Midweek Mention... Reacher

Reacher

Sidey: [00:00:00] Season one, part one of- Yeah ... Reacher Round week. This could well be the last time, the first and last time we do that- Yeah ... reference.

Dan: How many Reacher Rounds have you had this week, just on-

Sidey: None.

Loads. We're talking about the season one, episode one of Reacher, currently on Prime.

Reegs: Yeah. be released on the same day as the finale of season four comes out-

Sidey: excited?

Reegs: on Amazon. I am quite excited, yeah.

Sidey: Okay. This is my first time- seeing the m- we're, we're also gonna talk about the movie, 'cause we did that w- for the upcoming main episode. But this is my first time watching the series. Yeah. S- the series.

Dan: Read any of the books?

Sidey: No. No. I have not.

Reegs: not. Mm-mm. Nor Do

you, Dan? You were most likely to, in

Dan: started one of the books before- Mm. But I didn't finish it.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: And they are

Sidey: it? Or-

Dan: like it or- No, I, I think it was a time where I had two or three other books-

Sidey: Oh, such a big one ... you

Dan: Going, and it, [00:01:00] it's a very easy read, kind of,

Sidey: know- Yeah

Reegs: kind of- Well, I'm listening to the audiobook of The Killing Floor, the first one, at the moment.

Right.

Dan: The audio actor?

Reegs: With the Royal Opera actor. He's good. He's really good. And actually, I think Alan Ritchson has borrowed a couple of the intonations of things that, that he uses or-

Sidey: Who reads it?

Alan Carr?

Reegs: Oh, no, it's not Alan Carr. Julian Clary, I think, yeah. I don't know who it is, actually.

Somebody.

Sidey: Generic, like, butch voice dude. But

Reegs: It's probably somebody really good, because they usually choose great

Sidey: Yeah, they do

Dan: Yeah, they're fantastic, the people that read the audiobooks. They can often do, like, all the characters and-

Reegs: and-

Mm-hmm

Dan: you

know, even

the, the

women's voices or the men's voices, depending on, on who they they're doing, and just take you into

You forget about, you know, what they're doing. The, the,

actors I listen to, Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, and I dunno whoever that guy was who did it, but it was just like absolutely

Sidey: blew me away.

Dan: me away

Reegs: They

bring it to life in a different way. [00:02:00]

Sidey: Yeah.

This is titled Welcome To Margrave, this episode. Yeah. And that's what happens. He turns up in this town.

Dan: in Margrave. an

Reegs: of the first novel, the one that I'm listening to, The Killing Floor, the debut of Jack Reacher.

And just to sort of set the scene, he is basically an enormous man who's right about everything- Yeah ... and beats the shit out of people who deserve it-

Sidey: it- Yeah

Reegs: In really horrible ways.

Sidey: Yeah, he's very stoic, like, certainly when he turns up at first.

Reegs: we Don't ... We, we ... At first I think you get the, you g- get the shot of the murder at night.

Sidey: You do, yeah. He does something in, it looks like a cornfield or something, and someone with a silencer takes someone out, and then fucking beats the

Reegs: Yeah. He bends down to collect the bullets, and he's wearing protective stuff, so you can see that it's like a proper assassin, not-

Sidey: But then gives him a thrashing as well.

Reegs: Yeah. But then b- beats the body to a pulp really horribly afterwards- Yeah ... after he's shot it,

Dan: Takes out a [00:03:00] couple of people, I think.

Reegs: Just one guy at the beginning, and then he just sort of hides it under, like really badly, underneath some cardboard boxes.

A bit strange. And then after that we just see Reacher, but you don't see him at first. First you just see his boots, then you see over his shoulders. He's fucking enormous, the guy. The actor is 6'2", Alan Ritchson. The character is 6'5" and they play it closer to the character's sort of size.

Yeah.

Dan: 'Cause he even looks taller than that, actually. Yeah

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: He, he sort of rocks up, doesn't he, when we see him in his full size. Outside a diner. Yeah. As a guy comes out, he's having a barney with his missus and being real pushy with her and accusing her of, "I can't do this when you're..." You know.

And he just l- turns his head to look at them, and the guy sort of stupidly- He sort of- ... tries to square up to him. Like, "What you looking

Reegs: looking at?" And, and the, the way they shoot him, he's so big, you actually can't see the guy

Sidey: him. Yeah. ... the guy. He's mouthing off, you just see

Reegs: off. You just see his

Sidey: And you're like, honestly- You know ... you, if you're a fella mouthing off, you would [00:04:00] just take one look at this guy and immediately shut up. You'd be like, "Sorry, sorry." Turn around

Dan: around and go, "What you looking at, asshole?" It's

Reegs: that is, I mean, that is in fact what happens, right? After all this mouthiness, suddenly the guy kind of sizes up, "Wait a minute."

