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I watched Reacher (the television series) recently and thought I've give my impressions. It's really a mini-series based on the first Reacher novel, The Killing Floor.
The series sticks fairly closely to the plot of the book, which is a good thing. It results in tight, compelling episodes. The actor playing Jack Reacher is just about perfect for the role. Unlike Tom Cruise, you can believe that this Reacher is 6' 5" tall. The actress playing Reacher's military second in command, Neaghley, is also just about perfectly cast for the role.
The plot revolves around the murder of Reacher's brother, Joe, in a small town that Reacher just happens to visit for his own trivial reasons. It is a coincidence, but more than a coincidence, and it leads to Reacher investigating the murder of his brother with the help of two of the local police. These characters are also straight from the book.
Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by the result. If you like the Reacher novels, you'll probably like this mini-series. Any that follow will probably be based on the novels in order.
Some may object that the actor playing Reacher is not a well known of highly skilled actor. I found his protrayal of the character just about right. Reacher, as readers of the novel know, is not quite normal. He marches to his own drummer. This is probably due to a touch of autism. He is highly intelligent, empathic, but at the same time a cold-blooded killer who will not hesitate to execute anyone he thinks deserves killing. He respects the law when it suits him and ignores it when it gets in his way. He has trouble with close relationships. For example, he didn't even know where his own brother worked, or what job he was doing when murdered. He has trouble with women -- not sexually, but emotionally.
All these aspects of Reacher's character were completely thrown away in the unfortunate Tom Cruise Reacher movies. In the Reacher movies, Cruise is playing Top Gun, he's playing Mission Impossible. It's all the same character. And it's not Jack Reacher. If you have not read the Reacher novels and have only seen the Cruise movies, I highly recommend that you purge your mind of the Cruise nonsense and watch this mini-series, which at least gives you the real Reacher.
I noticed at the end of the season that the author of the Reacher books makes a cameo appearance. He brushes past Reacher in a diner. That was a nice touch. Now, I don't know for certain this was the author, Lee Child (real name, Jim Grant -- why the fuck did he change it?), but I'm assuming it was since I can see no other explanation for this short scene.
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