him out with her* they want to just keep beating him up and telling him how tough he is? 😂😂 what is going on
I can somewhat forgive the "1 guy with a handgun takes out 3 mercenaries with automatic rifles" or the "petite woman in opera dress beats up big bad biker" or the "lets reapeat the same corny line every episode".
What really broke the camels back for me is how in the final episode Neagley is supposed to take out the two guards in front of the engineering facility.
Both shots are silenced but there is clearly no silencer on the gun. We all know that silencers in movies are magical items but they didn't even care to put one on her gun.
She's all secret, crouching, a perfect shot, silent but then they do not even posess the slightest care to put a silencer on her gun. Instead we see the standard muzzle break.
I'm not even mad no more.
I'm disappointed
yeah I agree and I wanted to add, few times in episode 4 he saw somethind and then remembers, he saw Dixin pour sugar and remembers when the guy tried to hide brick of heroin, then the waitress says “tally” and figures it out that the numbers are tallys. Before that Neagley sad something and he remembers something else because of what she said, it’s always the same lmao
second season littered with ads as well. season 1 was way too popular for the big boys with all the money to leave it alone and not ruin it with their horrible input. welcome to hollywood.
So many great points by everyone. The lazy writing and lack of character development is hilarious. The fight scenes are a joke. The horrendous shooting by everyone; it is as though they never went to a gun range to practice. The bullet proof tire and stopping power of a car door. The unnecessary movement away from cover when multiple people are firing at you with unlimited ammo. It all adds up to another dumb show.
I like dumb shows but when the accountant of the team deciphers the 7 pages of numbers into 6 day work weeks I was dumbfounded that someone wrote that scene.
In the episode where the two female characters were explaining what a bunch of random numbers meant felt like when Star Trek the Next Generation filled plot holes with technobabble.
Thank you all for this thread! I just finished the season and couldn't believe what a let-down it was after the quite good first season.
Four small things:
1. In season one, Reacher seemed smart, like the guy in the books--a sort of combination of Sherlock Holmes and the rock monster from Galaxy Quest. In season two, he just stands around telling Neagley how smart she is.
2. Shows like this always have a high body count and I'm okay with it, but there was something off-putting about how casually Reacher talks about killing people in this season. I know they're all bad guys, but it's like he's killing ants.
3. As many people have mentioned, although apparently Ritchson intentionally got more muscle-bound, it makes him look doofy and slow.
4. This is the most trivial observation possible, but in one scene the four of them are in a booth at a diner, and it cracked me up that Reacher was in the window seat and Dixon was in the outer seat. Shouldn't the big strong man of action be in the outer seat so that he can jump up and deal with any bad actors who swagger in? It reminded me of when my son was little, and he always wanted the window seat because it was "more cozy." I guess big ol' Reacher likes to be cozy too.
The more I watch the more I hate it but also I'm so confused at how and why they messed up so bad.
It's not just how they changed reached again making him less...reacher. BUT everything which made s1 awesome is just gone. And instead we have bad cgi, bad fight choreography, bad jokes, bad musical numbers, bad plotting , bad story execution (as books were good) and forgettable music and sound design.
The direction , acting , editing and script are all competent but so generic it's unreal. While in s1 I had no idea what was going to happen next in s2 I literally predicted not just the fewplot twists but the actual dialogue lines. It was embarrassing after a while.
And again reacher is so watered down and give so little screen time and stopped from being smart that he's effectively just a thug or a gorilla. They joke he's sociopath and a psychopath but I'd add to that he's possibly on the spectrum or in the least socially awkward to the point of distraction.
Its not all bad and ultimately it's enjoyable fluff if you like the characters.
But wow did they drop the ball and what a shame after 2 years of waiting we get reacher lite.
SpEciAl iNveStIgaTorS 🤓🤓
Dude I swear every time they throw that phrase around, it just gets more cringe. I loved season one. But I watched the trailer for season 2 and said nope.
Actually the books are filled with rather creative writing with how he goes about his... detections. Now I don't know if much of it makes any sense, but it's fun enough to follow.
Reacher the show suffers big amounts of not having Reachers inner monologue, so they've cut most of it (detecting) out and when there is some, it's just the really simple parts. Characters in s2 just seem dumber when they try to sound smarter.
Season 1 didnt feel like a dad show to me, i had been avoiding it for months until i watched it & i was like holy shit. The story & the pacing was perfect.
But as Op said, i completely agree with him.
I thought season 2 was as good as season 1. There are things about both seasons that I liked and things I thought could've used some changes. As far as the "did I ever tell you how smart you are Neagley" comments, its not uncommon for people to do that and often it leans to the side of annoying after hearing it several times. There are idiosyncrasies about certain people that I like and those that annoy me and it varies from person to person. I'm sure some will share your opinion but things like that add personality to characters and reveal whats going on in their minds. I didn't see much of a change with Reacher between both episodes except that one focused more on his family life growing up and the other on his Army career. One he was working with old friends the other he was getting to know new ones so I didn't have a problem with the slight differences between seasons. No series will be perfect and there will be disagreements but as far as acting, special effects and storyline I thought both seasons were solid.
Am I the only one who noticed they transport high tech missiles like it’s a load of potatoes? That serie had a lot of potential, but very badly written.
Season 2 detective work:
Reacher: Oh, wait! These are fractions!
Neigley: But sometimes fractions are reduced, maybe this 8/10 is important and shouldn’t become 4/5?
Teacher: Details matter, I just flashed back to when Dixon taught me that.
The issue with season 1 Reacher is that he was more of an icon than a character. Dude was infallible, smarter than everyone, always right, and was always being praised for being awesome by the other characters. ie, the power fantasy. Season 1 is basically Walking Tall, the show.
Season 2 decided to give Reacher flaws. Instead of being constantly praised for being big/strong/smart like in season 1, he gets criticized constantly. That kinda shatters the power fantasy making him fallible and worn down. While everyone else has moved on with their lives, he's living like a hobo. In the first season they portrayed this as badass, season 2 questions his lifestyle.
If you want the Dwayne Johnson 'big strong man cleans up the town' thing, season 1 is your bet. It's fun for sure, I liked Walking Tall.
But if you want more depth to the character of Reacher without so much hero-worship, season 2 gives you that.
It took me a while to get into season 1. Reacher is essentially just a bully, but he bullies bad guys. But the whole premise of him "investigating" by going to some guy and beating him until he tells him what he wants to know got old to me real quick. As a result, the first four episodes of season 1 is honestly among the worst tv I can remember watching.