Sidey: it would take me less time than it took this guy. I'd be like- Yeah ... "Oh, shit."

Reegs: he does back down. He's like, "Oh, maybe I'm just having a bad day," and, Yeah ... moves off, and then Reacher goes off into the... I don't think he's even said anything

Sidey: he says nothing for ages.

He he obviously says something, but we don't hear it. He orders some pie. Yeah. Big pie. And he's given a, a speech about how amazing this pie is, and it's just, has... I think he gets some on his fork. I don't even know if he gets to eat it. Yeah, it- And then the- ... it's a

Reegs: thing across

Sidey: the police cops-

him not getting his pie ... the police cops turn up shouting and pointing rifles at him, and shotguns, and arresting

Dan: kind of size up, like- Pointing

Sidey: seems to phase him, though ... the rest of

Dan: the-

Reegs: in the book, you of course, you've got the background to this, and he's complet- he's seen them as they're coming. Yeah. He's already assessed the situation inside the restaurant. He realizes they're there for him. As he looks round, he's like, "There's a kid." Yeah. "There's a local." Yeah, yeah.

"Here's the owner." So he... and, you know, he, and [00:05:00] he knows that

Sidey: they're- Yeah

Reegs: Yeah. Well, that's it, because he's a combination of, like, a s- like a huge, hulking serial

killer- Hulking ...and Sherlock- Holmes ... Holmes at the same time, yeah.

Sidey: So

they do come in and,

Dan: sherlock

Schwarzenegger

they,

Sidey: they, like, scream at him, and, "You're coming with us," and, "Don't move." You know, "Move slowly. Let me see your hands." And then he turns up at the police station, and the, the clerk sort by the desk looks and says you know, "Cable ties."

And they're like, "Well, the, the the handcuffs wouldn't fit around his wrist." Yeah. And you, I was watching going, "Well, I'm pretty sure he could just..." And he does

Reegs: later on. Later on, he'll just-

it he asks them if he can take them off, and they say he can, so he just... They can't find the cutters, so he just breaks them with his hands

But yeah, so he's arrested and processed and talked to by Finlay, who's a kinda Black guy in his 40s, Harvard educated, wearing a tweed suit.

Yeah.

Sidey: he looks like a fish out of water

Reegs: full Sherlock Holmes dressing down by, Yeah ... Reacher as he, you know- Yeah ... he's always known by his last name. That's me and Reacher have got that in common. Just one or two things me and Reacher have got- [00:06:00] in common.

Dan: Well,

as I watched more of, of these,

Reegs: like me?

Dan: I, I, I

couldn't tell the difference in the end. No, even his mum called him Reacher.

Which you think, that's his surname as well, 'cause his name's Jack, but why would you go like, yeah, Re- does, does your mum call you Reeks?

Reegs: No.

But I could imagine a family where that did happen.

Dan: Right. Well, I suppose

there you go.

Seems strange to me. But yeah, he's, Th- Finlay,

Reegs: th- Finley, the detective, is giving him the big rundown about you were spotted at midnight where this body was- Yeah ... and you're connected, you've been seen. And that's when he points out, "Actually, your theory's completely wrong. There were three guys there, not one."

And all this sort of stuff. So he does all the Sherlock Holmes type thing. And then he profiles Finley himself about being divorced and all that stuff, so we get to see his mind in action, don't we? And [00:07:00] basically Finley sort of believes it, but it's complicated by the fact that his police chief has sort of corroborated the story of him being there at midnight or seeing a guy fitting his description.

Sidey: There can't be many guys fitting his description ... 'cause do

Reegs: things by the book, he's like, "Well, you've gotta go to jail for the weekend."

Dan: Because we've gotta get the cameras from the bus company, who are notoriously precious about giving up their footage- for,

Sidey: Well, you'd think you'd need a subpoena or something, wouldn't you? Yeah.

Dan: So you're gonna have to stay there until

we verify

that you are- An alibi. you He's very, cooperative. Yeah. But it's 'cause he knows, like-

Reegs: knows. Yeah,

Dan: He plays the game.

