Reacher was a big favorite of a lot of people. It was a faithful adaption of the best-selling novels. It featured a simple, Ronin-style protagonist who blows into town like a force of nature. Many people hadn’t realized just how much they had missed the directness of this approach.
He is quick-witted and smart, but not above using his fists to solve his problems. It is almost completely devoid of “The Message”. He is male, straight and, horror of horrors, he is white. So, of course, the usual suspects immediately branded the show as “toxic”. As Pledge Times put it:
“Reacher is still a very macho, terrified toxic masculine…”
I do hope these people learn the difference between honorable chivalry and toxic masculinity, as the world they are building is going to need the former in abundance in order to straighten things out.
Anyway, all this queefing hasn’t affected the show’s success in the slightest. The first three episodes of the second season of Reacher premiered on Amazon just before Christmas and the figures are now in. On the week of its debut, Reacher racked up 1.7 billion minutes viewed in the United States alone according to Nielsen.
That is about the same as the entire first season managed in total. This makes Reacher the no. 1 title of the year for Prime Video, and the biggest premiere, overtaking The Rings Of Power, which must really, really burn around Jennifer Salke’s office.
Production on the third season of Reacher is currently underway, with season 4 expected to be greenlit imminently. There are lessons to be learned by Hollywood here. They will, of course, fail to learn them.
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