Reacher: ATM

December 16, 2023 2:27 PM - Season 2, Episode 1

Reacher and Neagley investigate the murder of a member of 110th, a group of Special investigators assembled by Reacher, only to realize the whole unit may be at risk. The first 3 episodes have dropped, weekly thereafter on Amazon Prime.

Episode 1 opens with the XXL wanderer navigating his latest rotation of clothes at a thrift shop when he gets word, via a coded bank deposit amount, to check in with former team member Neagley (played again by Season 1 returnee Maria Sten). Learning that one of their colleagues from the 110th MP Special Investigations Unit has been murdered, Reacher makes tracks for New York, meeting up with Neagley in a Brooklyn diner. (TVLine recap)

posted by TWinbrook8 (18 comments total)

I'm only 15 minutes into the first episode--didn't realize it had been renewed, didn't realize it just dropped, like yesterday and I really didn't know that this season was based on the 11th book, Bad Luck and Trouble, one of the best IMO because it features the Special Investigators and the saddest (ditto). It has the best opening: at the ATM "he instantly recognizes the unexpected $110 and $1,030 deposits in his account as a distress call from one of his old Army pals — 110 being the 110th and 1,030 being the military police radio code for “officer needs assistance.” (Vulture) sent by Neagley.

I'm a real sucker for "let's get the old gang back together for one last mission" type plots.

Like I said, I've only watched the first 15 minutes so far. Do people want to discuss all three episodes in this post? I can ask a mod to fix the header.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:46 PM on December 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

TW: a dog dies off-camera
posted by Mogur at 4:09 AM on December 17, 2023

I'm very much enjoying this intro to the season.

I made a comment previously that Reacher is a bit of a Mary Sue character, so I'm glad that in this they're doing a bit more to show that he's actually not great at literally everything. His interactions with Franz' widow are awkward and his nomadic lifestyle is shown not to be all just awesome cool guy stuff; he misses out on major life events of people he cares about.

I think it also helps that the story is grounded in the dynamics between old friends/colleagues; surrounding him with equally competent people (albeit trained by him) who aren't afraid to give him some shit humanizes the character a little bit.

It also helps that Alan Ritchson can pull off the small moments of vulnerability and regret and has a bit more to do this season than quip, get upset, and kick butt.

Very pleased with how this season is starting out and am glad we already have a third to look forward to!
posted by slimepuppy at 5:21 AM on December 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

Shepherd is watching this--shout to Port Perry, Ontario for showing up again in the small town backgrounds!--and jesus christ, Alan Ritchson is HUGE. Like, almost distressingly so.
posted by Kitteh at 5:27 AM on December 17, 2023

Regarding the hugeness of Alan Ritchson – there's a moment where he's shirtless and I muttered something to the effect "Jesus Christ, this boy's about to burst." He's so pumped he's inflated, and it honestly looks like it must be miserable to maintain.

That said, he's not just a mahoosive man, I really do appreciate that his acting is able to humanize a character who by all rights should come off like a walking red flag factory in every human interaction he has.
posted by wakannai at 6:00 AM on December 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

there's a moment where he's shirtless and I muttered something to the effect "Jesus Christ, this boy's about to burst." He's so pumped he's inflated, and it honestly looks like it must be miserable to maintain.

YES. But you know what? You could not have found a better actor to play Reacher, who, by all accounts from my husband who has read all the books, is just an mountain enigma of a human.
posted by Kitteh at 6:06 AM on December 17, 2023

The dog thing really stuck with me in a horrible way. I understand why they did it but I don't even like it in fiction. That having been said, the story is off to an intriguing start and I'm interested to see where it goes next.
posted by rednikki at 7:24 AM on December 17, 2023

I watched all of Season and tried Season 2. I managed about two and half episodes. The incessant music put me off. It simply does not allow the visuals to stand on their own. I am not expecting Fargo S2, but come on. Could not stand it anymore and turned it off.
The Sarah Conner joke was funny, though.
posted by techSupp0rt at 11:48 AM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Saropian: "And who's Sarah Conor?"
T-1000: "I don't give a shit."
That alone deserves an award or two.
posted by dogstoevski at 3:06 PM on December 18, 2023 [13 favorites]

I feel like Alan Ritchson was specially grown in a lab tank for the role of Reacher. The whole series is straight up competence porn, but I'm kinda still here for it when I want to turn my brain off.