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: So, meanwhile, Finley has also got a phone number from the, Is it, I can't remember if this is just in the book or in the show as well, in the shoe

Dan: the shoe. Yeah,

Reegs: the name of someone and a phone number, and he rings it up to find out who it is. No? Is that not the series? That-

Dan: No, that's right. He, [00:08:00] he's he's found a phone number in the bottom of the, the shoe, but I'm not sure at this stage he, he's called the number.

Reegs: They go out to see the guy anyway, Hubble, who immediately confesses to the killing, even though he gives several details that are completely inaccurate.

Yeah. Basically, and he's looking out furtively out the window 'cause there are sinister people in black cars-

Dan: driving by. Yeah. That only he can see when he looks out the window it seems. But,

Reegs: it transpires through a lot of shenanigans that basically Reacher and this guy Hubble end up going off to prison together.

Sidey: Yeah. He's confessed, Hubble.

Reegs: Yeah, Hubble has

Sidey: But he's-

sort of terrified and doesn't

Reegs: spend the weekend until his al- alibi's cleared

Sidey: up. Yeah.

Reegs: And Hubble's, like, already on the bus there looking for his protection, and Reacher's completely blanked him.

Yeah. But when they get there, there's that weird cop Spivey who tells him he's gotta give him a cavity search, which Reacher refuses, but on a- on grounds of pure legal-

Sidey: Yeah

Reegs: Precedent.

Dan: And,

and Reacher has already helped Hubble in the sense that he's [00:09:00] said, "Look, leave your ring and your watch here, because that's the first things they're gonna have off you." Yeah. And he's just taught him a couple of things about prison life before they get there. And they're gonna be not in the general population, they're gonna be in a separate wing in kind of protective custody almost of the, the police area.

But that gets fucked up. Some co- police cop guard has

obviously

misin- been misinformed and,

Reegs: or, well, it's part of a bigger conspiracy, to be fair

we, we know we

Dan: Or, well, it's part of a bigger conspiracy ... it, we, we know, we know that a little bit that later down the line, yeah. But has put them in with general population- Yeah ... and they take a, a liking to Hubble straight away. They're thinking this guy is,

Sidey: fresh meat,

Reegs: They come in and take his glasses and crush them on the floor. And then he's basically straight to, "Suck me off," before Reacher sorts out the situation.

And you get to see him, all the good parts of his fighting. Like, he does attempt to sort of verbally deescalate the situation by [00:10:00] imposing himself, but then he's sort of like, "Oh, I'm gonna give you to the count of three," and then on two he starts breaking people's noses and, like, gouging people's eyes- Yeah

with his thumb. And, like, he's just trying to end the fight as quickly as

Sidey: as possible-

Reegs: Yeah

but in the

Dan: movie, like- And in a short kind of small space he beats up this guy and the other guys get the picture and carry him out, but then it's gonna come in the yard again Reacher's sizing out who's gonna be the bad ass, who's gonna rule the roost.

Yeah. And sure enough, they come for him in the showers. They do. A- and there's a massive beat down session as well.

Reegs: another one. He just- Yeah ... beats the fuck out of him. But it's clear, like, somebody's targeted them. It's not just- and

Dan: is this nerdy little guy- Yeah ... who's just stuck next to Reacher the whole time.

I mean, if Reacher goes down, he's going down because he won't survive a, a second, but Reacher's too tough to

Reegs: down.

He does get hurt a bit, but yeah, ultimately beats the shit out of people. Meanwhile, we're getting that bit of his backstory. So [00:11:00] while this is happening, Finlay's finding out that he's actually a military, former military policeman, a cop inside the military, trained to date, to take down trained killers.

He ran the 110th Special Investigators Unit, and he's like a major decorated beyond all

Dan: Yeah, he's got medals they've never even heard of because they're so secret and

Reegs: Yeah.

It's one of those great, like, just how brilliant is this guy speeches.

Um, and,

Sidey: well, Hubble, Hubble's-- they know he, well, Reacher knows he's confessed but hasn't done it, but he's protecting something.

There's some reason, there has to be a reason why he'd confess to a murder he didn't do. And that's because th-this bigger conspiracy that people will come after his family or whatever, you know? Yeah. Because, so that, that's why he's done that. at the moment, at that time, they don't know whether he's involved or not, and they're just trying to get a bit more information. And it, as it comes out after the big fight [00:12:00] in the bathroom, another cop, police uniform guard comes and says, "What are you doing here?

Dan: You should be in this other unit." And that's where

they

should have been, and they get put back there, so they're relatively safe then.

