Ritchson has a huge impact on ‘Reacher’ series

Above : Alan Ritchson stars in the series “Reacher,” co-starring Malcom Goodwin (left) and Willa Fitzgerald. (Photo/Amazon Prime)

Series review : Reacher,” created by Nick Santoro (based on the novels by Lee Child), starring Alan Ritchson, Malcolm Goodwin, Willa Fitzgerald. Streaming on Amazon Prime.

Let’s face it, Tom Cruise is about as big a movie star as there is. Particularly in action films, he’s a proven box-office draw . The success of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise reboot alone – which has earned a world-wide gross of $3.5 billion to date – is ample proof of that.

But for all his willingness to pull off some impressive stunts – scaling the heights of the Burj Khalifa , for example, or hanging off the side of a cargo plane – Cruise has his limitations. And those limitations are never more apparent than in his two Reacher films – 2012’s “Jack Reacher” and 2016’s “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.”

Reacher as a character was dreamed up by Lee Child , which is the pen name of the English-born television executive-turn-novelist James Dover Grant. The character emerged in the 1997 novel “The Killing Floor,” the first of 26 published Reacher novels (with a 27th due in October). It was “The Killing Floor” that Amazon executives decided to adapt, with Nick Santora tabbed both to write and produce what would become an eight-part series titled, simply, “Reacher.”

Reacher himself, the former U.S. Army officer – a major in a special Military Police unit – is now a roving, self-proclaimed “hobo.” He travels across the country, often hitchhiking but sometimes taking the bus, wearing budget-store clothing until it smells, then buying more. He carries only a folding toothbrush, some cash and (in some books) an ATM card and passport.

Child’s intent was to make Reacher into the kind of knight errant that the “Pulp Fiction” character Jules Winfield (played by Samuel L. Jackson) dreamed of being: someone who travels from place to place, meeting people and getting into adventures. In Reacher’s case, those “adventures” typically involve righting wrongs, protecting the vulnerable and punishing evil-doers.

But maybe the most distinctive aspect to Reacher has nothing to do with his childhood as a Marine brat, his ability to wake up on demand, his sharpshooting skills, his inherent sense of justice, his talent as an investigator or his abilities as a street fighter. No, what distinguishes Reacher most of all is his size – which Child mentions more than once is 6-feet-5 and 250 pounds.

It is that very size that intimidates people, that gives Reacher the advantage in every physical situation he faces. And it is that advantage that Cruise, who is all of 5-feet-9 at best , lacks. And which the actor Alan Ritchson, whom Amazon hired, possesses in spades. Standing 6-feet-2, Ritchson may not be an exact Reacher clone, but he comes close enough.

In the Amazon series, Reacher is led on a whim to the small town of Margrave, Georgia. Because, he explains, it was the home of a blues musician whose music he admires. Once there, though, he is arrested for a murder that had been committed the night before – a murder to which, as it turns out, he has a personal connection.

Before long, Reacher is released. But now that he’s involved, he teams up with a local sheriff’s deputy named Roscoe (played by Willa Fitzgerald ) and – after an obligatory masculine ego clash – with Oscar (played by Malcolm Goodwin ) Margrave’s chief detective. And together they seek to solve what progressively becomes a series of murders.

Besides the casting of Ritchson, an actor who has had small parts in dozens of movies and television shows, the best things about “Reacher” the series is how it opens up the storyline, giving ample development to the characters of both Roscoe and Oscar. The use of mostly non-familiar actors, with the exception of Bruce McGill as Margrave’s mayor, also is refreshing.

One of the series’ climactic fight scenes may prove less satisfying to fans of the books because it has Reacher showing actual physical weakness – something Child never did in the dozen or more novels that I have read. And for those sensitive to violence, well, let’s just say that beyond the broken bones, stabbings and shootings, graphic crucifixions make for messy deaths.

Anyway, no disrespect to Tom Cruise, but if you want to experience Reacher more in the way Child’s books envision him, check out the Amazon series. Because at least in this case the old saw is true: Size does make a difference.