Each season of Prime’s Reacher follows a specific book. Season 1 was based on Killing Floor (the first novel), Season 2 was based on Bad Luck and Trouble (the 11th), and Season 3 excavated its gold from Persuader (the seventh). Author Lee Child has written 29 books so far, with a 30th on the way, so the show can go on as long as The Simpsons or The Bold and the Beautiful if Prime’s executives wish.
Lee Child might not mention it, but he’s probably slept well since the show premiered in 2022. That’s because it’s mostly faithful to his literature. No author wants to see their work butchered by movie and television writers, so Child must be pleased. Even so, there is rarely an adaptation that’s 100% faithful to the source material. The action series has a few tweaks, most of which improve the story. However, creative liberties have resulted in egregious failings on a few other occasions.
Here are the 6 worst changes the show has made to the source material so far.
6
Leaving Out Elizabeth in Season 3
Beck has a wife named Elizabeth in Persuader. Interestingly, she doesn’t appear in Season 3. It’s revealed that she died a while back, so the tycoon has been raising Richard by himself. That’s a shame because Jack Reacher and Elizabeth are very close in the book. In it, a tender bond forms as the two opposites — one earthy and simple, the other daring and brutal — realize they bring out surprisingly profound emotions in each other.
Elizabeth Would Have Raised the Stakes
In the book, Elizabeth feeds Reacher with plenty of information about Beck’s business relationship with Quinn. This helps him do his job much better. On the show, Richard is given Elizabeth’s arcs, but the young man always seems like a liability rather than an ally. He is merely a vulnerable person who needs protection. Besides that, Elizabeth is constantly subjected to harsh treatment from Paulie on the pages, causing Reacher’s hatred for the henchman to surge. Their eventual showdown thus feels more personal.
A romance between Elizabeth and Reacher is hinted at in the book. Cursory details, like Liz and Beck rarely talking, reveal that the marriage is more an alliance of bank balances than hearts, hence the perfect opportunity for Reacher to step in and fill the emotional void. Such chemistry would have benefited the show, since the Reacher-Duffy pairing left fans dissatisfied.
Related
After ‘Reacher’ Season 3, I Totally Get Why Alan Ritchson Should Play Batman
Batman needs to be physically imposing as well as a smart detective. And guess who just embodied both of those things perfectly? Alan Ritchson.
5
Reacher Talks a Lot More in the Show
The most interesting aspect of Reacher lore is the jarring conversational contrast between the book and TV versions of the character. Jack Reacher is quite the talker in the Prime Video series. This isn’t the case in the books, where he mostly taps into his inner voice. “Reacher said nothing…” is a recurring phrase on the pages, reminding viewers that the former military investigator is a man of actions, not words.
A Silent Reacher is a Better Reacher
How much more powerful would the show have been had there been less of a canyon between the homespun lines of dialogue that Alan Ritchson seems barely able to execute with a straight face and the deep inner thoughts that the muscular military veteran conveys with such heart-lacerating intensity in the source material? Admittedly, TV Reacher’s yappy nature has resulted in a few golden quotes, such as “I’ll end your life with one phone,” which he says while strangling a man with an actual telephone cord.
However, many other lines have been misses rather than hits. When Jack Reacher is economical with words, he appears more menacing, more like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator. It would be fun to learn what he is thinking, instead of only hearing what he is saying.
4
Making KJ the Mastermind in Season 1
At the end of Season 1, we learn that KJ has been the mastermind all along. This is a deviation from the books where his dad, Kliney Sr, is the real devil, having personally been involved in the killing of Joe, the town’s police chief, and his wife, Molly Beth, and several other victims. It’s a nice little twist, but it’s underwhelming because KJ is hardly a menacing character.
KJ Doesn’t Cut It
A competent protagonist needs an equally vicious and smart villain. Quinn came close. KJ isn’t as perfect as a villain of his calibre ought to be, given the stakes. For most of Season 1, KJ is portrayed as the black sheep, the son who does nothing but cause trouble in town. From trying to bully everyone to vandalizing Roscoe’s car, he seems like a minor threat to Jack Reacher. His sudden transformation into a mastermind thus doesn’t seem believable. Even worse, he kills his father, who had been depicted as smarter than him all along.
3
The Communication Device in Season 3
In Season 3, Jack Reacher has a tiny cell phone that he uses to communicate with Duffy. The book only mentions an “email device” which Reacher uses to type messages to Duffy. Persuader came out in 2003 when emails were trendy, so it all makes sense. Still, this little detail should have been preserved on the show.
Overt Communication
Reacher’s communication method in Season 3 hardly makes sense. He keeps making phone calls to Duffy while in Beck’s house, risking discovery. An experienced military investigator like him ought to be using something more discreet. If not the “email device,” he should stick to messages so that someone doesn’t hear him saying anything. Luckily for him, he never got caught, but making numerous phone calls was still an unnecessary risk.
2
TV Reacher Isn’t Really a Lone Wolf
Reacher is technically a Lone Wolf action show, but it doesn’t always act that way in practice. That’s because the screen version of the protagonist prefers company a bit too much compared to his book counterpart. In print, the protagonist is the model of an unbothered, live-for-the-moment independent man, the kind who appears to regard friends and lovers as optional accessories to a fulfilled male existence.
Too Social
Would it be unfair to expect Reacher to do most things by himself? Not really. Many other action heroes have done it. Reacher isn’t exactly a realistic show, so the one-man army trope would easily fly. Season 2 was especially bad, having the hero be part of a team again and again while constantly throwing out the line, “Do not mess with the special investigators.” Season 3 was a little better. Hopefully, Season 4 will give fans back the Jack Reacher they’ve always known.
Related
6 Things the Jack Reacher Movies Do Much Better Than the Show
Prime’s ‘Reacher’ is generally considered better, but Tom Cruise’s ‘Jack Reacher’ and its sequel do have their redeeming qualities.
1
Reacher Met Quinn Too Soon
In Persuader, Reacher doesn’t come face-to-face with Xavier Quinn until the story’s climax. On the show, it happens much sooner. Quinn, who doesn’t remember Reacher, even sees him as a talented henchman with a lot of potential. He then learns that the protagonist is working for law enforcement officials and punishes Beck for him. Unfortunately, this is bad for the story.
Holding Back the Rage
The television version of Jack Reacher seems too lenient to a man who tortured and murdered one of his most promising protégés. Kohl meant everything to Reacher, yet he took it easy with Quinn, waiting for the perfect moment. Making the protagonist patient is necessary for the plot, but it defies logic. Having Reacher only meet Quinn once, as is the case in the book, would have made more sense.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