Reegs: Well, then they're released after that because Reacher's story is corroborated. There's video footage of him on the bus getting off and walking off. And Hubble's story is also corroborated by a policeman who took him home or something, one of the other guys,

Sidey: right? Mm. So,

Reegs: He couldn't have done it. And then this, in a real breach, I think, of police protocol, Reacher's allowed to go to the morgue where the body is that,

Dan: That

originally kicked off the whole

Reegs: That kicked this all off ... the whole investigation. Yeah Yeah. And they start talking about his dental work, and you can see his mind going and

Sidey: suppose 'cause they know he's a investigator himself kind of- Yeah ... sort of thing. But yeah, it does seem a bit like he wouldn't actually do this,

Reegs: really, but, And then he works out before we get the big reveal that the dead body is his brother- [00:13:00] sent him on the... The reason he kept insisting the reason he was in town was on the advice of his brother who told him to come and find this musician, Blind Blake, that's the whole reason So... And that's the end of the series. Seasons. Episode even.

Yeah.

Sidey: The beginning of the season.

Yeah.

Dan: of the the, the season. I actually got the text from the missus who watched this separately to me, and I said, "Oh, look, I'm been watching this.

I'm 20 minutes in. Do you wanna watch it?" And, "Oh, yeah, I'll watch it. We'll watch it together." So she went and then watched the, the whole first episode and said, "Oh, bloody hell, this is good." Like, you

know?

And

'cause he gets his shirt off, and he's got absolutely huge

guns.

Sidey: He's, fucking jacked, yeah.

Dan: And we ended up watching the entire first season-

Reegs: Oh,

Dan: through this week.

Reegs: So it's a big... Well, then you know that it goes on to be a... It's about counterfeiting, the first one, isn't it? That's right. Counterfeit money. It's all about

Dan: money. Um- counterfeiting and-

Reegs: and Reacher go on to have a really good

Dan: Yeah. You

see a [00:14:00] bit of boob.

Reegs: boob. Oh, you do see a bit of boob?

No, I was thinking of the, the copper is

Sidey: always- Whose boob is it? The blonde chick from the- His boob

from the Yeah,

Oh, okay. Reacher, yeah.

Dan: Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. They have a bit of a romance.

Reegs: And

his sidekick Neagley turns up to save the day at the end of

Dan: Yeah ... season. I, I think what made me... It's like a guilty pleasure, right? You know? It's like you know exact- I, I don't think I've ever guessed the next line- Yeah ... of dialogue

in a movie or a, or a show so much as I did this one. Is that

Reegs: pulpy and very aware of its tropes.

It's

Dan: that predictable. And- Yeah ... and he isn't gonna lose, and you know what's gonna happen all the way through.

You're just waiting for it to happen. So clever it's not. Reacher is. Like, you know, he's super clever actor and, Not actor super clever character. And actually when we talk about Reacher, is[00:15:00]

the actual actor here is much more what I'd expect to see in the books than when we go and having a look at Tom Cruise's Reacher.

Reegs: They certainly nail the fact that a crucial aspect of the character is just how fucking big he

Sidey: His stature, yeah. Yeah.

Reegs: that is a real... And he uses his size to influence situations, and it... As the seasons go on, they start to... It's part of his philosophy as well. He actually doesn't like, like he'll explicitly state he doesn't like it when people who are bigger than someone else can push people around, and he's there to push back.

Yeah. And then Lee Child himself was... He describes being a kid and being a big kid, a kid who was much bigger than other kids, and had to be a bit careful with power as a kid, and you can see that in the character.

Dan: bigger than other kids and had to be a bit careful with his power as a kid. And so you can see that in the character. Who, who makes a couple of cameos in both this and the- Does he? Yeah, he was,

Sidey: who's he in the movie?

the movie?

Dan: he's the police cop that gives i- Cruise back his

his stuff. Dodo.

Reegs: Yep.

Dan: Reacher. I- i- as, as he gets out of police at, [00:16:00] at one jail at one

Sidey: point. Right. Okay.

Dan: in this, right at the very last there was just a very random kind of, "Hi, how are you doing? Oh, excuse me," moment when he walked in the cafe to

Reegs: and it was him, was it?

Dan: pie. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I was like, "That's gotta be him."

And I waited for the, yeah, so.

But I must say I struggled. I thought it was a bit meh. Like, even though I watched the whole thing, and it was kind of, "Oh, I'm gonna watch it," 'cause it always leaves on a cliffhanger- Mm ... and it's like, "Oh, it's my brother, and it's this, and it..." And you're in there, and I imagine it's quite like the book.

