Reacher: Season 1 - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Reacher: Season 1



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Jack Reacher has sort of been mishandled in most every (limited) iteration of him on the big screen. A few years back Tom Cruise got handed the reins with Jack Reacher in 2012, which was basically a Tom Cruise action movie with Jack Reacher’s name on the title card. Sure, it used some of the plot points from Lee Childs’ famous books, but outside of that Tom Cruise was NOTHING like the titular character. That being said, the movie itself was actually a lot of fun with Tom Cruise doing what he does best, but fans of the books weren’t really that enthused by it. The sequel was even worse, with Cruise completely phoning in his performance and an even weaker script with worse editing and writing. The idea that we’d see a book accurate Jack Reacher was put to bed until Amazon decided to buy the rights and release the character as a short running TV show, which actually turned out to be pretty good.

The first seasons follows Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson), an ex Military Police officer who has just re entered the world as a civilian. When he gets a message from his brother that sends him to the podunk town of Margrave, Georgia, he finds a bit more than he bargained for. His brother has been shot dead by some lowlife, and Reacher is a natural suspect for the sleepy town’s murder rate shooting through the roof as soon as the hulking man arrives. Detective Oscar Finlay (Malcolm Goodwin) isn’t exactly pleased with Reacher, but begrudgingly accepts the help of the MP officer in hopes of using him to take care of the real murderers in town. That is, if Reacher himself doesn’t plow through the town like a bull in a china shop, meting out his own form of justice for the death of his brother.

As I mentioned above, Jack Reacher has not had a successful representation on screen, and while the Tom Cruise vehicle was fun, it was NOT the Lee Childs representation. Reacher: Season 1 does a waaaaaaaaaaay better job of bringing the man to life, albeit with some caveats. The fact of the matter is, I don’t think that Jack Reacher will ever be EXACTLY accurate due to the fact that a vast majority of the books has the man never speaking, with only grunts as words and the plot being told from a 1st person point of view in Reacher’s head. Naturally this doesn’t exactly translate to the big screen where words are the main conveyor of a narrative, so they had to make Reacher a bit more verbose and talkative. Not to mention adding in a sideways romance with officer Roscoe (Willa Fitzgerald, who actually does a great job), which feels a bit staged, but otherwise this is a great representation of the character.

One thing that you can’t complain about is Alan Ritchson. Being that he has to be more talkative it’s natural for him to talk a lot more, but Ritchson does a phenomenal job as the hulking 6 foot plus gigantor of a man. He’s ripped to the core, and you actually BELIEVE that he’s a full 6 foot 5 like the books (even though Ritchson is 3 inches shorter in real life). His presence is felt in every scene, whether he’s beating inmates heads into a wall during a short prison stay, or just standing over someone, intimidating them into speaking. It also helps that they gave him a highly developed intellect and observational skills, really bringing out the Sherlock Holmes part of his nature.




Rating:

Not Rated By the MPAA




Video:

The 2.00:1 framed AVC encode offers a very pleasing image to watch, with a nice glossy tone to it. While there was no 4K UHD to review (the series on Prime is 4K with HDR, no Dolby Vision), the Blu-ray certainly is quite striking. Honey colored warm exteriors with straw like color grading dominate most of the scenes, while darker indoor shots have a more subdued tone. Blacks are deep and inky for the most part (the straw coloring sometimes makes them a BIT hazy), and fine details are quite impressive. Scenes like the outdoor of the prison yard shows tons of details, and outside of a few flickers of banding I found the Blu-ray set to be near immaculate.





Audio:

I actually hesitated and almost gave the 5.1 DTS-HD MA track a 4/5 rating instead of 4.5/5, but erred on the side of the track being more akin to a 4.5/5 than a true 4/5. The mix is quite engaging and active most of the time, with powerful gunshots and Tony Morales bluesy score filling out the back end and low end quite nicely. However, the show can be very dramatic and laid back for a good chunk of time too. When Jack and the Detective are hunting down a lead things really get calm and cool, with low vocals and Jack’s syrupy voice speaking in that low monotone that he does. It’s technically an excellent track with a plenty of activity, but the more dramatic nature of the show tends to subdue it and keep it from being some wildly dynamic mix that is going to bring down the house.





Extras:

• Realizing Reacher—Go behind-the-scenes to explore production, plotlines, and character development of the show’s first season.
• Novelistic—An in-depth interview with writer Lee Child and look at the tremendous success of the Jack Reacher novels and the new show.

Final Score: ​

Reacher: Season 1 is a fun take on the classic Lee Childs books that is much closer to the original character that previous iterations, as well as a genuinely fun season. While it’s rare for Amazon Prime originals to get a home video release, this is one of the lucky few that slipped through (while Paramount only advertised and sent out a Blu-ray release of the show, they silently released a 4K UHD set as well on the same day, so there’s that to look forward to too). The Blu-ray looks and sounds great, doesn’t really have much extras, but is still quite a lot of fun. Definitely recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Alan Ritchson, Malcolm Goodwin, Harvey Guillen, Kristin Kreuk, Chris Webster, Willa Fitzgerald
Created by: Lin Oeding
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French DD 5.1, English DVS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, English, French
Studio: Paramount
Rated: NR
Runtime: 384 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: December 13th, 2022

Recommendation: Very Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will have to binge watch this one.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I don't remember giving Paramount permission to use my likeness for the cover art :-/

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Oh Todd... he ain't old and crippled... he's a young man.

I thought this was a pretty good series... enjoyed it.