Reacher and Bosch are two of the most popular shows in the crime genre, and a bestselling series that’s becoming a thriller TV show perfectly blends the two together.
Whether it be mysteries, procedurals, or thrillers, the public is perpetually interested in crime fiction. The stories tap into an innate curiosity that humans have about what makes people do bad things. They include fun cat-and-mouse chases. Plus, they get the adrenaline pumping from the safety of our own homes.
One of the most exciting upcoming thrillers based on a book, Sam Pope, is expected to do all that and more. The addictive, bestselling franchise blends traits of the most popular TV shows in the genre while also offering something new.
The Sam Pope Books By Robert Enright Will Become A TV Show
Deadline announced last month that Avatar Entertainment picked up the rights to the Sam Pope book series by Robert Enright. The book collection, which includes fifteen published novels and a sixteenth on the way, follows an ex-sniper military veteran who investigates organized crime and acts as a vigilante for those who escape justice.
The Sam Pope novella Night One is available for pre-order now on Amazon, and a 16th book is in the works (via Facebook).
The project is very early in development, so it doesn’t have any actors attached. However, Avatar founder Larry Robinson will serve as an executive producer, and he expressed a desire for the show to be a “super premium action-thriller TV series for action fans around the world.” This sounds extremely promising
The good news for potential audiences who aren’t familiar with the books is that the Sam Pope novels feel like the perfect blend of Prime Video’s Bosch and Reacher, two of the best recent crime series.
Sam Pope & Harry Bosch Have Similar Personalities
Sam Pope is often called the “British Reacher,” but as a character, he’s much more like Harry Bosch. All three draw on action-hero tropes. They’re all ex-military men who are loners with a strong sense of justice. However, the group diverges from there, with Sam Pope and Harry Bosch aligning in many ways.
Sam Pope and Harry Bosch fall more into the driven anti-hero category. The two former characters actively seek out unsolved crimes, especially ones that have fallen through the cracks, so they can fix them. They’re trying to atone for their sins by fixing injustices, even if they didn’t cause them.
Meanwhile, author Lee Child describes his main character as “a reluctant action hero.” Reacher would rather do nothing and be left alone. He doesn’t go looking for trouble, even though trouble always finds him. However, when he does take action, he’s highly effective. This makes him feel more like the Lone Ranger archetype instead of the action hero or antihero archetype.
Similarly, Pope and Bosch are both detectives with the police department, and they are willing to break the rules and cross ethical lines to get justice. On the other hand, Reacher is no longer an investigator, and he doesn’t seem to have any regard for the rules. He doesn’t have any qualms or hesitations about killing people when necessary.
What’s more, while all three characters have tragic histories, the Sam Pope books and Bosch really show how these events shaped them. It’s clearer why they do what they do.
The Sam Pope Books & Reacher Have Similar Premises
Although Sam Pope has character similarities to detective Harry Bosch, the storylines are much more similar to Jack Reacher. While Bosch is a slow-burn neo-noir, Sam Pope and Reacher share a fast-paced, pulse-quickening storytelling style that makes them propulsive.
The stakes are high for Pope and Reacher from the start, and the protagonists are constantly in imminent danger. They’re frequently handling crimes that occur on a global scale and involve deep-level corruption. There’s less meticulous attention to detail. Meanwhile, Bosch starts out with small cases that then unfold into bigger-level conspiracies, and it’s heavily focused on the detective work.
When it comes down to it, Sam Pope and Jack Reacher also both engage in vigilante justice. This can go as far as murder, which is a line that Bosch rarely ever crosses. It’s impossible to put down a Sam Pope book in the same way it’s impossible to turn off a Reacher episode.
Sam Pope Will Be The Next Big Thing In The Mystery-Thriller Genre
Having read some of the Sam Pope novels, I have high hopes for the TV show. There’s a good reason The Night Shift, the first Sam Pope novel, ranked number 1, beating out Reacher and Cross, on Amazon’s bestselling mystery, thrillers, & suspense list. The quality already exists on the page, offering a good foundation for the upcoming show.
The stories, which are mostly self-contained from book to book, are entertaining and leave me on the edge of my seat. The characters are easy to invest in. There are enough mystery and action tropes for fans of the genre without feeling too derivative.
It’s now just a matter of Avatar Entertainment getting the right team together and imagining it for the screen. Given that the announcement occurred just under a month ago, it will be a while before we hear anything on that front.
However, if the Sam Pope TV series is even half as good as the books, the show will undoubtedly see the same kind of success as Bosch and Reacher. Not only will the built-in fanbase show up for Avatar Entertainment’s Sam Pope show, but fans of other mystery and thriller shows will undoubtedly navigate towards the new story.
