Reacher Season 3 should rectify these major mistakes to win back fans after a disappointing second season

Disclaimer: This article solely reflects the author’s opinion. Reader discretion is advised.

Prime Video's popular action series Reacher will be streaming its third season this February. The series based on the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child follows a former U.S. Army military policeman who is now a drifter. The second season of the show was disliked because it had the protagonist team up with his ex-army colleagues. This felt out of character for Reacher, who is a one-man army.

The first season adapts the very first Jack Reacher novel, Killing Floor, which was published in 1997. Then, the second season happened, which adapted the eleventh book, Bad Luck and Trouble, which was published in 2007. Now, the upcoming third season of Reacher will adapt Persuader, which is the seventh book published in 2003. Fans are hopeful that the upcoming season will be better than the second one.

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The main problem with Reacher Season 2

The first season is set in a small town named Margrave. Conversely, Reacher Season 2 has its protagonist travel to different places in a dangerous cat-and-mouse chase. The synopsis of this season reads like this:

"When members of Reacher’s old military unit start turning up dead, Reacher has just one thing on his mind—revenge."

To catch the perpetrators behind the deaths of the members of his former unit, Reacher teams up with his friends from the army. This idea, according to many fans, is nothing like the Reacher fans fell in love with in the books. Reacher's entire appeal is based on the idea that he can go toe-to-toe with the most formidable opponents all alone.

While he may have help from time to time, and even in season 1, Reacher's allies hardly joined the action alongside him.

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Other problems in Reacher Season 2

Apart from changing the character, fans also had problems with some of the following things in Reacher Season 2:

• There is nothing distinguishable about Reacher's 110th Special Investigations Unit

Flashbacks in Reacher Season 2 show that Jack selected every member of the 110th Special Investigations Unit personally. Initially, he was unsure about the team's effectiveness, but to his surprise, it performed better than his expectations. Hence, Jack shared an unbreakable bond with each and every member of the team even after its dissolution.

However, fans couldn't differentiate between the members of the team or their special roles in the unit, which limited storytelling. Even if the characters might have had differences, they were not significant enough to stand out.

• The best pairing was wasted

Reacher season 2 introduced the best pairing, Jack's friendship with the New York police officer, Guy Russo. However, season 2 barely provides screentime to them as partners. On the other hand, season 1 leveraged Ritchson's chemistry with Malcolm Goodwin and provided as much time as possible with Jack Reacher and Finlay.

Even worse, Guy Russo is dead. Therefore, the future seasons of Reacher can't give their team-up another chance.

• Season 2 lacks memorable side characters

Reacher Season 1 had some fun and memorable supporting characters, but the second one lacked standout side characters. Characters like FBI Special Agent Picard, Grover Teale, and KJ Kliner. While Reacher Season 2 introduced Marlo Burns, all that the character does is serve as an expository vessel. The absence of strong supporting characters in Season 2 made it difficult for the show to reach the same level of depth and engagement as the first season.

• Season 2's villains were weak

Reacher's opponent in the second season is Shane Langston, who is a part of New Age. Langston has nothing going on with him other than being a greedy executive. Other than him, there is also AM, who had potential, but Reacher season 2 did not flesh out his character and gave him a disappointing death. The villains in season 1 of Reacher seem more thought out and well executed.

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How Reacher Season 3 might be better than Season 2?

Reacher Season 3 will have the titular character collaborate with DEA Susan Duffy (Sonya Cassidy), who is an important character in the book the season is based on. The third season promises to be exciting as Reacher has to fight Olivier Richters Paulie, who is a lot bigger than the well-built protagonist. This upcoming season will also witness Anthony Michael Hall playing the main antagonist, Zackary Beck. The villains look better in the latest installment of Reacher.

The synopsis of Reacher Season 3 reads:

"Based on Lee Child novel "Persuader", Reacher hurtles into the dark heart of a vast criminal enterprise when trying to rescue an undercover DEA informant whose time is running out. There he finds a world of secrecy and violence—and confronts some unfinished business from his own past."

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The first three episodes of Reacher Season 3 will stream on February 20th, 2025. After that, the rest of the episodes will stream every Thursday.