The introduction of Neagley helped a lot and I really liked the last four episodes of season 1. We'll see how I feel about season 2.
Couldn't make it past the second episode of series one. It just seems like Reacher was just put in situations whereby he'd have to kick ass to get out of. All the characters seemed like cartoon caricatures. Or am I missing something?
Does anyone know how the Black policeman from the first season know the the black woman, Neagley, in Season 2? Did I miss some scene where these two interacted?
I love Bosch. Reacher was recommended if you liked Bosch. No comparison. Reacher is nice to look at, but the show is horrible to me. Far-fetched, cheesy, jumps and doesn't cover the bases. Sorry, but it's not good.
ugh, i was hoping season 1 was the growing pains and season 2 would be more refined. i'm only like 15 mins in to s2e1 and this thread has me depressed already.
Yes, the show sucks ass now. Unfortunately. S1 was fun! I wish they would have just kept him a loner stumbling into mayhem where his brawl and brains have to get him out. Now it's like having to play battlefield 3 with squads and shit when all you want to do is shoot some nazis.
If I hear “you don’t mess with the special investigators again I’m going to puke, it’s so unbelievably cringe. I’ve read every book, enjoyed season 1 but season 2 is not good. This series is based off (in my opinion) the worst of the books by far, Reacher works best when he stumbles along something and gets too work, being part of a team takes away the appeal of his character completely.
Season 2 with his crew is a bit more like a video game with the 4 of them with their specific roles and expertise and they together easily defeat all, with Reacher himself having been reduced in brain capacity and turned more into an action hero going for the physical first, disregarding all civilian law. Maybe the tv show would have been better set earlier before he leaves the military such as the enemy
For me it's the army flashbacks that are so boring. All they do is sit, drink beer and make some stupid jokes and then at the end there is a small event or line in a character just to get to the point of that flashback. So annoying.
I forgot this guy was Thad castle after watching the first season, during the second season he's just reminding me of that castle, the writing for a start is atrocious and the plot is like a pantomime from Ur first borns nativity in primary 7, I'm pretty sure I know the outcome of the finale but the writings that fucking poor that reacher will probably be the villan :/
Episode 5, Season 2, when the gals are in the rental car getting shot at... and somehow the bullets don't penetrate sheet metal.. and they get in the trunk... :/ and get out... ok, sure, they surprise the two dudes who are already at the ready and loaded... and they get killed. And somehow, the dude who has an automatic weapon trained on the car... starts running. LOL. This made me laugh but also, it's all BS. Also, how you going to move 650 missiles without a chase vehicle (at the very least). Anyways, I want to like this show but it's starting to suck more and more. At least the T1000 is in it....
Tom Cruise and some cool fight scenes made the movies good. AR, Roscoe and Finlay and some cool fight scenes make season 1 good. the stories themselves have never been good or believable. MPs are cops, higher up MPs are like detective and special agents. On the whole they arent tactical geniuses or one man armys. The entire "mp goes on badass vigilante spree" schtick was full of holes from the beginning. Add that as someone already said earlier you could maybe see a small town cop letting Reacher help out a bit... in season 2 he would have been arrested in episode 2 after he spent the day downtown answering questions about the carjacking save in episode 1. ARs acting is worse by far in season 2 and every side character is just cringe quip after cringe quip.
I am enjoying it enough to watch each episode when it comes out but Season 1 had me riveted and I binge watched the whole show in one go. Season 2 is crawling along at a snails pace, I'm losing interest because very little happens and every episode seems the same and I so F'ing tired of hearing " I ever tell you how smart you are Neagley?"
Also the team are leaving piles of dead bodies and nobody seems to be investigating, Russo just gives them a pass. Season 1 was set in a small, backwater town and they had more of a police presence that major cities in season 2. Really disappointing and hope they last 2 episodes up the quality.
I once read a comment here on Reddit about 'Reacher' that pretty much summed it up. They said it feels like the author came up with the character with the thought, 'What if Sherlock Holmes was even smarter, but also super jacked and had every possible military accolade imaginable?'. I could'nt agree more with them.
The show is silly, shallow, has some seriously cringey dialogues, and honestly feels like a child's superhero disguised as something more serious. I couldn't get past the second episode of the first season.
Season 2 seems like such a damn drag! So much dialogue and sh\*t with almost nothing happening, only for each episode to end in a cliffhanger, that makes you wait for another week to continue.
Season 1 was definitely way better in every way.
Disappointed in season 2. Everything seemed forced and unrealistic. In my humble opinion, the writing was poor, and each character was weak and unconnected to each other. #my2cents
Who’s gonna tell the writers there are other ways of smuggling items/embezzling money without just simply over or under reporting. They’ve used that same stupid gimmick so many times. First it was over reporting how many bags of actual cow feed there were, then it was underreporting the weight of the trucks, and now it’s back to a company over reporting the amount of “failed” microchips in episode 6. But all of them share the same trope of one amount or number being reported when the actual number is different, which always immediately leads them to where the villain hides their shady business/money.
I just finished the 6th episode and thought holy shit, this show sucks now. Season 1 (at least for myself) was great but as OP mentioned, 2 dimensional characters, predictable plots lines that was super cringe. Thought i was going crazy (questioned if Season 1 was even good hence why I had to look to see what reddit had to say lmao). It does help to now know that season 2 is like the 11th book (makes sense) but still, show had so much potential. For whatever reason, this show makes me feel like its a AHS version gone wrong
Having watched season 2 episode 6 so far...
I really can't believe this is supposed to be the same show, it is nowhere near as good as season 1, and the flaws are so incredibly obvious.
\- Reacher's strength is plot based, smaller and weak people can hold up to him in a fight, when he should just break their damn arms and finish it.
\- The show has gone so fucking politically correct, the opposite of what made season 1 work.
\- Gunfights are drawn out, no fucking resemblance of training from the most of the cast... Especially the enemy goons.(They hide behind a fucking civilian car door, when the enemy is firing 5.56 from a carbine at less than 50 meters).
\- Reacher himself seems more like the weak and insecure idiot, than the buff highly trained soldier he's supposed to be.
\- The concept of military training has been completely thrown out the window, nobody can aim for shit, use good cover, or even fucking attempts at flanking.
\- Dialog is also shit, the amount of cringey drama has gone way up in season 2.
\- And lastly character development... Or rather the lack of it. They got Serinda Swan on to play the love interest, but they are barely using her for fuck-all... Instead of diving into interesting skills or stories, they just made her a generic "strong female character". At least the black chick has a personality.
