Reacher: Antidote to the Longhouse
Amazon makes a good show and accidentally summons the Patriarchy
Have you seen the latest iteration of the Marvel movie franchise, The Marvels? Neither have I. Nor have many other people, from what I gather. For the record, whatever her personal beliefs (which I am sure are horrible), I think Brie Larson is a very good actress. But neither I nor many other people have much stomach for the retrofitting of superhero movies with feminist and other “current year” messaging. I won’t belabor the point, because those on the cultural right, like myself, have beaten that corpse into a fine powder by now.
I only mention it as a segue into my subject, Amazon’s series Reacher, which just wrapped up its second season. Based on the original series of books by the author Lee Child, and, from what I can tell departing from the films starring Tom Cruise (called Jack Reacher), it tells the story of Reacher (in the show, he insists on being called this), a former army investigator who uses his skills to solve the murders of his brother (in season 1) and members of his former unit (in season 2).
And those skills are both hyper intelligence, a keen eye for detail, and the body of a professional wrestler. That is part of the series’ appeal: Reacher’s character is part Army grunt, part body builder and part CIA assassin. Alan Richtson, who plays the title character, makes this work by projecting a cold, brilliant demeanor with the physique of Hulk Hogan. Without his performance, the show would not be successful.
As you can guess from my description, Reacher showcases violence: lots of shooting, killing, and magnificently coordinated fight scenes. In the series, Reacher is both a hyper-intelligent but ultimately caring vigilante/anti-hero, but most importantly, he is the baddest of the bad dudes around. The series is presented as a dark, gritty, realistic drama, and as you would expect, revels in spectacular scenes of violence.
However, it is no dumb action movie. It is rather smartly done, and overall combines three basic stories to make its magic. The most obvious of these is that it is a John Wick style action thriller. Reacher satisfyingly beats to a pulp/murders the bad guys and makes no apologies for it.
[Note: light spoilers from here on out]
On the contrary, Reacher glories in it. In the first episode of the first season, Reacher tells another character that he is going to find the people responsible for killing his brother and murder them all. By the season finale, he has indeed murdered everyone responsible. In the second season, he tells the antagonist who has murdered three of his team members by throwing them out of a helicopter that he is going to throw him out of a helicopter. Sure enough, in the season finale, he throws the main villain out of a helicopter. Let no one accuse the writers of Reacher of not paying off their setups.
The second story that comprises the show is related, because despite presenting itself as gritty and realistic, the violence of Reacher is nothing of the sort. It is actually a thinly disguised superhero story. Richtson’s character routinely gets away with things that would likely get him killed in real life, and even though he is occasionally bailed out by friends, he mostly takes out the bad guys himself. He is, in effect, a superhero without the cape.
The third story element is what gives Reacher a bit more cache in my opinion. In both seasons one and two, Reacher is trying to avenge the death of first his brother and then members of his former squad, whom he likens to his “family.” In other words, Reacher is at one level a good old fashion revenge tragedy—not exactly Hamlet, but more like Titus Andronicus or even The Spanish Tragedy, and you can see the resemblance. Just as in those plays a character has to take justice into his own hands because the powers that be are corrupt, so does Reacher in his world, in which military higher ups cannot be trusted.
There are some interesting things about the show’s subtext that are worth discussing as well. The first is that of religion. Now, there is hardly any of this in the actual series, save for two references to Catholicism: in season 1, a character prays a Hail Mary as he drowns, while his friend Finlay reveals to him that he is a Catholic. But then there is the fact that Richtson himself is a practicing Christian, and has received some criticism for starring in what is a very dark and violent show.
There is no question that his character does things that are morally questionable, but I don’t have a strong opinion on whether Christian actors should or shouldn’t take on such roles. I think it depends on the artistic integrity of the project, and I think Reacher is a serious enough venture to justify it. It’s not high art, but there is more going on here than mere action schlock.
What makes me say this is that aforementioned subtext of the show. The series features flashbacks to Reacher’s childhood, when he was an army brat in Korea (I think). Both those flashbacks and Reacher’s attitude toward authority make it clear he has a military style honor code but is suspicious and contemptuous of what he takes to be the corruption of his commanders and higher-ups. (It is notable that, according to his IMBD page, Richtson is from a military family: his father was in the Air Force.) Perhaps it is just me, but the show feels like it has tapped into the frustration of many military vets after two decades plus of imperial warfare abroad. Over the past couple of years, news stories have appeared detailing how many military families are now steering their sons away from the military, due to the increasingly “woke” nature of military leadership. Reacher embodies perfectly the pent up anger of military men fighting the Forever War on behalf of leaders who despise them.
Reacher is also a perfect foil for “the longhouse,” the alt-right term for the feminization and wokeification of modern society. It is the polar opposite of The Marvels: Reacher is uber-masculine almost to the point of parody, and though there are “badass” women characters in his entourage in both seasons, they follow his lead without much if any feminist carping. (One of them, a mixed-race character, literally calls him “boss man,” while he beds the other two). Reacher is clearly an Outsider figure so common to American films, but also a Violent Father-Protector, taking revenge on those who have slain his friends by beating them senseless, when not straight up murdering them, a la Liam Neeson’s character in the Taken films. With its seemingly archaic honor code and appeal to traditional male superhero archetypes, Reacher is practically an unpaid advertisement for The Patriarchy (TM).
Why Amazon and Jeff Bezos chose to make a series like Reacher, when they have spent lavishly trying to “diversify” such properties as Lord of the Rings, is somewhat of a puzzle. Maybe they got tired of making leftist sermons that inevitably flop and wanted to turn a profit this time. Whatever the reason, I suppose we should be thankful for such a watchable series, which if its star gets his way (Richtson has said he wants to do Reacher for fifteen years if possible) might be around for a long time. To which I say: let the man go through.