Reacher: Better than tiny Tom

I’m a huge fan of Lee Child’s Reacher series of books and have read just about all of them.

But I’m in two minds about the television series which stars Alan Ritchson in the lead role as the drifter, former Army MP and West Point graduate Jack Reacher.

He is however a better fit for the role than the diminutive Tom Cruise who starred in two Reach movies a few years ago.

Reacher is a giant of a man, described in the books as 6’5″ and 250 lbs (196 cm and 113 kg).

He is described as having “a six-pack like a cobbled city street, a chest like a suit of NFL armour, biceps like basketballs, and subcutaneous fat like a Kleenex tissue.”

Cruise on the other hand is maybe 5’7″ (170 cm) on a good day and 175 lbs (80 kg), while Ritchson tips the scales at 6’2″ (188 cm) and 235 lbs (106 kg).

It might be nit-picking, but these things are important.

I’ve just finished watching the third season of the show which is based on the Persuader (2003).

In the books, Reacher, who has taken early retirement from the Army, hitchhikes his way around America, with only the clothes on his back and a toothbrush in his shirt pocket.

His late father was a Marine, his dead mother was French and his older brother Joe, who was an inch taller than him, worked for the US Treasury Department — but was killed in the line of duty.

Now and again Reacher calls on members of his old squad for help, chiefly Sgt Frances Neagley for whom he has a great deal of respect.

No matter where he goes, trouble has a way of finding Reacher, who seems happy to lend a helping hand, or fist . . . or whatever it takes to get the job done.

There is no middle ground.

In Season 3 Reacher agrees to work with the DEA to bring down suspected drug smuggler Zachary Beck by going undercover as a bodyguard for Beck’s son, Richard.

Richard is a shy, reclusive young man who likes to paint and is missing an ear which was cut off by kidnappers.

Reacher is able to penetrate his father’s organisation after the DEA fake another elaborate kidnap attempt.

During the course of the investigation, he runs into an adversary from his military past, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Xavier Quinn, who he thought was dead because he shot him in retaliation for killing his former Sergeant, Dominique Kohl.

The action finds Reacher torn between helping the DEA and having a second crack at Quinn.

Season 3 stars Alan Ritchson, Maria Sten, Sonya Cassidy, Johnny Berchtold, Roberto Montesinos, Olivier Richters, Brian Tee, and Anthony Michael Hall.

The 7’2” Richters was recruited to play the role of Beck senior’s giant steroid-ravaged bodyguard Paulie and it looks like Reacher might have finally met his match — or has he?

The first season of Reacher (2022) was based on Killing Floor, Lee Child‘s 1997 debut novel, and was released on February 4, 2022.

The second season, based on Bad Luck and Trouble (2007), began on December 15, 2023, and concluded on January 19, 2024.

The third season which has just ended premiered on February 20, 2025 while a fourth season has already been confirmed.

Child said he had nothing but respect for Cruise as an actor and that he had enjoyed his company during production of both Reacher films — Reacher (2012) and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016).

But he explained that Cruise had never expressed any interest in being part of a TV series and that he hoped a relatively unknown actor would be cast in the title role.

In a weird parallel to the character, Ritchson is actually the son of a US Air Force officer and a French teacher.

He has reportedly read all the books and is warming to the role, but there’s some big differences between the character from Lee Child’s books and how he is portrayed in the television show.

Reacher is a loner, doesn’t talk much and works alone.