Get Ready for More “Reacher”

Reacher, the eight-part Amazon Prime series based on Lee Child’s best-selling Jack Reacher thrillers, debuted on February 4—and has already amassed a goodly amount of praise among critics (see here and here, for instance). Shotsmag Confidential’s Ayo Onatade is especially complimentary of star Alan Ritchson, insisting that his portrayal of self-designated “hobo” and former military police investigator Reacher “will win over fans, not solely because of how he physically looks but also because of his acting as well. He has this quietness about him that epitomises the way in which Reacher is in the books, along with his confidence and at times weary patience.”

Now comes word that Reacher has been renewed for a second season—not surprisingly, given its viewer reception. “According to Amazon,” says Deadline, “the series ranked in its top five most-watched series ever in the U.S. and globally over a 24-hour period. The company added that it also was among its highest-rated original series, with subscribers giving it an average rating of 4.7 out of 5.”

Season 1 of Reacher is based on Child’s first novel, Killing Floor (1997). In addition to Ritchson, it features Malcolm Goodwin as Oscar Finlay, the Harvard-educated chief of detectives in a small Georgia town, and the delightful Willa Fitzgerald as Roscoe Conklin, an officer in Finlay’s department. (I have so far made it only halfway through the show, but I’m hoping there will eventually be some explanation of Conklin’s masculine moniker—surely it must be an allusion to the 19th-century New York politician Roscoe Conkling.)

There’s no word yet on which of Child’s books will be adapted for Season 2 of Reacher.

READ MORE: “How Lee Child’s Killing Floor Was Transformed Into Reacher,” by Heather Martin (CrimeReads); “A Reacher We Can Appreciate,” by Oline H. Cogdill (Mystery Scene).