Earning high praise from Lee Child, the author of the original novels, Prime Video’s Reacher subverted all expectations from fans of the movie series starring Tom Cruise. The action sequences are intense, the drama is compelling, and the characters are surprisingly relatable. Alan Ritchson’s titular protagonist isn’t very different from his novel counterpart, but Child noted something interesting about the series in an early 2025 interview.
The author mentioned the presence of comedy in his novels, calling it a “dry, sardonic humor that sometimes goes unobserved.” Child further expressed his happiness over Ritchson’s performance, stating that “Alan, who reads the books very carefully, has noticed [the humor] and he mines it and he brings it out to the fore a lot.” And that’s a rather accurate assessment, considering several moments of laugh-out-loud comedy in the Reacher TV show.
Reacher’s Math Is Never Wrong, But His Assessments Can Be Amusing
Reacher repeatedly demonstrates his brilliance, from deductive logic and pattern recognition to mathematical calculations performed on the fly, a small glimpse into a brain that’s as potent and effective as his brawn. He’s also extremely dispassionate, leading to accidental humor because he fails to check the words coming out of his mouth, which happens more often than not.
Despite DEA agent Guillermo Villanueva’s upcoming retirement, he agrees to help Reacher set a rather dangerous trap. Reacher upturns a car with his bare hands, with Villanueva posing as an accident victim still trapped inside. As the DEA agent comments on the risks and mentions his proximity to retirement, Reacher attempts to convince him of the math, stating that Villanueva would be safe as the target’s car would come to a halt before crashing into him.
Villanueva wonders what happens if the target applies the brakes too late, and Reacher responds with a flat-faced question: “Do your retirement payments transfer to your wife?” It’s never obvious when Reacher’s being actively funny, considering his predilection for brutal honesty, but this was the clearest example of a joke — dark though it may have been.
Reacher and Susan Duffy in Reacher Season 3Image via Prime Video
Alan Ritchson may be three inches short of Jack Reacher’s 6’5″ stature, but the show makes him look massive anyway. He towers over most characters, sports highly developed muscles, and possesses an endless reservoir of stamina. All this to say that his diet doesn’t always match his physicality. This was first evidenced in Season 1, where Finlay inquires how Reacher can eat so much food and still look so fit — “Like this,” he says, shoveling a forkful into his mouth.
Reacher’s food humor appears on multiple occasions. He waxes eloquent about the nutritional benefits of beef jerky, claims that he’s “just warming up” when a buffet cashier remarks on his overloaded plate, and is ultimately unimpressed by the famous peach pie that he wasn’t able to eat in the Season 1 premiere.
That said, Season 3 contains some of the best food-related commentary. While he’s not upset to learn that he’s drinking coffee “from a feline’s as*h**e,” he playfully asks to “leave the cat out of it.” In a later scene, Reacher delivers justice when the maid Annette is being harassed, expanding her French insult into a comically harsh diatribe about cream and mothers and cows. He even gets a slice of cheesecake as a reward for his chivalry.
Reacher Tricks a Man with a “Silencer” Made Out of Plastic
Reacher wears sunglasses in prison in ReacherImage via Prime Video
Season 2 of Reacher takes the protagonist into his past, introducing some of his chosen family. The 110th MP Special Investigations unit comes under threat when someone starts killing them off, forcing a reunion of former teammates to solve the mystery. Although there are a few comedic moments along the way, this season’s highlight occurred in Episode 6, “New York’s Finest.”
Marlo Burns, a woman that Reacher’s looking for, has taken shelter at their friend’s place, an innocent man oblivious to his imperilment. Reacher and his team grab the man, dubbed Chad by Reacher for some reason, and caution him to be wary of his friend. When he refuses to believe them and fetch Marlo, Reacher fashions a makeshift silencer from a plastic bottle and threatens Chad with it.
The frightened man immediately capitulates, only for Reacher to chuckle at the sheer absurdity of the threat. Chad, as well as many viewers, was paying far too much attention to the aggressive cues to notice that “a sixteenth inch of plastic” could never be a suitable silencer. While laughing, Reacher even says that he “can’t believe [Chad] fell for that.”
Reacher’s Interactions with Paulie Are Almost Always Funny
Alan Ritchson in ReacherImage via Prime Video
Introduced in Season 3, Olivier Richter’s Paulie VanHoven served as the proverbial bigger fish to Jack Reacher’s already prodigious size. Standing at 7’2″ and constructed of pure muscle, Paulie made Reacher finally understand how the average man felt around him. And yet, Reacher refused to be emasculated, instead choosing to approach Paulie from a position of facetious intelligence rather than brute force.
Reacher was aware that Paulie could defeat him in a contest of strength when he challenged the larger man to a personalized form of arm-wrestling. Proud to display his ego, Paulie falls for the prank instantly. Reacher pulls his arm down with enormous force before suddenly letting go, resulting in Paulie’s clenched fist smashing into his face.
He avoids the inevitable showdown thanks to a well-timed interruption, but fans could feel the hype build throughout Reacher‘s third season. Interestingly, the finale episode’s Reacher vs. Paulie battle was as intense as it was funny. It was almost cartoonish the way Paulie tanked Reacher’s strongest punches, escaped drowning, and mocked his opponent by claiming superiority because he was bigger and stronger. In the end, Paulie fell victim to his own buffonish stupidity.
Reacher Brilliantly and Hilariously Dismantles the Case Against Him
Alan Ritchson as Jack ReacherImage via Prime Video
Reacher brings forth its eponymous hero in Season 1, but he’s crudely dragged away from his breakfast by police accusing him of murder. In classic Reacher fashion, he refuses to elaborate beyond describing his alibis. Even after Chief Finlay comes in, Reacher continues to reveal nothing about himself, deepening the mystery.
As author Lee Child mindfully based his iconic character on Sherlock Holmes, it was only a matter of time before Reacher exhibited his brilliant mind. In his own defence, Reacher eventually offers a complex explanation to Finlay, simultaneously exonerating himself and exposing flaws in the detective’s analysis.
Benedict Cumberbatch was frequently hilarious in his role as the BBC’s Sherlock, especially while narrating his astute deconstructions of other people’s personal lives. Reacher channels Holmes’ deadpan energy, delivering a speech that somehow sounds both incredible and unbelievable, and cementing himself as Reacher‘s funniest character.
Release Date
February 3, 2022
Network
Prime Video
Showrunner
Nick Santora
Directors
Omar Madha, Carol Banker, Julian Holmes, Lin Oeding, M.J. Bassett, Norberto Barba, Stephen Surjik, Thomas Vincent
Writers
Cait Duffy
Alan Ritchson
Jack Reacher
Maria Sten
Frances Neagley
