Season 3 of Reacher follows Jack Reacher as he dives into the dark underworld of a powerful crime syndicate. Based on Lee Child’s novel “Persuader,” this season sees Reacher going undercover to rescue a DEA informant whose time is running out. Along the way, he confronts unfinished business from his past and faces off against formidable adversaries. Reacher (S3:E1-3) Review Looking slightly less roided out as well as less interested than in previous entries, Alan Ritchson once again dons the utilitarian t-shirt, jeans, and workboots of his most famous character to date in season three of Reacher. The first season of the show was a breath of fresh air to many who had grown understandably disillusioned with the dull, assembly line models of brassy, unstoppable girl bosses being churned out by Hollywood as inadequate replacements for masculine men. Massive, tough, intelligent, and noble but not afraid of getting his hands dirty in the pursuit of justice, Jack Reacher was a paragon of aspirational masculinity- a much-needed oasis in a sea of costumed estrogen. That the program was well done was merely the creatine-flavored icing. While still entertaining, season two suffered from a bloated cast (including some girl bosses) that left the show feeling far less focused than its progenitor. Then, Alan Ritchson, sailing on the warm winds of goodwill from those who appreciated the series’s general lack of wokeness, had to open up his big dumb mouth and call Donald Trump a “rapist and a con man,” instantly alienating a massive chunk of his Reacher fanbase. Some thought that that was the end of what had been shaping up to be a beloved franchise. However, Amazon Studios was already halfway through filming season three at the time, and the show must go on. So you can imagine that a lot is resting on the quality of this season. Will it be good enough to overcome Ritchson’s roid rage? Probably not. The first few episodes feel a little rushed and contrived, with a handful of competing plots. Few are particularly interesting, and with each vying for first place, the two catalyst plots get lost amongst the hurried narrative and uninspired and overproduced build-up to a promised physical confrontation between Reacher and an even larger character—so much so that I honestly forgot about them until one of the characters mentioned them again in the third episode. What is good is that season three, this time based on the 7th book in the series, “Persuade,” has, in many ways, returned to basics. Once again, Reacher is a one-man dynamo with a trio who provides occasional support along the way. Fans will enjoy watching Reacher think on his feet to quickly avoid detection, even if his solutions aren’t exactly as smart as they may have been in past entries. Regrettably, the supporting trio, led by the terribly miscast Sonya Cassidy, is rather dull, with little chemistry between themselves or with the big guy. Cassidy, who plays Agent Duffy, seems like a fine enough actress. However, few 110-lb women with girl-next-door good looks can successfully portray the tough-as-nails New England DEA team leader with a bad attitude written like a man archetype that has so poisoned American cinema and TV for decades now. Still, it’s early in the season, with five more episodes to go, and there’s enough badassery and time for the showrunners to pull it all together. WOKE ELEMENTS Wicked Waif of a Woman Sonya Cassidy, who plays New England DEA Agent Susan Duffy, is everything wrong with modern female characters. (I didn’t ding the Woke-O-Meter too hard because, so far, she’s in it very infrequently. It’s just that when she is in it, her character needs her @$$ kicked. Time will tell if the character gets worse.) She’s brassy and acts like a man. She’s written like a caricature of a man. She regularly barks out emasculating jibes at the men around her (i.e., she “jokes” like how a bunch of soy munching Left-coast weenies think men joke with one another). She’s constantly outsmarting the men around her and then putting them down. She’s not portrayed as being the physical match of men twice her size, but this only serves to exacerbate how unbelievable it is that neither of her subordinates has either decked her or become venomously resentful of her because she’s a woman and, therefore, “can’t” be hit no matter how deserving. Because, of course, He Is The cast is comprised chiefly of Reacher, the villains, and three DEA agents, so there’s little room for diversity. However, some might find it noteworthy that virtually all of the villains (save two) are white and that the only white male DEA agent is a young and scrawny screw-up doofus who serves as little more than a verbal punching bag for the female DEA agent. I didn’t mark the Woke-O-Meter too much for this because he’s only on-screen three times for a few minutes, but it was a close thing. 89% is Woke-ish. The post Reacher (season 3) first appeared on Worth it or Woke.