(Also, kinda annoyed the swapped NY in for LA, but I'm biased since I live here in LA)
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:31 PM on December 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

The genius (? maybe just full props to an actor who is more than their looks) of Ritchson is that Reacher is a weirdo: In the scene in the hotel Suite we see how much, though he might regret some of it, it is who he is. Ritchson portrays that really well - the ambiguity of 'wanting' a different life and yet knowing it wouldn't be satisfying (the books address this quality of Reacher: I think I disagree with it, but for the sake of a character in some TV/Streaming show, I accept and enjoy it.) There's that tension in much of Reacher's interactions, he's a step removed from everyone else - stuck inside his own sense of how to be in the world... In a comment from season1 someone described him as 'being on the spectrum' which is not at all off.
posted by From Bklyn at 5:09 AM on December 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

They've definitely made his Reacher into something slightly less mean than he was in the early books at least. I remember that in Killing Floor the book (basis for season 1), there was a really nasty streak to some of Reacher's behavior like when he taunts the kingpin dad about "where's your boy", after he had killed him earlier in a trap that Reacher setup. (If I recall they ended up making the son the ultimate kingpin)

I suspect some of that is just that the actor comes across as much nicer than Reacher does in the book - visually. People recoil from Reacher in the books. But I do appreciate them making him look more road weary in the first episode of the season so far.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:44 AM on December 19, 2023

He is too Large. Just seeing him in the trailers makes me genuinely uneasy. But I thought that was part of the point?
posted by praemunire at 12:59 PM on December 20, 2023

In a comment from season1 someone described him as 'being on the spectrum' which is not at all off.

The two things to me that stand out this season making him seem more explicitly spectrumy are 1) his insistence that they could get a motel rather than the comped hotel suite (which would make sense as a spectrumy thing, he is used to crappy motels and feels comfortable in them) and 2) his "it wouldn't be right" full-stop no-sleeping-with-subordinates rule. Not sleeping with your subordinates is obviously a good idea, but there's a kind of rigidity to his attitude that seems especially spectrumy to me.
posted by BungaDunga at 6:57 PM on December 20, 2023

I've been amused, in both seasons, at how bad the signs are for fake stores in this show--like they used the "word art" feature in Microsoft Word or something. I was noticing the same thing in this episode for the thrift shop at the beginning, when all of a sudden they have a metal sign that just says "Intuit TurboTax," like on a street sign or something. Anyone else notice that?
posted by mabelstreet at 6:05 PM on January 9

This season isn't working for me so far. The writing seems clunky (how many times does he have to ask Nealey if he's told her how smart she is? Not enough time, apparently) and I think Ritchson's limits as an actor are showing (although this didn't seem to be a problem in S1. Maybe it's the writing again).

I think Roscoe and Finlay may have had more to do with the success of S1 than I originally realized.

I'll give it a couple more episodes, but I enjoyed the hell out of S1 and I'm not feeling this one.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 4:57 PM on January 10

Starting this as the desire was for something fun and thoughtless. After episode 1, the fun bit is probably there. The thoughtless bit as well. One of my least favourite scenes is the "guess someone's password" scene, and this was one of the sillier ones, with the implication being the Special Investigators have all the cunning and security hygiene of my grandfather. (Reinforced by putting the super secret stuff in a box protected by a key opposite his office. What was the stuff about looking for the full box as he'd not have collected it for a few days? Do postmen deliver to these boxes?)

Also, don't get me started on all the various ways, both HR and otherwise, that the first thing Reacher did for his new band of MPs was to arrange a bar fight with other soldiers. C'mon man, at least fight with people you're not supposed to investigate for fighting.
posted by Hartster at 2:19 AM on January 16

You can shoot Toronto as New York, with some compromises (notice there are no actual brownstones in this episode). But you can’t really shoot anywhere in Canada as LA.
posted by sixswitch at 5:50 PM on March 18