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Lee Child Adaptation - Reacher on the Zon

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Luke Everhart:
Kinda surprised nobody has posted about the great adaptation of uber-successful author Lee Child's books on the Zon.
The new show is called Reacher and it's a vastly more faithful adaptation than the Tom Cruise movies (which were entertaining but were not Jack Reacher). The Zon series takes one book as the source material for each season. The first season is based on Child's "Killing Floor". It's excellent  :tup3b


(Big fan of Lee Child both for his books but also his understanding of his craft/job. He writes to entertain -- nothing more nor less -- a claim he's made in numerous interviews. He has no pretensions to "challenge" 🙄 or question or shake up or preach or any of the other conceits that some not-so-successful commercial writers, misapprehending their job and confusing their craft with literary fiction, indulge. He respects the interests of his readers. (Great interview with the BBC a few years ago where he contemptuously takes to task the notion of indulging his "muse" at the expense of his audience) ...Not to say I don't read or appreciate literary fiction. I do. Well, the classic stuff, not so much the contemporary stuff which is little more than literary onanism. 🤷‍♂️ )

PJ Post:
 :tup3b

j tanner:
Good timing. Just finished it last night.

lt's fine I guess.

It's a step up from the Tom Cruise movies. A season per book is a great choice and they've done a solid adaptation of the plot of Killing Floor. Introducing Neagley early was another solid decision to get at least one recurring character other than Reacher.

But as Reacher would say "details matter" and it doesn't fare well.

SPOILERS from here on out.

Reacher feels more like the Andrew Child version than the Lee Child version. (Not a compliment, even though some of that would be inevitable from the change in medium.) He's too chatty, too wink-and-a-smile. Not the matter of fact force of nature from the books. I don't mind Ritchman at all, he's solid, but I wish they would have willfully made him more rough around the edges and not just another mugging for the camera The Rock clone prettyboy. The book Reacher wears the same grubby blue-collar clothes for a week, and doesn't own a comb. The TV Reacher apparently finds tailored t-shirts on the rack (and in donation bins!) and carries around some mousse and a blow-dryer.

Neagley is similarly softened. She's all business and respect in the books. She's all affection in the show. I prefer the variety of having them being hard people doing hard things and contrasting with the civilians like Finley and Roscoe. Instead we get blushing "he's so Reacher!" commentary with a sigh. Yuck.

I wish they'd changed the "I know what motel any person will pick" nonsense from the books. I was so happy when they gaslighted it with Neagley, but then they went right back to the well with the accountant.

The pool fight was awful. Reacher has a very particular style of fights and they nailed it earlier in the series and went to straight TV fights down the stretch. Oddly, Reacher was both too superhuman and not superhuman enough here. Multiple crowbars to the forearms break arms, and to the face crush skulls. Even Reacher's. Reacher never should have been in the situation of getting pummeled like that because his superhuman fighting skills should have made quick work of this guy even if there was some initial obstacle. They showed us this earlier in the season in the prison fight. Then they "forgot".

The bad guys all going full bond-villain monologue in the final two episodes was annoying.

"Expert marksman" not even knowing how to hold a rifle correctly threw me out of the climactic scene. Why did no one fix this on set?

All this kind of stuff made it "just another TV show" rather than something different and special (like the books) that they were quite close to achieving.

ETA: Super-nitpicky but I wish they would have done a more consistent job of casting shorter people for supporting parts so Reacher would look huge. It kind of breaks the illusion when Lee Child makes a cameo and towers over Reacher. :P

Hopscotch:
For two-fistedness, Child's Reacher is a peanut compared to Stark's Parker plus this major diff in the books - every Parker tale is fresh, every Reacher story is the same:  he hitchhikes into town, beats up everyone, is offended by the villain, beats up everyone again, hitchhikes out of town.  That's why I lost interest in the Reacher novels but reread Parker.  As for the series, it's just as preposterous and technically inept as most Hollywood thrillers.  But Ritchson is fun even if he is a little guy.

Jeff Tanyard:

--- Quote from: Hopscotch on February 18, 2022, 07:55:59 AM ---But Ritchson is fun even if he is a little guy.
--- End quote ---


6'2" is little?  I know the character is supposed to be a huge dude, and maybe Ritchson isn't as big as the character, but he's no munchkin.

I agree on the "fun" part, though.  I watched Blue Mountain State back in the day.  Vulgar as hell, but hilarious.   :ices_angel_g:

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