Author Lee Child’s Jack Reacher is back and this time he has to avenge the death of one of his own.

KARACHI:The tall, broad, and lonesome Jack Reacher is back, and this time he and his team of Special Investigators have a huge task at hand – solve the murder of one of their own. In the eight-episode second season of the series, the ex-military man-mountain is once again played by Alan Ritchson who makes the character his own, because not only does he fit the profile but also looks the part.

Unlike the first season where he has to first clear his name and then help his captors in solving his brother’s murder, the crime in the second season is also close to Reacher’s heart and that’s why he doesn’t venture into the unknown alone. While it might seem a good idea to use Reacher’s friends to broaden the scope of the series, it does take away the spotlight from the big man, which might not please the ardent fans of the series.

However, Reacher Season 2 does end on a high and makes the viewers want more of the titular character. Where will life take the huge drifter, is only known to the producers, but until then the audience can watch him wreak havoc in any city and unleash his military training on those who believe they are above the law.

The plot

A couple of years after the events of the first season, Reacher (Alan Ritchson) is contacted by his investigator friend, the high-flying security consultant Frances Neagley (Maria Sten) who informs him about the suspicious death of one of their former colleagues. When more members of their 110^th Special Investigations Unit are found missing in action, Reacher assembles his old team to track the MIAs, find the murderers, and avenge their friend.

Based on Lee Child’s 11th novel Bad Luck and Trouble, Season 2 reunites Reacher with Neagley who had also contacted forensic accountant Dixon (Serinda Swan), and smart aleck O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos) about the incident. When they find out that there is more to the death of their friend Calvin Franz, (Luke Bilyk), they change gear and add Saving America on their checklist as well.

On the sidelines, the reason why Special Investigators were a well-knit unit and why they were disbanded is disclosed, proving why they came together to find who hurt their friend. A cameo by one of season one’s main characters will also help in taking the story forward.

The second season of Reacher continues from where he left off in the first, with a toothbrush as his sole possession. While the first season revolved around Reacher alone, the second one has ‘his friends’ added to the cast, giving it a grand look for a change. Alan Ritchson’s no-nonsense attitude makes Reacher stand out, whereas the bar brawls (for team-building), fist fights and airborne action just add weight to the entire season.

The unit has its work cut out for them throughout the eight episodes; on one hand they are dodging crooked cops while chasing a mysterious arms dealer referred to as A.M (Ferdinand Kingsley), on the other, they have an upright, honest, and intelligent NYPD detective Guy Russo (Domenick Lombardozzi) aiding them in their adventures.

The story moves at a fast pace, with everything happening in quick succession, be it the reunion of the Special Investigators, the death of one of their own or the occasional romantic endeavours of two of the former teammates.

Alan Ritchson stands out as he successfully carries the weight of the entire season on his broad shoulders and leads the cast by example. While Maria Sten continues to impress with her acting prowess, it is Serina Swan and her sizzling chemistry with Reacher that keeps the audience hooked to the romantic angle.

The rest of the cast does a commendable job as well; however, veteran Robert Patrick’s entry remains the highlight of the season. It happened in the first episode when he makes his entry as the main antagonist, and asks the other person on phone about Sarah Connor which made me laugh out loud.

For the uninitiated, Sarah Connor was the name of the character Robert Patrick’s futuristic robot T1000 was searching for (alongside her son John) in Terminator 2: Judgment Day more than three decades back. Smart, isn’t it?

The bad

Compared to the previous season, Reacher Season 2 leaves a lot to be desired. What began as a Reacher story turns into an NCIS-esque adventure where the team has to go undercover, break into a secured facility, and fight for each other, surrounded by each other and in the presence of each other. That might happen regularly on network television but Prime Video was above that, or we thought it was, until now.

While the action sequences are above anything you might have seen, the script lacks in the character development department, where every character has just one side – either good or bad. If a woman Marlo Burns (Christina Cox) is leading a tech organisation, she might have skeletons in her closet (she had tons of money, by the way!); if there is a Senator in the picture – Senator Lavoy (Noam Jenkins) – he shouldn’t be trusted; and a hitman is a hitman without any feelings.

The biggest flaw of the second season is the switching between two timelines, the present and the past. It would have made sense had one episode featured the flashback sequences but to insert it just to emphasise the bond between the team members was a distraction, especially for a miniseries. It may have looked cool when it happened for the first time in Arrow but back then, the origin story was tackled in the flashbacks and had a connection with the present, whereas here it is a waste of time.

Some of the dialogues seemed to have been inserted in the script so that they might look cool, which they weren’t. ‘Details matter’, ‘Did I ever tell you that you’re smart Neagley?’ and ‘You don’t mess with the Special Investigations Unit!’ were repeatedly said, and might have seemed great in a 24-episode series, but here they seemed awkward at worst. Same was the case with some action sequences where the bad guys seemed to be folks with low IQ, as they always wandered into the trap set by Reacher and Gang, and their demise reminded one of Wily E Coyote’s traps gone wrong in The Road Runner cartoons.

Last but not least, the way the shadowy figure of AM was presented and how he was disposed of (he was the bad guy, after all) showed that the writers were more interested in finishing up the series, than making it memorable. A man who could kill without opening his eyes, who was shrewd enough to escape a heavily-guarded airport and had plan B and C in his mind while going through the first one, could have given a tough time to the Reacher folks, had he lived a little longer.

And don’t get me started on the villain’s den where advanced missiles were being created; it seemed like a place from Rohit Shetty’s Bollywood flicks where the bad guys were waiting impatiently for the heroes to wreak havoc. Had this season been the first of the series, no one would have batted an eye had it been cancelled after the eight episodes!

The verdict

After weighing the pros and cons of the series, one can easily deduce that this season wasn’t at par with the first one. However, it gives the makers a chance to rethink their strategy and return with something better in the next season. One shouldn’t be thrilled if one or more characters from this season are part of the next one as well, besides Alan Ritchson of course.

The season could have been handled in a better manner too; instead of Lee Child’s 11^th book in the Jack Reacher universe, they could have opted for an earlier one where the character was still in development phase. They could have kept the tone of the first season and experimented with narration style rather than taking the series into an altogether new direction.

The second season also suffers from the same issue that didn’t help the films either. On the big screen, Tom Cruise was a misfit for a character that was well-built, tall and unsocial; here the makers got carried away with the success of the first season and incorporated stuff that would have made even Lee Child angry. One hopes they consult the author before inserting their own ideas and focus on Reacher instead of Reacher and Gang. For the latter, they can always have a separate show on TV where the audience loves NCIS, CSI, Law and Order etc., but for Amazon Prime Video viewers, Reacher is enough.