#224. Reacher Season 2, Episode 1: A Big Man Cometh.
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This short Christmas-day bonus episode launches a new recurring format — Sonny, JVL, and Mike recapping Reacher Season 2 week by week — with no movie verdicts to weigh in on, since it's a TV check-in rather than a film review. Mike, coming in cold with zero prior Reacher exposure, gets brought up to speed on the premise ("a very large man who hurts bad people, with some Sherlock Holmes thrown in") before the trio dig into episode one itself. JVL, who has read all of Lee Child's novels, delivers the closest thing to a verdict: the Amazon show is "just good enough" but not great — Alan Richson nails the character's size and menace better than Tom Cruise's film version did, but can't sell being smart the way Cruise could, and the season's pacing lags badly next to the books' tightly plotted, geographically self-contained thrillers. Sonny agrees, contrasting the McQuarrie films' more comedic, dominance-through-size violence with the show's straighter adaptation, and both riff at length on favorite over-the-top set pieces from the novels (the airplane finger-breaking scene, the one-punch kill at the La Quinta). The group gets a kick out of the episode's "who is Sarah Connor?" fourth-wall joke involving villain Robert Patrick, gripes about the show's forced-perspective camera tricks to make Richson look bigger, and holds up Slow Horses as a model of tighter, shorter-season adaptation Reacher should aspire to. JVL closes by plugging the Reacher audiobooks (read by Dick Hill) and noting listeners can jump in anywhere, with Bad Luck and Trouble — this season's source novel — as a fine starting point.
From the show notes
BONUS EPISODES
Full transcript
Mike00:00:00Welcome to a bonus episode of the Sub-Beacon podcast. I am Mike Warren. There's JVL. There's Sonny Bunch. We're talking about Reacher. We're going to be doing this for the time being. Season two, episode one, we all watched. Any thoughts on Reacher? So I've never seen or read a Reacher before.
Sonny00:00:32So Mike, you asked, you were like, I haven't seen the first season of Reacher. Am I going to be able to keep up?
JVL00:00:39Did you see the Tom Cruise movie? No.
Sonny00:00:43You've never seen any Reacher? So I just, as I explained to Mike, the first season is really very simple. It's about a large man who hurts bad people and does that for like 10 episodes. Hold on. Heal of Reacher.
Mike00:00:59Hold on. Is he large? But is he large?
Sonny00:01:01He's the biggest man you've ever seen. He's the largest human being that has ever- And he's Hagrid.
Mike00:01:07And in terms of his relationship with people, does he hurt them?
Sonny00:01:11He hurts bad people. He protects good people and he hurts bad people. Like the way I was describing it over text message is that he's like the SNL character Bill Braske, but like, you know, but like, you know, with the little Sherlock Holmes. Thrown in he's, you know, he is a, he's a big, enormous man of mythical stature and in his largeness, he can accomplish all things. That is, that's the appeal of, of Reacher, the care of Jack Reacher, the character also in the books is my understanding, right? JBL. So I've not read any of the books. I'm not a, I'm not a reader of the Lee child, Jack Reacher books. But my understanding is that at least a portion of the appeal is it's about this very large man who also has like, uh, uh, uh, you know, uh, detective's brain, but like he, he uses the detective's brain to get him in a position where he can use his fists and feet to destroy bad things.
