Alan Ritchson’s Reacher Has a Big Problem After Season 4 But Two Books Can Fix It

Just like that, another season of Reacher has come to a close. While the Prime Video action drama series remains extremely popular, it does risk growing a bit stale. To ensure that this doesn’t happen, the show needs to adapt two specific titles from Lee Child’s best-selling Jack Reacher series that will put Alan Ritchson‘s title character in a new and exciting place.

Reacher needs to shake up its formula before it goes stale

At first glance, Reacher would seem to be doing exactly what it needs to do to keep the show feeling fresh. Each season features the title character in a new location, with new allies, new enemies, and a new central mystery.

However, in doing just that, it’s made the show feel repetitive. While it’s faithful to the Child’s books, audiences now know what to expect from a new season of Reacher. This is only going to hurt the show in the long run.

Viewership for Reacher already took a hit in Season 4. According to Nielsen, Reacher drew 1.5 billion minutes of viewing time in the week of its Season 4 premiere, with around 79% of that time devoted just to the three new episodes.

Previously, the opening week for new Reacher seasons drew between 1.69 billion and 1.84 billion minutes. This indicates audiences are starting to tire of the former major in the U.S. Army’s military police who now wanders across America.

To keep Reacher fresh requires a much-needed formula shakeup. Luckily, Child already wrote the perfect blueprint. All the show needs is two seasons to make it happen.

Unfortunately, production is already underway on Season 5, which is adapting Make Me. That’s a good book, but again, very similar to previous seasons in what audiences can expect to see. While this delays the shakeup, it also works in Reacher’s favor, as it will be coming after the halfway point in Ritchson’s dream 10-season scenario for the show.

Reacher Seasons 6 and 7 need to adapt the third and fourth books in Child’s Jack Reacher series, Tripwire and Running Blind. While there’s nothing inherently unique or fresh about Tripwire — it’s a classic Reacher story that the Prime Video adaptation is no stranger to — why it needs to be adapted first is because of where it leaves Reacher.

At the end of Tripwire, Reacher inherits a house from his former mentor, Col. Leon Garber, and is shown to be dating his daughter, Jodie. These two major developments carry over into the next book, Running Blind. If adapted, a new season of Reacher would begin with two things audiences have grown not to expect from the title character: a long-term relationship with the same love interest as the previous season and living in a primary residence with an address.

Running Blind does conclude with the series returning to its original status quo, with Reacher missing his wandering ways and knowing his relationship with Jodie is coming to an end. However, the Prime Video adaptation only needs that one season to get audiences reinvested in the show and interested in wondering where it will take Ritchson’s Jack Reacher next.

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