Reacher gets slammed by Green Berets for a litany of inaccuracies. As the most popular show on Prime Video, Reacher season 4 is on the way. It’ll be based on 2009’s Lee Child novel Gone Tomorrow, beginning when a chance encounter with a distraught stranger on a train goes horribly wrong.
Alan Ritchson’s Jack Reacher will then swoop in and attempt to save the day, facing off against dangerous foes in the process. Even though Reacher season 4 doesn’t have a release date just yet, it is likely that the upcoming episodes may continue the tradition of featuring flashbacks to the main character’s military and law enforcement prowess.
But in a video for the FNG Academy channel on YouTube, two Green Berets took issue with how a scene from Reacher season 1 depicts an arrest. In the exchange below, the duo goes over why the arrest doesn’t work. Ultimately, they decide, the whole thing is done to facilitate Jack Reacher’s prison fight scene:
Speaker 1: I like the show. I do. I think it’s an entertaining show. And I actually enjoyed episode one, but this is such a big, stupid mistake and such a far reach in Reacher. He’s a suspect in a murder, right? He was just near it. There’s not even good evidence. He’s just a suspect.
He would never be under arrest, being sent to jail. He’s literally on a f–ing bus, getting sent to a jail because he was seen near a crime. So he hasn’t been charged. He hasn’t been charged with the crime. He’s only been questioned. He’s already been detained for far too long. Like, he wasn’t detained—he was put under arrest.
Speaker 2: He was detained.
Speaker 1: He said he wasn’t detained. He was legitimately just arrested, yeah, for being near the scene of a crime. Like, no, that’s not how it works.
Speaker 2: So if anything, what? They would just keep him in the holding cell there, or they would let him go.
Speaker 1: They would keep him in the holding cell long enough to question him, which is maybe a 24-hour period max. And then you have to let him go. You can’t f–king arrest somebody, especially when they got somebody else who already admitted to the murder.
Speaker 2: So these guys are going to jail for the same crime.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you have one guy going to jail because he admitted to the murder, and then you have one guy who was just seen near it, and they’re just arresting him. He’s just a stranger. Completely violating this dude’s rights in every way, and they’re just sending him to f–king jail.
I feel like we know that. And then not only that—yeah, he should know that, especially. And then you’re with the guy that’s another suspect together in the same f–king crime. Like, you don’t think that maybe you want to keep us separate? But literally, how it would go with Reacher is:
“Hey, man, you were seen near the scene of the crime. At what time was that? Yeah, questioning. Okay, you’re free to go. You’re not under arrest.”
He could just walk out at any time.
Speaker 2: But then we wouldn’t get this badass prison fight scene.
Speaker 1: The prison fight scene’s so f–king dope.
Speaker 2: The fight scene’s bad.
Speaker 1: The whole time in prison, it’s like, if I’m going to jail, I want to be with this guy. Yeah.
What This Says About Reacher
In defense of the Prime Video show’s storytelling decision, the Reacher prison fight is probably the show’s best. As the Green Berets themselves note, it’s a pretty cool moment for the Prime Video drama that adeptly announces its intentions. The criticism is likely more to do with the fact that the fight could have been achieved more eloquently.
But as anyone who has seen the Reacher season 3 ending knows, the adaptation is happy to sacrifice a bit of realism for a cool moment. This comes through in the finale, as a long-awaited fight with a foe is prolonged to arrive at a fairly implausible conclusion. If the action thriller were more concerned with realism, then the fight would be over way more quickly.
But on the other hand, if the show were about realism, it would make Ritchson’s interactions with the Reacher cast less entertaining. A quick and easy way to do things, even if inaccurate, fits the kind of show that Prime Video has cultivated.
Our Take On Reacher’s Inaccuracies
It’s definitely understandable to feel frustration about Reacher slipping up with aspects of law enforcement; that’s at least in part some of the charm. Even though he is a very serious character, sometimes not even understanding jokes, Reacher isn’t a serious show.
It’s a fun action show that delivers on what audiences expect from it. It would feel a little different if the world of Reacher, a world where one man can withstand anything, started to resemble our own.
Reacher
8/10
- Release Date
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February 3, 2022
- Network
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Prime Video
- Showrunner
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Nick Santora