JVL00:02:13Yes. So I've read all of the Reacher books written by Lee child. I read the first one written by his brother and it wasn't very good. Uh, it's Reacher is this, I mean, that is the thing about him, right? Is the first, the first thing that ever. Every single character he interacts with notices is, Ooh, you're a big fella. Like he's like the rock in that way. Right. You know, he's, he's six foot six and 250 pounds and just, uh, and he's a mesomorph. He never, he never goes to the gym. Like he's not, he's just like, this is just the way God made him. Right. Uh, and he's been like this since he was, you know, 10 years old. He was always just like two heads bigger than everybody else. Uh, and he goes around just like beating on people. And. Lee child understands that this is the great appeal of the appeal of the books. And so he paces out, he paces the beatings out through throughout the books, because you're always like, Oh, when's Richard going to get in the next fight? Oh, when's he going to get to the next fight? Cause those are the highlights of every book. Like, you know, let's, I just want to be there to read as Richard dispatches the six guys who have cornered him in the alley outside of a diner. Yeah. And it's great. I mean, it's, he, that said. I don't. I don't think that all of the other things that make the reacher books successful have translated into this series. Why is that? Because the other things they do is their pacing is very good. The pacing of the first season of reacher was okay. The pacing of the opening episode of this season is not great. We had one fight the whole time and, you know, just sort of like me, um,
Mike00:03:53two fights, two fights, the ATM guy. And, uh, and then the flashbacks.
JVL00:03:59That flashback might though happens off screen. That's a good point. That's a good point. Right? We, we don't get, we don't get to see that fight. Uh, and the, but the other thing that, so the reacher books move very quickly and they are child's real gift is his sense of place. Like he, they are his, his stories are very self-contained spatially. Uh, they're almost always in a single small town. And by the time you're halfway through the book. You could draw a map of the town with the street names and stuff. Like you would, you just understand this is where the, the factory is. This is where the first bar is. This is where the police station is. Um, and reacher's constantly walking around on foot, which is, is sort of interesting. It gives you that worms eye view of place and the shows don't really give you that. And the Alan Richson. Reacher, I think, struggles, he does size and violence better than Tom Cruise did because Tom Cruise is a, is a little man, but he does not do smart the way Tom Cruise does like, I do not believe this guy is smart. I do not believe it for a second that he's smart. Right. When he, in this first episode, when he like is leafing through the police report of his, his. Med friend and you know, in under three seconds is identifying all these things. I'm like, oh, you're reading your script.
Mike00:05:35Totally had the same thought, same exact thought. There there's none of the sort of like, you can't see it in his eyes. The sort of, uh, the, the sort of parsing through information. And I guess that's just a shortcoming of the actor. I, I don't know. Yeah, I think so.
Sonny00:05:52I mean, I, I totally agree with this and this is why, but, but I, this is why I don't, I don't really have any stake in the argument of which is the better Reacher, Tom Cruise or, uh, Alan Richardson, because they're playing the character very differently. Like Jack, Jack Reacher in the Tom Cruise iteration is much more Sherlock Holmes who can also like hold his own in a fight and the funny, the funny, and like in the first, the first Jack Reacher is great, it's written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, um, and the fights in that movie are very, they're almost comedic, they're less, it's less about. Tom Cruise dominating, uh, you know, the space and more about like, uh, you know, there's this, there's this great fight in the bathtub, right? Remember that one? Fantastic.
JVL00:06:36It's like Raising Arizona.
Sonny00:06:37So the whole, the whole sequence is, is wonderful. Um, but it's not, it's not just the guy dominating and Alan Richardson plays the character more like it's written in the books is my understanding. Again, I haven't, I haven't read the books, but like as a large man who dominates space and people and, and can, can do things that are comical and totally exaggerated, like in the, in the previews for upcoming episodes, you know, there's this moment where he sees a guy following them in a car and he gets out of his car and he goes to the other car and he kicks the hood of the car and it sets off the airbag of the other car and like, that's the sort of thing a very large man can do. And it's funny and it's, and it's amusing, but it's also like very satisfying. There's, there's, there's, there's in the first season, there's this moment where he is, uh, in a, he's in a prison, uh, like shower, right?
JVL00:07:28No, that's great.
Sonny00:07:29Yeah. He's in a prison shower and like five guys who are not small, like surround him and are, are trying to, you know, beat him up and he just jabs his thumb right through the skull of one of the guys. And it's like, and he, and he just dismantles this whole team. And it is again, it like in his largeness, in his size, all things are possible. And that is what is appealing about this iteration of the character.