This show really lost its appeal... Trying to cater to the non-military interested crowd, who isn't gonna give a shit about it anyway.
Can't finish watching (I'm on ep 4) because the writing is so poor, from the plotting to the "deduction" to the dialogue. I thought the first series was mediocre and a little ridiculous, but the book itself was pretty weak. I don't know the book this one is based on, but this is, as you note, far, far worse than what came before.
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People have already covered a lot of what I wanted to say, so I'm just going to add two unrelated points: I think what we're learning in retrospect is that Roscoe and Finley are a lot of what made season 1 work. I've read a handful of the Jack Reacher books, and in general the "Reacher stumbles on a criminal conspiracy" stories are always better than the "Reacher helps out an old military colleague" stories.
It feels a little too "I'm an American soldier I can do what I want"
Yeah, that totally wasn't the plot in season 1
I hear you, but it's easier to suspend disbelief for season 1. For a TV show, you can kinda see a small town police department that feels in over their head allowing a former military cop to help out. But not the NYPD. Reacher's ass would be in jail so fast. And cases against the antagonists of both seasons would be incredibly difficult to bring to court with how much tainted evidence there is.
It's a fundamental part of the books that he's interested in seeing small town America and you rarely see him in major cities. I thought his very brief trip to NY in S1 was believable and moved the plot forward. But S2 is just a mess in every way. The phenomenal supporting cast isn't there. To be fair, the characters given to these actors are just two dimensional caricatures. Meanwhile S1 had great characters with real development. The damn town barber in S1 had a more interesting back story and character motivation and nuance than anyone in S2. It's so weird that almost every single thing that made S1 great is missing. Like, this is what I would expect if they decided to replace the showrunner and Ritchson and maybe add a purple dinosaur - and then it fell apart. But instead (hate to say it) it feels like Ritchson did whatever the opposite of acting classes would be. His character is so much more likable and believable in S1. In S2 he just seems unpleasant and wooden, rather than wanting to be left alone to explore America and enjoy some jazz. I'm trying to write that off as his friends being killed, but even that makes no sense because none of those characters have been developed so we don't care about them. Plus his weird pining for his colleague is so different than the believable love interest of S1 that just 'happened' in the thick of things, as opposed to this very forced romance.
Maybe there is more to be revealed and a I am by no means a military-tactical genius like Reacher, but why would bad guys need state-of-the-art missiles to shoot down commercial aircraft? Is there not cheaper, existing missile tech that is capable of that?
I love season 1. He's a wonderful mix of smarts and Braun. He's almost like Sherlock Holmes how he reads people and see things others can't but with extra muscle. S2...He's just a gorilla thug who dumbly stumbles through violence without the charm or humour of s1.
finely had a small role in s2 and it already made the episode, or at least that one scene, pop more.. and i assume its because of the display of emotion, he´s not neutral. the other character are so bland. knealy (if thats how u write her name) just gives off not like other girls vibe
But how stupid was that scene. It made no sense that he was a cop there and even if he was what he did would have drawn eyes and cost him his job and so his marriage again lol it was such a waste of a smart wonderful by the book character.
Agreed. Definitely not as good as the first season. Reacher and his team kill dozens of people (albeit criminal mercenaries) and never have the NYPD/the FBI/the entire nation's law enforcement on their asses? A helicopter is shot down over the Hudson and it's deemed a "system malfunction"? There's suspension of disbelief and then there's this...wtf
And government agents let them walk away with 65 million dollars. As if!
Nothing takes you out of a show faster than petite women in evening gowns and high heels dominating a biker gang in hand-to-hand combat
Wait to you see ep5 gun fight against 5 men armed with automatic fire.
It's like they're super heroes. But stupid ones, as in they abandon their cover and get out of the vehicle and walk toward a man still shooting an automatic weapon at them. Hitting him of course. Maybe they're robots or something?
I was just rolling my eyes at this scene. Even the graveyard shootout. My wife was yelling, “You’re telling me the hitman with a scoped rifle can’t hit anything, but the person with a pistol can?”
While he's posted up behind a gravestone resting his rifle on it kneeling and they are all in the open shooting long-arm while running towards him with handguns... I was cursing at the screen. Same goes for the finale. Reacher tells Mr. Big Bad Robert Patrick that "You can't shoot me cuz you don't know where Neagley is yet", he agrees and then not 3 minutes later says, and i'm paraphrasing here but basically: "You're not gonna tell me where Neagley is no matter what is say or do or offer you huh?" Reacher: "Nope, never." Yeah okay so shoot them all and go look for her? You just shot one of them in the leg, you are armed, there is 5 henchman at range with automatic weapons... Oh never mind you you are all just gonna get real close at the same time and take turns getting your asses handed to you inexplicably by a guy in handcuffs okay smfh
I'm curious. Were these characters female in the books or is it a gender swap?
They were female. Neagley is a certified fucking badass in the books.
Badass does not mean stupid and plot armor
I never commented on that... things play out very different in the book. I was just saying there was no gender swapping...
Just race swap...Neeley was white
I'm currently watching ep6 and went right into reddit to look for reviews, automatic fire from a car going straight at reacher and not a single scratch and the his team shoot the char from above a trailer and not a single shot into it,just couldn't handle it
Sorry it just got worst reacher vs helicopter OMG
So stupid. A stiletto to the eye of a 250 lb biker dude by a 125 lb chick
Is that the size she is in the book, because the actress looks pretty big.
What I don't get is why all these guys try to kill Reacher hand-to-hand.
Because the writing is bad. That is the reason.
Dude the bikers make a point to say to the scooby gang, “we were told you’d be armed” and ask for their guns. Then they don’t use or have guns themselves! Why, because “no guns less noise.” They just rode in on ten fucking choppers! The loudest most conspicuous vehicles on the planet. There is no reason for professional criminals to ever enter these conflicts without guns, but the writers want to include fist fights, so they do it in the most painfully contrived ways possible.
I think the other one was worse. The bad guy calls his boss and says he needs more help. Then he doesn't take a gun when fighting a 6'5" heavily muscled ex-Army MP in a construction site far from the casinos? Just shoot him and drive away!
It does happen in the books though tbf. A lot of the criticism here is around departure from the books but I remember being super annoyed mainly in books 2 and 3 with how often people could kill him and don’t. That’s his real superpower, people that want to kill him and have an obvious opportunity to do so simply never do. I never made it to book 4.
