By adapting Lee Child’s Gone Tomorrow,Reacherseason 4 is finally breaking a redundant storytelling trend. TheAmazon Prime Video detective serieswas off to a strong start when it adapted the first book,Killing Floor, fromLee Child’sJack Reacherbook series. However, instead of treading the same path as many novel adaptations and following the source material’s chronology,Reacherseason 2 switched things up a little by picking the eleventh book,Bad Luck & Trouble, in Lee Child’s original series.
Season 3 continued this trend by adapting the seventh book,Persuader, and bringing another compelling story from the novel series to the small screen.WithReacherseason 4, the Prime Video show is taking on Lee Child’s thirteenth novel,Gone Tomorrow, which is often touted as one of the best books in the original series. Interestingly,Gone Tomorrow’s story ensures that Prime Video’sReacherintroduces a major storytelling shift after seasons 1, 2, and 3 consistently followed one narrative trope.
Unlike Its Predecessors, Reacher Season 4 Is Not Another Revenge Story For The Protagonist
Reacher’s Motives Will Be Different In Season 4
InReacherseason 1, the titular character had no intentions of sticking around in Margrave for long. However, he ended up staying in the small town and got involved in its deeply rooted criminal conspiracy soon after learning that his brother had been murdered there. Although Reacher was driven by his strong sense of justice,he was also on a war path against the villains because he wanted revenge.Reacherseason 2 raised the stakes for the character by featuring a bigger setting and more dangerous antagonists.
Reacher’s motives, though, remained the same in season 2,given how he and his former teammembers from the 110th Special Investigation Unitwere primarily driven by their hunger for revenge after the main villain murdered their military allies. Despite having a different setting and initial story setup,Reacherseason 3 did not change this trend and walked through another revenge story where Jack Reacher only agreed to be the DEA’s informant because it gave him the opportunity to exact revenge on a man responsible for killing his military police colleague.
Instead of being driven by a lust for revenge, it is Reacher’s underlying guilt and curiosity that encourage him to understand and uncover the woman’s backstory.
Fortunately, instead of repeating the storytelling trend for the fourth time,Reacherseason 4 is changing things by adapting Lee Child’sGone Tomorrow. In the original book, Jack Reacher finds himself in the middle of another conspiracy after he fails to save a suicide bomber from taking her own life. Instead of being driven by a lust for revenge, it is Reacher’s underlying guilt and curiosity that encourage him to understand and uncover the woman’s backstory. This adds another layer to Reacher’s character, showing how revenge is not the only force that motivates him.
Reacher Season 4 Will Have To Find New Ways To Raise The Stakes For Ritchson’s Character
Revenge Gave Reacher A Strong Emotional Drive In Seasons 1, 2, And 3
Revenge proved to be a potent driving force forAlan Ritchson’s Jack Reacherin the Prime Video show’s seasons 1, 2, and 3. It highlighted that even though the character carried himself with a stoic demeanor and rarely showed his emotions, he deeply cared about all the people who crossed paths with him in the past. Each season also featured flashbacks that revealed how Reacher forged some of his most formative relationships that shaped his sense of justice and protectiveness towards his loved ones.
Reacher’s backstory with Dominique Kohl even highlighted how he came up with one of his most crucial investigative rules: “Assumptions kill!” Since Jack Reacher’s past ties and personal losses have significantly influenced his narratives in the show, so far,it would be interesting to see how the shift in season 4’s storytelling will give him new emotional stakes. Not to mention, it is also hard not to look forward to how Alan Ritchson will channel these new aspects of Jack Reacher’s psyche inReacherseason 4.
Reacher
Reacher follows Jack Reacher, a former military police investigator, as he navigates civilian life. Without a phone and carrying minimal belongings, Reacher drifts across the country, experiencing the nation he once served, and encounters intriguing challenges along the way.