JVL00:07:53So, and this is, I mean, frankly, often in the book. The violence is comedic and fantastic because of it. There is, there is, uh, two scenes, which I'll, I'll tell you about one, which was included in the, the, the second Reacher movie, which is the airport scene or the airplane scene where he is, he's on an airplane and there, there are two guys who are following him and he's like flying coast to coast and he, he basically ambushes them on a commercial flight by just going and sitting next to them and. Like reaching over and grabbing one of their fingers and just breaking their fingers one at a time. And these are tough guys. So he does that to the first guy, but then the second guy, uh, like he follows the second guy to the bathroom and like pushes in right behind him into the airplane bathroom and basically just, you know, he breaks his arms in the bathroom, but it's, it's all done funny and it's really, really funny. But there isn't, there's another scene. One of my favorite scenes in the whole series where Reacher and the bad guys unknowingly have both been staying at like the same La Quinta in throughout the entirety of the, of the, of the book, right? They, you've got this, this group of Mexican cartel guys, they're staying at this little, you know, like airport motel. Reacher is also staying at this airport motel, but because they haven't seen each other, like in life, they don't like, they see each other throughout the thing, but don't know that like, they don't know that this is a guy they're looking for. Right. And when it finally dawns on them. Is this moment where Reacher and one of these, these little Mexican cartel guys are both walking into the parking lot to get into their cars. And as they're walking, they both sort of realize at the same moment, like, Oh, and Reacher, like you get this internal monologue about how, you know, there was this urban legend about how it's possible to kill somebody with a punch. If you, if you hit him in precisely the right place in the chest. With precisely enough force, you could actually stop their heart. And then he'd always wondered if it was true. And so he tries it. And so he, he hits this and it helps because this, this little Mexican guy he's hitting is like five foot one. And he, he just worlds around as the Mexican guy's grabbing for his gun. Reacher rolls around and punches him in the, in the heart and kills him. The guy just drops dead and Reacher looks, he's like, yeah, it's true. And then just walks off to his car. Like the stuff like that, it's often very funny. Like that. And, uh, so it's Chuck Norris jokes in reality, in reality, but done with a sense of knowing that it's not satire. I can't explain. That's why the books are, are so great. And I'd like a little more of that in, frankly, in the question on series
Mike00:10:45question for those of you who've seen the first season. So is Neely in the first season? Yes. She shows up in the first season. Okay. Yeah. Cause I get the sense that everybody else from, from the team. We've never seen before.
JVL00:11:00Yeah.
Mike00:11:00But I think so the books themselves jump around in time.
JVL00:11:03The books are not written in sequential order. Uh, I would say the books are not written in chronological order. Like, you know, I think it's like book seven actually goes back in time to when he's an MP and it like isn't dealt, deals entirely with an incident that happens in, you know, like 1991 when he's in the, in the, in the MPs and in the a hundred tenths, but a lot of those characters who were in the hundred chance pop up here. And there in the books and Neely is the most interesting of them because like there is something wrong with her that is never explained. And she is this, like, she's so self-contained that she can't bear to physically touch anybody. And like, there's, there's like one moment in which Reacher like pats her on the shoulder and realizes that is the only time in his life he's ever, he's been in a relationship for 10 years. Very close. Yeah.
Mike00:11:59Yeah. Interesting. Well, Neely's a great character. The one thing I, again, having not seen season one or consumed any Reacher content before this episode that I found myself interested in was this whole idea of a season long mystery about what's going on with this team and people coming in and out from the team. That seems to be where the, where the season is going. Um, I, I, you know, in, in, in the flashbacks to the team being put together, all of this seems like, uh, like it's, it has lots of possibilities. Um, so I'm, I'm kind of, this book is great. This book is based on a book. Yeah. This, this one is based on bad luck and trouble.
JVL00:12:46Uh, and I will say this is sort of interesting. I don't know about you guys notice this. I paused it last night and when you're watching prime and you pause it, you get like the Amazon x-ray. Yes. So this shows a, like, based on bad luck and trouble. And if you click on it, you can buy bad luck and trouble from the pause screen, which I thought was interesting.