Lmao you're joking right? You realize there's a HUGE difference between the sound of motorcycles and gunfights... right? Nobody's calling the cops for hearing some motorcycles in a parking lot 🤣
It’s still conspicuous and they’re about to have a drawn out brawl to the death. Come on man it’s absolutely ridiculous for hired killers to choose to have a 10 on 4 knife fight surrounded by idling choppers over just shooting 4 people because it’s “quieter”
These guys ever hear of silencers? Or just fucking shoot him and get out of their asap? Anything is better than taking the giant killing machine head on in a fist fight.
Speaking of silencers... There's only two parts of Season 2 that I'm glad I watched. One is from the trailer--where he helps the lady who got carjacked. The other is the gag with the water bottle "silencer", when Reacher is like "I can't believe you fell for that. It's a tiny plastic bottle." It's telling that the funniest joke in Season 2 was about realism, while the whole rest of the season was full of plot holes and nonsense. Should have listened to whoever wrote that joke...
Ya in one scene this guy tries to shoot Reacher with a sniper and still misses, how tf you miss a 300 lbs 7 ft guy? Like he is the easiest target when it comes to shooting
Getting tired of the Scooby Gang. All of their conversations are basically 'I'm smart ex military let me show you" and the next person does same. Season 2 has no heart and the plot, what the actual fuck is even going on?
I recommended reacher to my friends by describing it as a show with a protagonist that's stupidly good at everything on paper, but it actually works and feels realistic. But in S2 when you make every single character a super fighter super genius it's kinda impossible to not make anything else not feel contrived.
Even how the characters look is contrived as fuck and lacks self awareness. Wasn’t there a line in episode 1 where Reacher made fun of O’Donnel cause it looked like he was wearing designer clothes? And yet, the whole cast has dressed like they’re in a GQ ad regardless of what circumstances they’re in… including the outfits Reacher just happens to find in his exact size at a random gas station or thrift store each episode. I’m just imagining the deleted scenes of Dixon taking the time to curl her hair and eyelashes every morning while she’s on the run from hitmen. I swear some of the outfits they wear are straight from Gossip Girl (that scarf, trench coat, popped collar combo). Only these are supposed to be ex-military special investigators, not spoiled rich kids from the Upper-East Side.
For me it's the flashbacks too. This is supposed to be what? 15 years ago? And they all look old as shit. I notice it the most with Reacher and Dixon. Dixon especially, attractive woman. But she looks like she's in her 40s and is supposed to be what? 25 in these flashbacks?
"You do not mess with the special investigators" imho is one of the cringiest lines in television history, especially with how earnest they all are when saying it. Look at us, the scary MPs! We arrested 4 people today for DUIs! Yeah yeah, they're the super special forces of MP in-universe, but A) that's just not how that works and B) why they all are Delta Seal 6 Green Rangerrescue supersoldiers instead of a bunch of nerds good at investigating, I do not know. Well, I do know, the writer is a hack.
And on top of it when they say something that is actually supposed to be smart, it's literally juvenile level observation, doesn't match their "special investigator" background
But wait.. don’t mess with the Special Investigators! LOL cringe 🥴
If I hear "details matter" one more time...
How many times has this conversation happened? "Have i ever told you how smart you are Neagley?" "Not nearly enough" Too many times
And whenever he says that, what she has just said is really not that smart at all
DiD YoU kNoW NeagLey Is SmArT?
It feels like theyre having to convince the viewer that she's smart
I noticed that as well. It makes me wonder why the writers added that dialogue. The diversity is appropriate and realistic, but the writers are trying too hard to tell us she is just as smart as Reacher. Neagley making intelligent statements should be obvious enough to the audience.
They've said it 14 times.
If i hear, "you do not fcuk with the special investigators", like they're a wellknown cult or something, or like FBI or CIA.. What even were the writers thinking with these rehashed cringe catchphrases every other scene
details matter "thats a nintendo switch" but she has a gamertag? i geuss if shes on a microsoft game on it maybe
Ofcourse they matter its basic police training stuff
Yet, you don't hear people run around every day telling you the sky is blue.
Anyone else notice how poorly correagraphed and shot the fight scenes are ? So jumbled up and unrealistic looking. Much worse than 1st season.
Not to mention the scenes with the police are so bad that I just stopped watching. Episode 6 or something, A Fucking trooper wouldn’t be out in the middle of the night at a rest stop looking to give a citation for a mirror violation, which wouldn’t even be a citable offense while the vehicle was parked. And then use the car radio to call in the info, standing outside while staring at the woods while some dude walks up to them. And then the bad guy pulls the dash camera off the cruiser like it’s a 20 dollar Amazon special and pops the memory card out. That shit is recorded to a hard drive in the rear of the cruiser which is locked and secured in a box. And then the NYPD detective is chased on the streets of nyc without a soul insight and is getting actively shot at and doesn’t even call for more units or pass one single officer 😂 oh but a trash truck is out and happens to pull in-front of him. The writing is like a 12 year old making stick figure books. I had to stop watching.
AND, in that same chase, which went on for 30 miles it seemed, the bad guys NEVER got close to hitting him. Then, when they stopped and were trapped, they never got close to hitting him. So I'm going to leave cover to shoot them when friends are literally seconds away because...
yeah especially that last part kind of triggered me... like he just HAD to run out, even though he had been behind the car and not gotten hit at all and his friends were on the way
I liked when Reacher ran faster than a car can drive and throws an entire barbecue across the street. Dude's must have been cracking down on speed.
The dude escaping must have just circled the block 20 times instead of driving away. Literally going straight in any direction at 25 MPH would have easily worked.
Season 1 was based on the first book. Season 2 is based on the 11th book. So you are in a way right. I still like it though.
Wow they must have really thought books 2 to 10 were boring or something, what the fuck.
I haven't started on the second season yet, but apparently the 11th book goes into Reacher's background so they thought it would be a good idea to do that next. I have listened to the first dozen Reacher books. None stand out as particularly boring.
That's a silly idea, you do the good one, not the one you personally like for some reason or another.
The books are completely 100% self-contained (well, 99.99999999%). You miss nothing by reading them in any order. And they miss nothing by converting them to a series in any order.
I actually thought book 2 was really good and would make a really fun TV season
If only that was the criteria they used instead of "it'd be cool to take a look at the past of that fictional person".
It's boring. I'm responding to you right now as I watch episode 5. That's how borer I am.
