Why Reacher Season 2 Feels So Much Bigger Than The First Season

Season 1 of Prime Video's hit series "Reacher" was, by all accounts, a huge success. Not only did it break records for the service by topping the Nielsen charts, it finally gave fans a version of Jack Reacher much more faithful to Lee Child's book series, from which the show is adapted. Readers had been waiting for such a development ever since the relatively diminutive Tom Cruise fronted two films based on the novels but failed to project the physically intimidating presence that is such a hallmark of Child's ex-military police officer. The 6-ft 3-inch, 235-pound Alan Ritchson, on the other hand, proved to be the ideal Jack Reacher when Amazon and Skydance's streaming series hit Prime Video in 2022.

But while most fans were celebrating the arrival of a book-accurate Reacher, I couldn't help but feel the series felt just a little off. It certainly didn't hold back on the violence, resulting in some truly brutal fight sequences and some horrific murder scenes, one of which involved a man pinned to a wall after having been fed parts of his own anatomy. These elements made "Reacher" season 1 feel like it was going for gritty, but something about the episodes felt somehow artificial.

Now that season 2 has arrived, I can say with confidence that this "something" was actually a combination of two things. Ritchson himself, while undoubtedly providing the requisite brawn, somehow felt a little too clean-cut. Even as he was eviscerating entire prison gangs, Ritchson's Reacher, with his perfectly fitting t-shirts and finely quaffed hair, just felt at odds with the show's attempt at grittiness. But there was another element that made season 1 feel so odd — an issue that season 2 has thankfully fixed.

Showrunner Nick Santora had grand plans for "Reacher" season 1. After Alan Ritchson was cast, following some hesitation on Amazon's part, Santora was ready to shoot his adaptation of Lee Child's first Jack Reacher book, "Killing Floor," on-location in Georgia. This would allow him and his crew to depict, as authentically as possible, the fictional Peach state town of Margrave, which plays host to Reacher throughout "Killing Floor." Unfortunately, the global pandemic hit just ahead of filming, forcing Santora and co. to rethink their plan.

Rather than shoot on-location, the production shifted north, building the entire town of Margrave in a cornfield in Canada. The result was an undeniably impressive set that was, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the biggest in Canada. Erected in Pickering, Ontario, the set covered 23 acres and featured 30 stores and shops. It also allowed the production to shoot in a remote location and keep the risk of COVID infections low. All in all, then, it seemed like the perfect solution.

But one unforeseen issue with this fabricated town was not only that "Reacher" season 1 felt smaller than it otherwise would have — a common issue with projects shot during the pandemic — but that the environs of Margrave had this artificial feel which seemed conspicuously at odds with the otherwise gritty and often brutal tone of the show. Ritchson unintentionally hit on the problem when he told IMDb that driving onto the set felt like entering "Pleasantville." While you might think the manicured environs of this fabricated Margrave might have provided a nice contrast to the show's savage fight scenes and hard-edged crime thriller sensibility, it ultimately just came across as what it was — inauthentic. Which, for a show that was finally giving us a supposedly authentic Reacher, just felt wrong.

It should be said that the "Reacher" crew pulled off an incredible feat with the Margrave set. Though it wasn't quite the same as the exhausting methods employed by Stanley Kubrick for "Eyes Wide Shut," which involved recreating entire Manhattan streets on a UK studio lot, it still allowed Nick Santora's series to be made, and the audience reaction can't be argued with.

But now that "Reacher" season 2 has arrived, sharper and more self-aware than ever, season 1's location issues seem even more pronounced. The new run of episodes see Alan Ritchson's hero travel to New York City as part of his investigation into just who is killing members of his former Military Police unit. Accompanied by Maria Sten's Neagley, Reacher traverses Brooklyn and Manhattan, handing out just as much ass-kickery as he did last time around. But the difference this time is that the show actually shot in a real city. Ontario stood in for New York, giving the show a real sense of scale and some real-world textures that the uncanny artifice of Margrave couldn't provide.

While the show hasn't lost any of its pulpy tone, it does at least feel more authentic thanks to the real environments. What's more, within the first three episodes we've already been transported to New York City, the Catskills, and Atlantic City, alongside quick visits to California and Detroit as we follow Ferdinand Kingsley's mysterious A.M. on his murderous journey across the U.S. In episode four, we see Reacher and his crew travel to Boston, where he reconnects with Malcolm Goodwin's Oscar Finley from season 1. As a result, the scope of the show feels so much more grand and exciting.

The setting of season 2 isn't the only improvement over the first run of episodes. With the addition of Robert Patrick as the season's big villain, Shane Langston, "Reacher" has gained a veteran actor who brings real gravitas to the proceedings. The supporting cast also works better than last time around. Reacher just seems to have better chemistry with his former special investigator unit members than he did with Oscar Finlay and Roscoe Conklin last season. Add to that the fact that the leading man looks a little more disheveled this time around and "Reacher" can be said to have improved in pretty much every way since last time around.

But there's no doubt that having real cities in which to shoot Reacher's latest outing is one of the biggest things working in this season's favor. Suddenly, with locations that match the grittiness of the storytelling and fight choreography, the show feels more confident in tone. It's also just nice to see Ritchson's former Army man unleashed on the big city — a kind of "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" with more people being forcibly dropped out of helicopters.

All of which just demonstrates why skipping nine books in Lee Child's original series and adapting "Bad Luck and Trouble" was a great idea for season 2, and why fans of the novels shouldn't be worried at all.

New episodes of "Reacher" premiere on Fridays on Prime Video.