I've not finished the book. It might have been this one is quite true to how the story went. And I think that's what kind of put me off the, the books that I just knew what was coming before I turned the page, and I'm just waiting to read those words or with a few changes. But he's tapped into something where people really enjoy it, and people really like it.

And this one,

I,

I thought was a lot stronger than [00:17:00] what we're

Sidey: watching- It's hard to talk about this without giving away what we think of the movie. Yeah ... yeah, without,

Dan: giving away a little

Reegs: you liked season one, maybe...

The season two and season three are a bit more in depth about who he is as a person and probably step away a little bit from the, "He's got Purple Hearts and running around with a machine gun." Like, season three, for example, has a long arching thing about a guy who's way bigger than him and how he's gonna take him down, and it's hanging over him the whole season.

And sees, you know... They, they explore his relationship with women and his men- his protégés

Dan: Because he, he struggles with

relationships.

Yeah

and he struggles with getting to know people. And at one

Reegs: struggles with it. I think he's completely in control. He just doesn't want it, really.

Dan: I w- I wasn't sure. I, I thought it, at one stage he's just like, you can't even see what he's... He's just, like, not normal, and he's a bit of a dick. Like, But,

Reegs: He's a bit aloof

Dan: he is... Yeah, he's, he's, he's so big and, and strong that it's hard not to be im- be impressed by his [00:18:00] just physicality and his size and, and everything that he does.

And, and his brain is obviously very quick and,

Reegs: it's like the A-team for

Sidey: I was thinking A-Team is sort of stuff of this, yeah. An A-Team of one.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: But it's, it's easy watch stuff. You know, it is not gonna take too many twists and turns. I mean, the thing about his brother, it leaves the best bits to the last bit, you

Sidey: know?

Of course. Yeah. The last bit,

Dan: So you, you wanna see what happens

Reegs: It's from Nick Santoro, was the guy who brought it to the small screen, who did The Sopranos, or wrote for The Sopranos and for Prison can sort of see both of

Sidey: in

Dan: And it was actually quite well shot. You know, it was it was

Reegs: Looks

Dan: Yeah, it does

Sidey: Amazon throw money at stuff, don't they?

Reegs: Yeah.

More season and then he's out, I

Sidey: think. Oh, really?

Reegs: Yeah. And I like him, Alan Ritchson.

Sidey: Yeah, I like him as

Reegs: a nice guy. Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah, hard to say exactly what I think without commenting about the [00:19:00] movie.

But I preferred this. Okay.

It did take me a few goes to get through it 'cause I kept falling asleep, not because of the program, I was fucking knackered. But he's good. I am a little bit fatigued with the mysterious stranger turning up in a small town. One man army. Yeah. But this is

a good ver- version of

Reegs: I think this one is... The other seasons are different, and that's... So they don't, they are quite different. Yeah. So that's, you know,

good, seeing that

Sidey: character- Once I get through with "Barry," which I am on seize three, halfway through season three, I might go back to this. Yeah. For some... In fact, we're away, oh my God, my missus and I are away in a no Wi-Fi zone.

Whoa. So I might download a load of this to watch wh- while we're in the, Happy days, yeah ... in, basically in prison. Yeah. Yeah, so I might do that. It could be a good-

Reegs: good- She can lust over him. Yeah,

Sidey: Yeah, so can I. You can lust

Reegs: over him.

Dan: But so we, we, Me and the missus both watched it together, and we don't watch an awful lot together, so it hit a sweet spot where we probably were both just about enjoying it e- enough.

Like, it wouldn't have been [00:20:00] her number one show, and it wouldn't have been my number one show to

Sidey: watch.

Reegs: Oh, well, one that you can meet in the middle is

Dan: can meet in the middle. Exactly. Yeah. And, and so it had enough

Sidey: for everyone ... like

Dan: that. Yeah. Some for every- everyone- They're doing a spin-off show.

Oh, are they?

Reegs: Are they? ... Neely, the character Neely. She's got her own

Sidey: show. This is the trouble with Amazon. They g- once they, this is what worries me about

Reegs: know. Q, the Q miniseries.

Yeah. Young Q. Yeah. Oh, man, no.

Dan: Oh, man. No. M- m- Young Moneypenny.

Sidey: See, I'd watch... That one I'd be okay with. Yeah. But yeah, there's just, there's a lot of mileage there for them to tap into. But this strong recommend.

Reegs: Definitely.

Dan: Do it

Sidey: Yep