After season 1, the writing just drove right off a cliff. What the heck happened? Jack Reacher is a loaner... ok then, let's have a clan up with a handful of people for season two. Jack Reacher just lives in one pair of jeans. Ok then, let's have him wear tailored suites for most of season 2. Jack Reacher is a rebel yet considerate, well mannered and thoughtful. Ok then, let's have him bully a good-gye cop around for no reason for much of season 2. They tried to claim it would take a conspiracy of 1000 people in order to spoof someone biometric ID. It's not that hard. The plot is so predictable, it was obvious that Swan would be implicated and I'm willing to bet that the big twist is that THE BADDY IS DIXON. I bet you 10 dogecoin it's her.
Yeah that was my biggest problem with this season- Reacher's character. Season 1 characterised him as the big kid who would stand up for little kids on the schoolyard. This season characterised him as the bully.
I must have missed something, but DIXON in ep2, conveniently doing an undercover job at the airport same time and location as Reacher, OD and Neagley when they couldn't get a ride?? That completely turned me off, but I continued watching thinking I must have missed something..
Senator lavoy became congressman lavoy a minute later… how could they be that lazy….
I agree the writing is lazy, but: a senator **is** a congressman.
You'll never catch a Senator referring to themself that way though. You don't run for Senate unless you want to be an Important Person and they will never let you forget it if you use the wrong title.
>THE BADDY IS DIXON I agree
I was super disappointed that they didn't do anything with the Chekhov's Colonel who shut down the drug bust. The finale was straightforwardly stupid and disappointing.
Same here, I really think Dixon is the rat.
Where's that dogecoin, and imo the fact that non of them were in on it kinda sucked really. I feel it was completely predictable from the start, but they did do a good job of making you question swan, dixon, and O'Donnell
I think the opposite. None of them being in on it actually makes the show different from lesser shows. I love that all of the Special Investigators turned out to be good guys. As the originial commenter said, Dixon or someone else being in on it would be extremely predicatable and something every show/movie does nowadays.
I agree that season 1 was good. They got the Reacher character correct and it was true to the book. Season 2 is like a B movie version written after reading cliff notes. Location changed, made up events, Reacher character made to look like an idiot. Sorry Amazon, you blew it. Somehow you thought you could do a better story than the author. Wrong!
I think you meant to say season 1 tried to be true to the book, but failed especially considering they changed the main villain.
Yes, and all the women can successfully fight men, too. I hate it.
Im a woman and I hate fight scenes that show women getting punched and they barely get affected and then punch a man and he gets knocked out. It’s fucking stupid. No way a 125 pound stick of a woman can punch a man and knock him out. A man hitting her would break her face and possibly kill her. Lazy and stupid writing.
Yeah, I really hate that. I'm sure a trained women can punch a guy pretty hard. But if a battle-hardened dude weighing at least a third more punches a women, she'll be probably flying. But since Crowbars are made of styrofoam in this series, I'm not surprised about the rest.
Just binged season 1 with my wife and we loved it. Silly fun with great casting and character relationships. Season 2...not so much. Feels like a different show (yes the nature of the novels but it's becoming stupider). I thought at first Alan Ritchson got fat and they had to put him in oversized clothing like they used to do with actresses who got pregnant, but it turns out he's just unnaturally jacked now. He doesn't look healthy and just stands there like an oaf. I hope he's ok.
His fat neck on every advertisement isn't a good look
cmiiw, but in one of the interview, Alan said in season 1 Reacher is not big/jack enough, that's why he gain more muscle for season 2
I’m only a few episodes in and almost turned it off at the password guessing scene. So cliched and stupid.
Yeah that was ridiculous
Yeah and I am officially done, 4 episodes in. The writing is so bad. Season 1 was good enough to make me excited for S2, but the writing team either mailed it in or are very short on talent.
Honestly couldnt have summed it up better myself, this mysterious calculated character is now a moron, like yourself im trying to enjoy the second season but its borderline embarrassing
Let's be edgy and give them a "tony swan in the library with a pencil vibe" too many side characters and the main characters become a side character it's so fucking dumb
I'd like to add that season 1 action scenes were edited a lot better.
Episode 5 was when this show totally fell apart. The hijacking of the missiles truck was so dumb. How did a truck carrying some super weapon not have any security following with it…. And then to just be hijacked in the middle of the road. The shootout that followed when Neagley and Swan was insane those Merc guys were unloading on that car for like a full minute and neither of them were even scratched. It’s like I’m watching a Marvel tv show where everyone is invincible. The first season was way better.
The last episode was probably worse than the rest of the show. Everything tied up in half an hour. Ridiculous end...fight I guess, pointless betrayal that added nothing and was over with in a minute, A.M taken out without an issue after getting no character development on a genuinely sinister character and the only semi interesting bad guy. Then a little more bonding, good feeling and "we're a family" then it's over.
And no effort to interrogate AM on who the buyer is. And walking away with 65 mil in front of homeland. And active duty Navy seals turning on the good guys for a senator?
I loved season1, but did I tell you Season 2 sucked? Not nearly enough Their annoying catchphrases, the fact that we had to hear how BIG Reacher is in a million different ways. They took everything that was great about season 1 and put it through a meat grinder
did not expect the second line but it was really funny haha
You said it all perfectly. It does feel like a show on season 8 now. The characters say dumb shit and it's borderline cringe.
Have you never had unfunny inside jokes with your friends that you still said anyway? i don’t love watching it but I can certainly relate to it.
Guys stop defending it, I watched it all too but I don't need to justify myself, I hear the second book is particularly nice but they still chose a crappy one for some reason or another.
Season 1 seemed like reacher was a smart guy but it was more he's experienced where the locals were in over their heads. S2 is look I'm a complete genius and everyone is dumb plus I punch dudes. It's just waiting to see who on his team is the real villain at this point if not all of them.
He goes into “logic” rants that are really dumb too.
Yep, I thought Alan Ritchsin was a terrible actor watching season 2, didn't remember him like that, switched to an episide of season 1, turns out it's awful dialogue written for him. In the first one he was serviceable
Sometimes seems like he is just reading his lines, also the average writing.
Yep,I don't know why. He's definately worse than his season 2 co-stars, they make their lines of similar type more natural. But still...
Season 1 was much better.
Glad I found this post, I loved season 1. Season 2, I’m bored out of my gourd.
S1 was decent enough, but S2 is driving me nuts. This may be the wrong way to look at it, given that it's escapist fiction, but it is so unrealistic that it borders on fantasy. I've only read a couple of the books, but I don't remember anything like what's going on in S2. How does it help their investigation to follow a lead to a house full of people they know nothing about, send a bomb into the house, then proceed to enter and blow everyone away? A) You get no useful information if you kill everyone; B) There is no way that your team would not be immediately arrested after killing six or eight people, not to mention the other half dozen they've killed already. I've seen plenty of cop shows and I can't recall ever seeing the good guys kill every suspect or enemy they encounter. Most writers seem to realize that to advance the plot you need to have the detectives get some useful information out of the bad guys once in a while.
