Reacher (Alan Ritchson) goes undercover for the DEA to rescue an informant while simultaneously hunting a past adversary.

Streaming on: Prime Video

Episodes Viewed: 8 of 8

When you click play on , you know exactly what you’re going to get. Brought to life by Alan Ritchson, Lee Child’s crimefighting giant has outsmarted the rich and powerful and cracked the skulls of thugs and would-be assassins across two seasons, sometimes aided and obstructed by whatever law enforcement happen to be in his orbit. This third volume offers more of the same simple thrills, even if too much of this season coasts on the fundamentals, suffering from some unimaginative direction not doing enough to elevate it.

But those core components are as likeable as ever. Based on the seventh Reacher novel, Persuader, this new batch of episodes starts off in medias res with Ritchson’s titular hero working undercover for the DEA to rescue an informant while also looking to settle a years-old score. While the set-up is new for this series, it isn’t long before that novelty wears off and it settles into its familiar investigative rhythms, as Reacher and company slowly but surely put the puzzle pieces together. In what is surely the signature role of his career, Ritchson remains everything you could want for the embodiment of Child’s hero, bringing just the right amount of mordant humour — along with the requisite muscles.