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Reacher Season 3

MOVIE | The Good, the Bad, and the Gory


Jasper Savage /Prime / Amazon Content Services LLC

<em>Reacher </em> Season 3
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Rated TV-MA • Prime Video

There’s no doubt that Prime Video’s Reacher series is a hit for the streaming service. The second season became the No. 1 watched title of 2023 for Prime Video after just the first three episodes. Based on the books by Lee Child and developed for TV by Nick Santora, Reacher follows retired Military Police Officer Jack Reacher as he goes from town to town helping people in need and beating up bad guys who try to stop him. In the third season, Reacher goes undercover with the DEA to save a federal agent and get revenge on a dangerous old enemy whose past actions still haunt him.

Based on the Reacher novel The Persuader, Season 3 has everything that made the other seasons great, but better. Reacher is popcorn entertainment in prestige style. In every season, in fact nearly every episode, Reacher walks into town, sees someone getting bullied, and kicks the bully to the curb. The show never really gets more complicated. The protagonist never goes through deep character development, nor does the show delve into deeper themes. But it’s so well made that most watchers honestly don’t care. It may be all quips and action, but the quips are good, and the action is stellar.

Alan Ritchson—the star of Reacher—is openly a Christian. And he’s received pushback from Christians for playing such a violent character in such a violent show. The show’s action is well done, but it is pervasive and it is vivid, earning its TV-MA rating. Blood splatters. Bones break. Ritchson responded to critics in a video saying: “I love playing a character who creates a kind of moral ambiguity that we should struggle against as we consider whether or not what he’s doing is good all the time or morally right.” He goes on to say that God uses the Bible to tell stories of violence and morally ambiguous characters that weave His story of redemption, so Christians should too.

While it’s true that the Bible has many stories of killing and cruelty, it’s also true that Christians have always been concerned about violent entertainment. As Christian apologist Gavin Ortlund discusses in his video The Early Church on Entertainment (pulling largely from Christopher Hall’s book Living Wisely With the Church Fathers), the early church condemned the gladiator games of Rome. Not just because gladiator games murdered real people, but because they inspired a love of violence in the viewer. True, the Bible calls some men heroes who commit violence to enact God’s justice (such as those mentioned in Hebrews 11), but they aren’t glorified for their violence. They’re commended for their faith and obedience.

So does Reacher Season 3 exalt righteous justice or unrighteous violence? The answer is a bit of both. Reacher acts like an Old Testament–style avenging angel of God’s wrath against the wicked on behalf of the weak. But Reacher also revels in the pain he can inflict on the bad guys. Multiple scenes show Reacher and his friends torturing their enemies or showing apathy to the pain they are causing. In a scene played for laughs, Reacher’s friend Neagley eats a snack while mocking a man she’s mortally wounded. Reacher is primarily motivated to stop the bad guy out of revenge and even puts stopping him in jeopardy so he can kill him personally.

And violence isn’t Reacher’s only problematic behavior. He’s also a self-described lone wolf who sleeps with any woman who’s willing and then leaves them. Obviously, the Bible teaches we’re made for community and sex is made for marriage. But even secular society is catching up to the horrible mental health consequences of social isolation (e.g., Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation) and hook-up culture (e.g., Louise Perry’s The Case Against the Sexual Revolution).

Moreover, contrary to what Ritchson says, Reacher isn’t portrayed as morally ambiguous. Anyone who challenges Reacher’s methods is portrayed in a negative light or eventually comes around to his way of thinking. Whenever Reacher gets what he wants—in violence or love—it’s treated as a moment of emotional catharsis for the audience. And when he convinces a young man to emulate his lifestyle, it’s treated as a feel-good ending.

I’m a fan of the action-hero genre. And I’m not going to wag my finger and say that Christians shouldn’t watch Reacher. But if we’re going to enjoy it, we should be clear about the bad as well as the good. The show celebrates both heroism and bloodlust. It’s a Big Mac made by master chefs. Mostly empty calories, even if it’s some of the best empty calories you’re likely to have.

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