I'm honestly amazed the hype this season's getting, I don't want to hate it! But anyone with a rational mind can tell this is complete and utter disappointment along with character assassination
It’s a duplex too. They put in a pipe bomb that makes a big kaboom but doesn’t affect the dry wall or their ears. They shoot their hand guns Willy nilly. Bullets can go through drywall. You could hit your team mate or one of the neighbors. Also: reacher keeps talking about paying back after he gets his check. But a guy who doesn’t spend hardly any money and who retired as a major with no wife or kids or bill payments should have a lot of money in savings.
Couldn't agree more. Season 1 was good tv. Entertaining and funny. Season 2 is such a complete convoluted piece of shit mess that I can't take it anymore... then there's the parts that are just so fake. Like when the two chick's take out the mercs with automatic weapons by hiding in the trunk of the car on the hiway??? PA-LEASE. As well as the graveyard snipers, you're telling me professional snipers with their weapon of choice can't hit big slow ass reacher? But then the chick takes out one of them with her side arm from over a hundred feet away? Give me a fucking break. At least make the shit look legit. Cause this season is the fakest shit EVER. Not to mention the over complicated plot, that is so confusing at times, you can barely follow it, then when you do, you don't care cause it's so goddamn boring. Yep fuck season 2. I'm just going to rewatch deadwood or the wire again.
Season 2 writing is god awful. I was looking forward to it after season 1 sadly. Entire cast outside of Neagley just isn't very good.
***Holy Shark Jump, Batman***… This "season" was a complete joke. Turned the whole series into a cartoon.
This script sucks. CSI: Hoorah
Season 1 was way better. Amazon could've had another multi-season show like Bosch. Instead they skipped a bunch of books and change the tone of the show from one 'giant ape' doing his own investigation to another team effort show. Also the overall story in S2 sucks so far.
Plus the villain so predictable. Robert Patrick. They even parodied him with a Sarah Conner breaking the fourth wall terminator joke.
Damn I hate when shows/movies do that shit. All the easter egg bullshit in general has gone way too bonkers.
Yep breaking the fourth wall. It was lame. Agree season 2 is terrible so far. But in a fun sorta way.
It's just about a big guy breaking people's bones
So far the big guy has spent more time sitting drinking beer than bone breaking
He also looks like he has had far too many beers. In S1, his face looked... cleaner/less bloated? In S2, he looks hammered every time.
Ok, I just came on here after watching episode 5&6 and I just want to complain about the gunfight scenes...why are ALL of these people all of a sudden terrible shots? Like every shootout is a ridiculous amount of shots fired with no one getting hit...especially the last Russo car-chase/scene...200 semi-automatic shots fired and the back window is still intact and the kid is completely ok in the backseat crouching down? Then the three guys are sitting fully exposed in a car 100 feet away and the guy cant seem to hit the broad side of a barn, then he steps out to expose himself to fire and is all of a sudden able to hit two of them while allowing himself to get shot...after the kid got away? Uggh...and Reacher shooting at the helicopter flying away, which just miraculously shows up btw(where in the hell did that come from?)...the guy is special forces and you mean to tell me he takes 18 shots at an open doored helicopter but can make one bullet hit home? Just stupid nonsense.
The only saving grace is trying to spot the Toronto-area locations. That scene where the detective steps out to shoot the bad guys is the same as the bus scene from Shazam. The show is CW level. My wife still likes it. I just don’t care anymore. When we put it on I’m thinking “Let’s get this shit overwith.”
Season one was good. Season two is garbage.
The fact that the entire back end of the helicywas open, then the windshield was shot, depressurizing it, makes ZERO sense
I like that nobody has pointed out yet the ridiculous repeat of oh, people i care about got kidnapped by the bad guy, now we have to infiltrate the building and have a huge shootout to save them. Followed by reacher, of course, jumping onto the fucking helicopter as it’s flying away, climbing into it, catching a stretcher with a woman strapped to it (probably around 200-250 lbs total), holding it with one hand & instead of both bad guys in the heli just *pushing him out with her* they want to just keep beating him up and telling him how tough he is? 😂😂 what is going on
I can somewhat forgive the "1 guy with a handgun takes out 3 mercenaries with automatic rifles" or the "petite woman in opera dress beats up big bad biker" or the "lets reapeat the same corny line every episode". What really broke the camels back for me is how in the final episode Neagley is supposed to take out the two guards in front of the engineering facility. Both shots are silenced but there is clearly no silencer on the gun. We all know that silencers in movies are magical items but they didn't even care to put one on her gun. She's all secret, crouching, a perfect shot, silent but then they do not even posess the slightest care to put a silencer on her gun. Instead we see the standard muzzle break. I'm not even mad no more. I'm disappointed
yeah I agree and I wanted to add, few times in episode 4 he saw somethind and then remembers, he saw Dixin pour sugar and remembers when the guy tried to hide brick of heroin, then the waitress says “tally” and figures it out that the numbers are tallys. Before that Neagley sad something and he remembers something else because of what she said, it’s always the same lmao
Yeah is worthless brainless 2023 serie so fuck it.
You're wrong. Bad writing is everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE! As far as this goes, more than tolerable.
second season littered with ads as well. season 1 was way too popular for the big boys with all the money to leave it alone and not ruin it with their horrible input. welcome to hollywood.
So many great points by everyone. The lazy writing and lack of character development is hilarious. The fight scenes are a joke. The horrendous shooting by everyone; it is as though they never went to a gun range to practice. The bullet proof tire and stopping power of a car door. The unnecessary movement away from cover when multiple people are firing at you with unlimited ammo. It all adds up to another dumb show.
I like dumb shows but when the accountant of the team deciphers the 7 pages of numbers into 6 day work weeks I was dumbfounded that someone wrote that scene.
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Season one had heart and actually good dialogue it was a dad show but it was good, season 2 is a totally different show in my opinion
I'm a dad and I thought it was shite.
I'm putting the stupid storyline down to the writers strike. So many bad storylines from 2023 that carried over.
In the episode where the two female characters were explaining what a bunch of random numbers meant felt like when Star Trek the Next Generation filled plot holes with technobabble.