Sonny00:13:06That's, that's, that's the brilliance of Lord Bezos. That's the Amazon dream is to basically, uh, is to have everything connected. So you can buy like, do you like this outfit that you see here's here's the pair of Levi's here's the jacket, here's the, you know, T-shirt I will say I loved the
Mike00:13:27little. Uh, fourth wall breaking joke where they're the bad guys are getting information about how he, uh, Richard Neely have checked into this hotel under pseudonyms and Neely's pseudonym is Sarah Connor. And, uh, as I texted you guys last night when I watched it, cause I cracked up despite myself, it's the big bad is Robert Patrick who says, who is Sarah Connor, which is just a great little,
JVL00:13:52that was very, very fun. Uh, yeah, I'm look, I'm going to happily watch this. Yeah. I wish it was, I feel like the Amazon reacher is just good enough, but it could
Sonny00:14:05be great, but I do think it has pacing problems. It does it at 10, 10 episodes is too long. It should be more like it should be British. It should be six episodes and probably like 45 minutes per episode instead of 10 episodes and 50 minutes to an hour per episode.
JVL00:14:24Yeah.
Sonny00:14:24All right. This, you know, what's great, like in this vein slope. Horses. I don't know if you guys watch slow horses, but I love that show books, but
Mike00:14:31haven't watched the show.
Sonny00:14:32So it's so good.
Mike00:14:33Is this the, uh, the one with, uh, Gary Oldman?
Sonny00:14:35Yeah, yeah, yeah. But again, it's like six episodes per season. Each episode is between 40 and 50 minutes.
JVL00:14:44Is it a BBC production?
Sonny00:14:46I think it's a joint BBC apple production.
JVL00:14:50Gotcha. Gotcha. I, the slow horses books are fabulous.
Sonny00:14:53The, the, the show is great. I love it. We're, we're watching the, whatever the fourth season or. Whatever it is now. Uh, and I, I have really enjoyed the whole thing so far.
Mike00:15:03One final thought on Reacher. Um, and I think this is a part of his character, but the, the actor playing him, like he walks like an alien. Like I've never seen a human being walk. Like I guess it's just because he's so big, but like he, he like the way he holds his arms and like moves is so trying to look big.
JVL00:15:27I guess that's what it is. Alan Richardson is the large man, but he's not Reacher large. And a lot of this is like, they do forced perspective stuff all throughout one. And once you're looking for it, you can't unsee it. Like for instance, they never shoot him head on. They shoot him from, from below. Like even with just him, like delivering dialogue in a way to try to make him look bigger. Right. He's all the one always standing on an apple box next to, you know, or a fruit box next to whoever else he's talking with.
Sonny00:15:56He's he's frequently, uh, like. On the other side of a bar or a counter from someone and like is clearly either the, the, either the other person is standing in a hole or he is like on a, on a box of some sort to make him slightly taller or they cast people who are, when
JVL00:16:13they're going to be standing next to him, full body, they just cast people who are smaller.
Mike00:16:17Yeah. Well, well, well, the actress, great. I like that. The actress who plays Neely, uh, there's a couple of scenes where they're, they were, they were there next to each other and it's very, it's, she's too tall. Yeah. To be, uh, she's, she's too tall.
JVL00:16:32That's that. In the book, she's like five foot two. Right. Which is a little, little, little. So, all right.
Mike00:16:37Well, I'm looking forward to go doing this in a future bonus episodes. So any final thoughts on episode one? Go, go treat yourself to the books, especially the, the audio books, the audio. I love, I love these kinds of books for audio books.
JVL00:16:52Oh, they're great. And they've got a great reader in Dick Hill. So, and this one's not a bad one to start with. That's the other thing with Reacher. Books. You don't have to start with me and just pick up any single one of them and it's fine and bad luck and trouble. If anybody's listening and wants to, that's a perfectly good one to start. It's a good, good book.
Mike00:17:08Maybe I'll buy it through my fire TV. Who knows? Uh, all right. That's all the time we're giving. Uh, we'll see you next time.
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