Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child
#151: Reacher season 2
Hey there, readers!
I’m slowly working my way through my draft back log! It means my articles on A Gentleman in Moscow are taking a hit (I’m now 3 episodes behind), but those will be out soon enough.
Today I’m talking about Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child, which was recently adapted by Prime Video as Reacher season 2. I want to give overall impressions about the book and show before getting into spoilers. I’ll be sure to tag the spoiler section.
The book
For some background on my feelings about Jack Reacher, check out what I wrote on Killing Floor back in August of last year. To summarize, I’m a fan of the books for their entertainment value and Reacher season 1 was a good time.
Bad Luck and Trouble is the 11th Reacher book and 4th that I’ve read. It wasn’t my favorite (that honor still belongs to One Shot), but I enjoyed the mystery. To Child’s credit, he’s always coming up with creative schemes for the bad guys.
Reacher roams the country as a lone wolf who finds allies during his adventures, but this book teams him up with three former members of his Special Investigators unit from his Army days. The mystery impacts them directly when members of their team start turning up dead. Is someone targeting them? If so, who is it and why?
I liked hanging out with Reacher and his crew - they had a fun rapport and I enjoyed their approach to solving the mystery and taking down baddies. There are some memorable action scenes (ok, maybe “memorable” is being generous) and plenty of trademark Reacher levity. It gave me exactly what I was expecting from a Reacher novel and the audiobook entertained me on my daily commute.
The show
If season 1 was big, dumb fun, season 2 was just big and dumb. I liked the early episodes as we got to know the crew and learned about their backstory. Maria Sten was back to kick butt as Neagley. Shaun Sipos was funny as wise-cracking O’Donnell and he had great chemistry with Reacher. I liked Serinda Swan as Dixon the least, but at least she got some steamy scenes with Reacher.
The series used flashbacks (something the book does not do) and the first 3 or 4 times the phrase “You do not mess with the special investigators” was used, I muttered a “Hell yeah!”
But then they kept saying it and there came a moment when it stopped being cool. Then every line delivery felt forced and corny. As the episodes went on and things seemed to be dragging out, I couldn’t silence the inner critic.
I started picking nits.
“Where is she?”
Robert Patrick was my least favorite casting choice and I never bought him as the intimidating villain. It shocked me that the man who terrified me as T1000 could be so bland. He played Langston, a stone-cold killer in the books, but the show version was dumb enough to keep Reacher alive. Stop punching him and shouting “Where is she!?” and just shoot him!1 I get that the plot armor is omnipresent in a Reacher story, but this was too much.
Speeding cars can’t sneak up on people
As a book reader, I liked how the Russo character was a major departure from the book’s Curtis Mauney “dirty cop” character. I was being smug waiting for the reveal that Russo was dirty, only to be surprised that not only was he clean, he had a heart of gold. His death was tragic and his sacrifice will never be forgotten.
In this same scene we get the speeding-car-takes-out-unsuspecting-bad-guy-who-is- about-to-kill-a-good-guy trope. I’ve seen it a few times now and I know it’s supposed to be funny and shocking, but the logic doesn’t work and it has to stop. Unless it’s an electric vehicle — which soundlessly come out of nowhere — a speeding car can’t sneak up on someone.
How big is too big?
I raved about Alan Ritchson’s size in my last article, but this season it was distracting. He didn’t have the ability to move fluidly and the action scenes appeared to be edited to hide his stiff and clumsy movement. He even had to run at one point and it looked painful. I worry that by pushing him to bulk up so much, his athleticism was sacrificed.
I hope this hasn’t been overly critical. The show had its moments, but I ultimately couldn’t enjoy it in the same way that I enjoyed season 1.
What did you think of Reacher season 2? Have you read Bad Luck and Trouble?
Thanks for reading,
Kyle
The “she” Langston was yelling about was Neagley and she was right outside! If he wanted to find her, he could have sent his goons.
Spot on about Season 2. I haven't read any of the books, but cannot disagree one bit with your outer critic about the show. More Neagley and O'Donnell, a whole lot less Dixon.
I also have a hard time with the absolute lack of consequences for Reacher's mayhem. Action heroes like him are supposed to strain credulity, but he's taking the cake (beefcake?) past the limits. And the amount of bulking up he did for S2 made him look unhealthy.
Some fun moments, but not nearly as fun as Season 1.