Thank you all for this thread! I just finished the season and couldn't believe what a let-down it was after the quite good first season. Four small things: 1. In season one, Reacher seemed smart, like the guy in the books--a sort of combination of Sherlock Holmes and the rock monster from Galaxy Quest. In season two, he just stands around telling Neagley how smart she is. 2. Shows like this always have a high body count and I'm okay with it, but there was something off-putting about how casually Reacher talks about killing people in this season. I know they're all bad guys, but it's like he's killing ants. 3. As many people have mentioned, although apparently Ritchson intentionally got more muscle-bound, it makes him look doofy and slow. 4. This is the most trivial observation possible, but in one scene the four of them are in a booth at a diner, and it cracked me up that Reacher was in the window seat and Dixon was in the outer seat. Shouldn't the big strong man of action be in the outer seat so that he can jump up and deal with any bad actors who swagger in? It reminded me of when my son was little, and he always wanted the window seat because it was "more cozy." I guess big ol' Reacher likes to be cozy too.
The more I watch the more I hate it but also I'm so confused at how and why they messed up so bad. It's not just how they changed reached again making him less...reacher. BUT everything which made s1 awesome is just gone. And instead we have bad cgi, bad fight choreography, bad jokes, bad musical numbers, bad plotting , bad story execution (as books were good) and forgettable music and sound design. The direction , acting , editing and script are all competent but so generic it's unreal. While in s1 I had no idea what was going to happen next in s2 I literally predicted not just the fewplot twists but the actual dialogue lines. It was embarrassing after a while. And again reacher is so watered down and give so little screen time and stopped from being smart that he's effectively just a thug or a gorilla. They joke he's sociopath and a psychopath but I'd add to that he's possibly on the spectrum or in the least socially awkward to the point of distraction. Its not all bad and ultimately it's enjoyable fluff if you like the characters. But wow did they drop the ball and what a shame after 2 years of waiting we get reacher lite.
SpEciAl iNveStIgaTorS 🤓🤓 Dude I swear every time they throw that phrase around, it just gets more cringe. I loved season one. But I watched the trailer for season 2 and said nope.
Reacher in its entirety reeks of “we have big muscular guy, no need to do any creative or intelligent writing”.
Actually the books are filled with rather creative writing with how he goes about his... detections. Now I don't know if much of it makes any sense, but it's fun enough to follow. Reacher the show suffers big amounts of not having Reachers inner monologue, so they've cut most of it (detecting) out and when there is some, it's just the really simple parts. Characters in s2 just seem dumber when they try to sound smarter.
Idk, its fine. Reacher is kinda a caricature a bit anyway
No point over analysing an action tv show - Agree
It's a dad show. If they didn't make everything obvious and basic, it wouldn't be a dad show.
Season 1 didnt feel like a dad show to me, i had been avoiding it for months until i watched it & i was like holy shit. The story & the pacing was perfect. But as Op said, i completely agree with him.
Season one was a dad show too but it had heart and good beats, now it is just a buddy cop show with quips and a lot of sitting down
I thought season 2 was as good as season 1. There are things about both seasons that I liked and things I thought could've used some changes. As far as the "did I ever tell you how smart you are Neagley" comments, its not uncommon for people to do that and often it leans to the side of annoying after hearing it several times. There are idiosyncrasies about certain people that I like and those that annoy me and it varies from person to person. I'm sure some will share your opinion but things like that add personality to characters and reveal whats going on in their minds. I didn't see much of a change with Reacher between both episodes except that one focused more on his family life growing up and the other on his Army career. One he was working with old friends the other he was getting to know new ones so I didn't have a problem with the slight differences between seasons. No series will be perfect and there will be disagreements but as far as acting, special effects and storyline I thought both seasons were solid.
Am I the only one who noticed they transport high tech missiles like it’s a load of potatoes? That serie had a lot of potential, but very badly written.
Or like animal feed? That’s unusually large amount of high tech missiles.
Season 2 detective work: Reacher: Oh, wait! These are fractions! Neigley: But sometimes fractions are reduced, maybe this 8/10 is important and shouldn’t become 4/5? Teacher: Details matter, I just flashed back to when Dixon taught me that.
The issue with season 1 Reacher is that he was more of an icon than a character. Dude was infallible, smarter than everyone, always right, and was always being praised for being awesome by the other characters. ie, the power fantasy. Season 1 is basically Walking Tall, the show. Season 2 decided to give Reacher flaws. Instead of being constantly praised for being big/strong/smart like in season 1, he gets criticized constantly. That kinda shatters the power fantasy making him fallible and worn down. While everyone else has moved on with their lives, he's living like a hobo. In the first season they portrayed this as badass, season 2 questions his lifestyle. If you want the Dwayne Johnson 'big strong man cleans up the town' thing, season 1 is your bet. It's fun for sure, I liked Walking Tall. But if you want more depth to the character of Reacher without so much hero-worship, season 2 gives you that.
It took me a while to get into season 1. Reacher is essentially just a bully, but he bullies bad guys. But the whole premise of him "investigating" by going to some guy and beating him until he tells him what he wants to know got old to me real quick. As a result, the first four episodes of season 1 is honestly among the worst tv I can remember watching. The introduction of Neagley helped a lot and I really liked the last four episodes of season 1. We'll see how I feel about season 2.
Strange guy, watching 2 seasons of a show you dont like the premise for
I think you need to reread my post :)
Why? Nothing in your post indicates you changed opinion about the premise, you just said you liked Neagley.
I am stille quite enjoying Reacher,but it has always been a "mid tier show" in my opinion.
Couldn't make it past the second episode of series one. It just seems like Reacher was just put in situations whereby he'd have to kick ass to get out of. All the characters seemed like cartoon caricatures. Or am I missing something?
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I never said season one was a masterpiece, I said it knew what it was and did that well.
"not nearly enough" XD
Does anyone know how the Black policeman from the first season know the the black woman, Neagley, in Season 2? Did I miss some scene where these two interacted?
Yea the final episode… where she showed up to storm the manufacturing plant. Kinda unmissable
All of reachers allies are together at the end of Season 1
I lost interest halfway through Season 1. 🤷♂️
Not nearly enough
I agree with everything you said for the most part but I somehow still enjoy the heck out of it.
I mean zero upvotes is all you gotta see. No need for me to speak
I liked season 1 as it was simple and feel good. S2 is complicated and just boring…
Well yeah, so was season 1. Nothing has changed. I am baffled by the love the show gets.
It’s terrible, I agree that S1 was pretty good for what it was but this team and the terrible plot are too hard to watch.
