If you’re not looking for a holiday-themed release, December has pretty slim pickings as far as new TV shows go — though, as we noted in a recent post, the winter months as a whole have some pretty great TV ahead once we get into 2024. As far as the December lineup, Rotten Tomatoes’ latest poll across its social media channels has returning shows like Apple’s Slow Horses and Netflix’s The Crown standing out as must-watches, while the returning Prime Video crime drama Reacher was chosen as December’s most anticipated show.
What it’s about: Reacher is based on novelist Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series of thrillers, and Season 2 of the Prime Video show draws specifically from Bad Luck and Trouble — the 11th book in the series. The title character is a veteran military police investigator, and in the show’s new season he gets a coded message that members of his former US Army unit (the 110th MP Special Investigations) are being killed off one-by-one.
“Pulled from his drifter lifestyle,” Prime Video’s official summary explains, “Reacher reunites with three of his former teammates turned chosen family to investigate, including Frances Neagley (Maria Sten); Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan), a forensic accountant for whom Reacher has long had a soft spot; and fast-talking, switchblade-wielding family man David O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos).
“Together, they begin to connect the dots in a mystery where the stakes get higher at every turn, and that brings about questions of who has betrayed them — and who will die next.”
Why I’m excited: Child’s addictive book series is now a global phenomenon, but it’s never gotten an adaptation that fans were mostly happy with. Until, that is, Prime Video and star Alan Ritchson came along. No offense to Tom Cruise, but his big-screen portrayal in no way, shape, or form embodied the hulking former MP who’s now a drifter and moves from town to town solving crimes and helping out pretty much anyone in need.
Reacher was chosen the #1 most-anticipated December show across Rotten Tomatoes’ Facebook, X, and YouTube social channels, and I’m not surprised at all. The first season of the show was “Certified Fresh” with a 92% critics’ score, and Reacher himself is a tough, brawny, whip-smart hero that almost any audience can get behind.
Who’s in it: The cast includes —
- Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher
- Maria Sten as Frances Neagley, a member of the 110th MP Special Investigations Unit
- Serinda Swan as Karla Dixon, a member of the 110th MP Special Investigations Unit
- Shaun Sipos as David O’Donnell, a member of the 110th MP Special Investigations Unit
- Ferdinand Kingsley as the mercenary “A.M.”
- Domenick Lombardozzi as NYPD detective Guy Russo
- Robert Patrick as Shane Langston, head of security for a private defense contractor
When it’ll be released: The eight-episode second season of Reacher arrives on Prime Video on Dec. 15, with the first three episodes dropping on Amazon’s streamer at once and subsequent episodes coming every Friday. Check out a trailer for Season 2 below.
