Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		0.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Reacher: Season One 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 21, 2022

Voracious readers of the modern Action-Thriller genre need no introduction to Author Lee Child's iconic Jack Reacher, a character who debuted in 1997 in the novel The Killing Floor. Voracious moviegoers of the modern Action-Thriller genre likewise need no introduction to the character. In 2012, the team of Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, who have found tremendous success collaborating in some of the most recent Mission: Impossible films, made Jack Reacher and in 2016 for a sequel, which McQuarrie produced with Cruise in the lead. Even with Cruise's star power, the franchise never really took off on the big screen as it did in the books, so here is a TV adaptation made for Amazon Prime that presents Reacher from the very beginning, offering an eight-episode season that is based on the character's debut novel.

Official synopsis: When retired Military Police Officer Jack Reacher is arrested for a murder he did not commit, he finds himself in the middle of a deadly conspiracy full of dirty cops, shady businessmen and scheming politicians. With nothing but his wits, he must figure out what is happening in Margrave, Georgia. The first season of Reacher is based on the international bestseller, Killing Floor by Lee Child.

Reacher's faithfulness to the original novel is to be commended. While it obviously, even at eight episodes, lacks all of the nuance and character- and world-building found in the books, this is a fundamentally faithful adaptation that will please fans who loved the book and want to see it come alive on the screen with some level of authenticity. The show finds a good blend of action and drama with sprinklings of humor, the latter of which mercifully never overextends its welcome.

The opening episode's opening minutes certainly bring to mind the first act of First Blood, and while parts of the story certainly borrow -- and sometimes very liberally -- from other sources, the show comes into its own rather quickly thanks to a towering performance from Alan Ritchson, who looks like a meathead but who has the brains of an Ivy Leaguer. Ritchson proves to be quite the capable lead, and it's refreshing to find a physical specimen who can also act. He won't win any awards, but he definitely carries the show's action and is even almost fully convincing as a man who is as intelligent as he is strong and as observational as he is athletic. He fills Reacher's shoes far better than Cruise, who, even in the excellent first film, just didn't capture the stature that Child developed in the book. Ritchson is a natural fit and his work portends good things for the show moving forward.

The following episodes comprise season one. Summaries are courtesy of the Blu-ray release's packaging:

Disc One:

• Welcome to Margrave: Reacher is wrongly accused of murder while visiting the small town of Margrave, GA.
• First Dance: When more victims are discovered, Reacher attempts to get answers but is set up. Roscoe receives a threatening message.
• Spoonful: Reacher and Finlay’s investigation into the missing Spivey leads them into a confrontation with Kliner Sr. Roscoe learns unsettling news about Reacher.

Disc Two:

• In a Tree: As the danger increases, Reacher and Roscoe grow closer and they make plans to meet with their contact from Homeland Security.
• No Apologies: As the mystery deepens, Reacher teams up with an old colleague and Finlay makes a shocking discovery.
• Papier: As the town is rocked by another murder, Reacher heads to New York and learns the truth about the illegal business in Margrave while Roscoe faces danger in the woods.

Disc Three:

• Reacher Said Nothing: Reacher springs a trap and then gets trapped himself.
• Pie: Reacher leads a rescue mission at the warehouse that ends in a showdown.

Reacher: Season One 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.

Reacher's UHD release offers marginal gains over the companion and concurrently released Blu-ray. The 2160p resolution squeezes out a little more in the way of intricate detail across the board, notably on skin. Faces are rendered oh-so-slightly more complex, featuring mild gains to facial scruff and pore visibility, for example, but nothing that absolutely destroys the Blu-ray. Still, the sense of overall improved clarity is evident as part of the larger package that offers slight adds to glossiness and stability, too. Clothing details are slightly more refined as well. Noise management is better on the UHD, especially in lower light scenes. Noise is not a major issue on the Blu-ray, but it is barely an issue at all here. There are a few very mild compression issues at work, though.

The HDR colors add some depth and render the image a bit darker overall. Look at a shot at the 19:05 mark of episode one. It's inside an office that is lit by a bright sun outside a single window. On the Blu-ray there is very little sense of darkness in the shadowy corners. On the UHD, the darker contrasts are more pronounced with deeper, richer blacks that give the scene a contrasting dynamic that is absent on the Blu-ray. It's a nice add, making the image look bolstered in terms of overall depth and accuracy, but at the same time it is not so transformative as to really do much more than offer a modest enhancement. Still, overall color depth is better here, with more accuracy and intensity on display, yielding a more naturally inclined palette. Whites are a bit crisper, blacks a little deeper, and skin tones slightly more authentic. This is hardly substantial stuff, but it is a decent enough boost, and it is the clear superior to the Blu-ray, even if just talking degrees rather than leaps.

Reacher: Season One 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This included DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is plenty aggressive and very satisfying. Ranging from subtle atmospheric cues to full-on action extravaganzas, there's no mistaking that this track means business. All speakers are fully engaged to bring the full Reacher audio experience into the listening area for all its worth. The track is well engineered, taking full advantage of front width, surround wrap, and subwoofer output. Action scenes hit hard with plenty of depth and stage engagement, while on the other end light atmosphere surrounds the listener at all times. The prison sequences in the first episode offers some great examples. Fistfights offer plenty of bone-cracking crunch while blaring alarms and inmate din fill the stage with uncanny accuracy. Musical engagement is wide and substantially immersive while maintaining balance and clarity. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized from a stable front-center location.

Reacher: Season One 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This UHD release of Reacher: Season One includes a couple of extras on disc three. No Blu-ray or digital copies are included. This release does not ship with a slipcover (the Blu-ray does). It's worth nothing the oddity of this release: rather than ship in a single case, it ships in two which are shrink-wrapped together. Discs one and two are in case one and disc three is in case two. Quite bizarre.

• Realizing Reacher (1080p, 21:14): Exploring the core story, characters, casting and performances, the Jack Reacher character, action choreography, set construction, the multi-genre story flow, and more,
• Novelistic (1080p, 8:54): Exploring the character as developed in the original novel, adapting the first Reacher novel for television, and looking at how the character build is shaped on the page and on the screen.

Reacher: Season One 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Reacher's first season is not one for the record books, but it's a rock-solid adaptation of a classic novel that has room to breathe at eight episodes. Its lead is terrific, and all of the support elements work well, too, making this one of the more faithful and enjoyable novel-to-TV adaptations out there. Paramount's three-disc UHD set delivers quality 2160p/HDR video that is a step above the Blu-ray. It shares the same 5.1 lossless audio presentation as the Blu-ray. Supplements are on the lean side, but what's here is fine. Recommended.