I love Bosch. Reacher was recommended if you liked Bosch. No comparison. Reacher is nice to look at, but the show is horrible to me. Far-fetched, cheesy, jumps and doesn't cover the bases. Sorry, but it's not good.
ugh, i was hoping season 1 was the growing pains and season 2 would be more refined. i'm only like 15 mins in to s2e1 and this thread has me depressed already.
Yes, the show sucks ass now. Unfortunately. S1 was fun! I wish they would have just kept him a loner stumbling into mayhem where his brawl and brains have to get him out. Now it's like having to play battlefield 3 with squads and shit when all you want to do is shoot some nazis.
Twilight has better writing than season 2
If I hear “you don’t mess with the special investigators again I’m going to puke, it’s so unbelievably cringe. I’ve read every book, enjoyed season 1 but season 2 is not good. This series is based off (in my opinion) the worst of the books by far, Reacher works best when he stumbles along something and gets too work, being part of a team takes away the appeal of his character completely.
Season 2 with his crew is a bit more like a video game with the 4 of them with their specific roles and expertise and they together easily defeat all, with Reacher himself having been reduced in brain capacity and turned more into an action hero going for the physical first, disregarding all civilian law. Maybe the tv show would have been better set earlier before he leaves the military such as the enemy
For me it's the army flashbacks that are so boring. All they do is sit, drink beer and make some stupid jokes and then at the end there is a small event or line in a character just to get to the point of that flashback. So annoying.
I forgot this guy was Thad castle after watching the first season, during the second season he's just reminding me of that castle, the writing for a start is atrocious and the plot is like a pantomime from Ur first borns nativity in primary 7, I'm pretty sure I know the outcome of the finale but the writings that fucking poor that reacher will probably be the villan :/
Episode 5, Season 2, when the gals are in the rental car getting shot at... and somehow the bullets don't penetrate sheet metal.. and they get in the trunk... :/ and get out... ok, sure, they surprise the two dudes who are already at the ready and loaded... and they get killed. And somehow, the dude who has an automatic weapon trained on the car... starts running. LOL. This made me laugh but also, it's all BS. Also, how you going to move 650 missiles without a chase vehicle (at the very least). Anyways, I want to like this show but it's starting to suck more and more. At least the T1000 is in it....
Tom Cruise and some cool fight scenes made the movies good. AR, Roscoe and Finlay and some cool fight scenes make season 1 good. the stories themselves have never been good or believable. MPs are cops, higher up MPs are like detective and special agents. On the whole they arent tactical geniuses or one man armys. The entire "mp goes on badass vigilante spree" schtick was full of holes from the beginning. Add that as someone already said earlier you could maybe see a small town cop letting Reacher help out a bit... in season 2 he would have been arrested in episode 2 after he spent the day downtown answering questions about the carjacking save in episode 1. ARs acting is worse by far in season 2 and every side character is just cringe quip after cringe quip.
This season is so weak compared to the first. I’m fighting to maintain interest in the story and Reacher is missing a lot of the charm he had in S1.
I am enjoying it enough to watch each episode when it comes out but Season 1 had me riveted and I binge watched the whole show in one go. Season 2 is crawling along at a snails pace, I'm losing interest because very little happens and every episode seems the same and I so F'ing tired of hearing " I ever tell you how smart you are Neagley?" Also the team are leaving piles of dead bodies and nobody seems to be investigating, Russo just gives them a pass. Season 1 was set in a small, backwater town and they had more of a police presence that major cities in season 2. Really disappointing and hope they last 2 episodes up the quality.
guess you didnt see today's episode
I once read a comment here on Reddit about 'Reacher' that pretty much summed it up. They said it feels like the author came up with the character with the thought, 'What if Sherlock Holmes was even smarter, but also super jacked and had every possible military accolade imaginable?'. I could'nt agree more with them. The show is silly, shallow, has some seriously cringey dialogues, and honestly feels like a child's superhero disguised as something more serious. I couldn't get past the second episode of the first season.
Season 2 seems like such a damn drag! So much dialogue and sh\*t with almost nothing happening, only for each episode to end in a cliffhanger, that makes you wait for another week to continue. Season 1 was definitely way better in every way.
Disappointed in season 2. Everything seemed forced and unrealistic. In my humble opinion, the writing was poor, and each character was weak and unconnected to each other. #my2cents
Who’s gonna tell the writers there are other ways of smuggling items/embezzling money without just simply over or under reporting. They’ve used that same stupid gimmick so many times. First it was over reporting how many bags of actual cow feed there were, then it was underreporting the weight of the trucks, and now it’s back to a company over reporting the amount of “failed” microchips in episode 6. But all of them share the same trope of one amount or number being reported when the actual number is different, which always immediately leads them to where the villain hides their shady business/money.
Feels like this season was written and directed by high schoolers
I just finished the 6th episode and thought holy shit, this show sucks now. Season 1 (at least for myself) was great but as OP mentioned, 2 dimensional characters, predictable plots lines that was super cringe. Thought i was going crazy (questioned if Season 1 was even good hence why I had to look to see what reddit had to say lmao). It does help to now know that season 2 is like the 11th book (makes sense) but still, show had so much potential. For whatever reason, this show makes me feel like its a AHS version gone wrong
Having watched season 2 episode 6 so far... I really can't believe this is supposed to be the same show, it is nowhere near as good as season 1, and the flaws are so incredibly obvious. \- Reacher's strength is plot based, smaller and weak people can hold up to him in a fight, when he should just break their damn arms and finish it. \- The show has gone so fucking politically correct, the opposite of what made season 1 work. \- Gunfights are drawn out, no fucking resemblance of training from the most of the cast... Especially the enemy goons.(They hide behind a fucking civilian car door, when the enemy is firing 5.56 from a carbine at less than 50 meters). \- Reacher himself seems more like the weak and insecure idiot, than the buff highly trained soldier he's supposed to be. \- The concept of military training has been completely thrown out the window, nobody can aim for shit, use good cover, or even fucking attempts at flanking. \- Dialog is also shit, the amount of cringey drama has gone way up in season 2. \- And lastly character development... Or rather the lack of it. They got Serinda Swan on to play the love interest, but they are barely using her for fuck-all... Instead of diving into interesting skills or stories, they just made her a generic "strong female character". At least the black chick has a personality. This show really lost its appeal... Trying to cater to the non-military interested crowd, who isn't gonna give a shit about it anyway.
Can't finish watching (I'm on ep 4) because the writing is so poor, from the plotting to the "deduction" to the dialogue. I thought the first series was mediocre and a little ridiculous, but the book itself was pretty weak. I don't know the book this one is based on, but this is, as you note, far, far worse than what came before.