Jack Reacher is an oasis of predictability in an ever-changing world. Permanently armed with a toothbrush and a bus pass, Reacher can always be relied upon for a deadpan response, a quick exit, or a punch in the face. Prime Video’s Reacher series takes very much after its main character. The streets and the faces might change with the seasons, but each investigation follows a similar pattern. Jack stumbles across trouble, makes some friends, gets chased by goons, then closes on his target before moving in for the kill. Cue plenty of ridiculous death scenes, motel room romances, and professional arms dealers.
That’s Reacher‘s M.O., and it’s a formula that has served Prime Video well thus far, not just in Alan Ritchson’s show, but also Maria Sten’s Neagley spinoff Part of the reason Reacher has already been green-lit for seasons 5 and 6 is that viewers know exactly what to expect, and the series knows exactly how to deliver.
Realistically, Reacher season 5 isn’t going to be The Queen’s Gambit with pistols, or a laugh-a-minute action comedy in the mold of Hot Fuzz. Ritchson’s character isn’t going to spend three episodes contemplating whether his self-imposed loneliness is a form of subconscious self-sabotage, nor will Reacher start spouting Sheridan-esque soundbites like, “Sometimes you’re the bullet; sometimes you’re the finger” and “If life was fair, my toothbrush wouldn’t be poking out of your eye.”
With Reacher season 5 based on the book Make Me, however, it would seem that Prime Video’s series is on the precipice of its biggest shake-up yet, breaking new ground in terms of its tone, characters, and source material.
“Make Me” Features A New Type Of Villain For Reacher
Reacher‘s past four seasons, as well as Neagley season 1, all included a prominent main villain central to the story at hand and brimming with personality. These pesky antagonists not only moved the plot along, they became intertwined in the emotional stakes. In Reacher season 1, it was KJ Kliner, the sniveling murderer of Jack Reacher’s brother. Season 2 cast the familiar face of Robert Patrick to play the cold and clinical Langston. Reacher season 3 featured the most eccentric and chaotic enemy yet in Xavier Quinn, then season 4 took things further by making Jack Reacher’s new lover the secret villain.
Make Me takes a very different approach, with the story’s criminal mastermind being an anonymous, seldom-seen figure known only as ‘the guy with the ironed jeans and blow-dry hair.’ This shadowy foe calls the shots, but the evildoers of Make Me are more of an anonymous network, more true to real life, whereas past Reacher seasons have relied on colorful, Bond-like opponents.
That isn’t to say Reacher season 4 will be lacking memorable villains. The characters Merchenko and Hackett both tick that box. Still, the criminal behind the curtain will, if the book is anything to go by, cut a more elusive figure than the Prime Video series has seen until now.
Reacher Season 5 Is Basically Heading Into Horror Territory
Reacher fans will be accustomed to a drop or two of darkness. Dominique Kohl’s torture in season 3 set the faucet running, then Reacher season 4 went a little further with Lila and Amisha murdering their victims in slow and gruesome fashion. Make no mistake, though, these grisly moments have all been small pieces in a series that is very much a traditional action thriller.
Now in comes Make Me, widely considered among the darkest of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books, if not the darkest. Pushing the limits of taste with subject matter as unpleasant as it is bloody, Reacher season 5 will perform a gentle lean into the more disturbing realm of a psychological thriller.
The horror influences aren’t just found in the obvious places: the deaths, the violence, the harrowing conspiracy behind it all. They’re also in the way the small town of Mother’s Rest unnerves Jack Reacher. It’s the subtler terror too: the suspicious locals and the mysterious folklore. For anyone wanting to see Reacher take a step out of its comfort zone, Make Me is the story to do it.
Reacher Season 5 Is Adapting From A Different Era Of Lee Child Books
It’s curious that, despite classics like Die Trying and Tripwire remaining unadapted, Reacher season 5 is pulling from the more recent end of Lee Child’s canon.
Reacher season 1 adapted Child’s debut, released in 1997. Second 2 covered 2007’s Bad Luck and Trouble, then season 3 went back to Persuader from 2003, the seventh in the series. Reacher‘s most recent season based itself on Gone Tomorrow, the 2009 effort released not long after Bad Luck and Trouble.
Make Me came much later, published in 2015 as the 20th novel in the series, and one of the last to be authored exclusively by Lee Child before his brother Andrew joined as a co-writer. Generally speaking, the earlier Jack Reacher books are more loved than later efforts, so it’s unexpected that Amazon is drawing inspiration from a novel like Make Me relatively early in the show’s run.
Reacher Season 5 Has A Ready-Made Sequel
Each of Reacher‘s four seasons thus far has been a self-contained affair, with only odd moments of continuity to connect the dots. This has allowed Prime Video’s series to adapt Lee Child’s books in any order it likes.
In all likelihood, that will continue to be the case for Reacher seasons 5 and 6, but for the very first time, it doesn’t have to be. In a rare move, 2017’s The Midnight Line picked up directly after the events of Make Me. The former’s story is largely its own thing, but it’s still unusual for any Jack Reacher novel to take place explicitly and directly after a previous one.
This could, of course, indicate that The Midnight Line will be the source material for Reacher season 6, since a book for that run still hasn’t been officially announced. Indeed, one of the reasons behind Amazon choosing Make Me for season 5 and ordering season 6 early may have been to create a two-part Reacher TV story, the likes of which the series has deliberately avoided until now.
- Release Date
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February 3, 2022
- Network
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Prime Video
- Showrunner
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Nick Santora
