8 Action-Packed Dramas To Watch If You Can't Get Enough Of Neagley & Reacher
Angel Shaw is a Lead Writer and Critic on ScreenRant's TV team, covering new-release and classic TV shows across all major streaming platforms. She has been a writer with ScreenRant since 2022 and specializes in Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and fantasy.
Angel holds a bachelor's degree in language interpreting and is passionate about all things culture and communication—especially in how it relates to popular media throughout history (from Shakespeare to Friends to Game of Thrones).
With recent installments of Reacher and Neagley officially at a close, you may need something new to watch. These shows are part of what is now the screen franchise based on Lee Child's massively popular Jack Reacher novels. Reacher, starring Alan Ritchson as the former U.S. Army Military Police major, Jack Reacher, came first, with Prime Video premiering that initial season in February 2022. It wasn't long before this became one of the most watched streaming franchises in the world, and Reacher currently holds a 94% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Next came Neagley. This is what officially made Prime Video's Reacher into a franchise. The spinoff series focuses on Frances Neagley (Maria Sten), Jack Reacher's profoundly loyal and capable subordinate. Season 1 of Neagley was released in September of 2026, around the same time that Reacher season 4 came to a close. This essentially means there was a whole lot of action on our television screens for a good stretch of days, but now we have a good long wait before new episodes arrive in the coming years. In the meantime, there are some alternatives.
24 (2001 - 2010)
If you're a sucker for relentless, high-stakes momentum in your action dramas, then you can't get much better than 24. This is a nine-season-long series with a highly unique format and premise. Each episode spans an hour in real time, and with 24 episodes per season, one full season covers a 24-hour day. This establishes an intriguing pulse for 24, disrupting audiences' general expectations for time in television to drive momentum.
Kiefer Sutherland stars as the protagonist Jack Bauer, who is much more morally chaotic than Reacher's titular protagonist. Still, Jack is a relentless, unstoppable force, and with that ticking clock moving the story ever forward, 24 hardly lets viewers catch their breath.
Hijack (2023 - Present)
The most delicious action series balances intensity with calm cerebral precision. This allows the story to hit hard right when it needs to. This is precisely what we get with Hijack, a thriller series created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith and starring Idris Elba as the calculating protagonist Sam Nelson. Hijack borrows the same one-hour timeline structure as 24, but with a more cognitive focus, creating stakes with a more claustrophobic feel.
While Elba's Sam Nelson relies on his calm logic and strategy, it is still a high-intensity action series that rivals Neagley and Reacher. This actor is an absolute force to be reckoned with, allowing Hijack to find its key moments of broken tension through outright chaos.
Cross (2024 - Present)
Prime Video's Cross is an adaptation of the beloved Alex Cross books by James Patterson. This version of the story is brought to the screen by Ben Watkins, with Aldris Hodge taking on the titular role. Cross is a traditional crime thriller to its core, and while mysteries span seasons here, each episode remains tightly focused. The pacing and quality feel like cinema, but Prime Video still delivers on that necessary crime-TV approach.
The hero of Alex Cross exists right under the same umbrella as Jack Reacher and Frances Neagley. He's intellectually brilliant, with skills in psychological profiling and deduction, matched only by his intensely accurate instincts and quick call to action. Getting behind this character as an audience feels every bit as good as it does in Reacher or Neagley.
Banshee (2013 - 2016)
Johnathan Tropper and David Schickler's Banshee ran for four seasons between 2013 and 2016. This is an action thriller police procedural with an admittedly different vibe from Reacher and Neagley. The protagonist of Banshee, Lucas Hood (Antony Starr), is an ex-con who assumes the identity of a murdered sheriff in Banshee to hide from a powerful crime lord. This character is, therefore, far from infallible, though Banshee is sure to appeal regardless.
The morality and intentions of Banshee's protagonist may differ, but the series still captures that no-nonsense, powerful vigilante dynamic. Lucas Hood (though the character's true identity is never revealed) is an absolute wrecking ball set on weeding out corruption. This makes Banshee's action deeply powerful and satisfying.
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (2018 - 2023)
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan is Prime Video's approach to the Ryanverse, and boy, did it work. This character, created by author Tom Clancy, has been portrayed on screen by actors including Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin, Chris Pine, and Ben Affleck, and in Prime's Jack Ryan, John Krasinski takes on the role. This is a unique choice for the time, but Krasinski proved himself quite the action star.
While previous Jack Ryan movies picked up the character's story at a particular point, Prime Video's four-season series established a stronger foundation for Krasinski's Ryan. There's a more defined origin story there, which means the character's fate feels more hard-earned. The approach successfully kicks up the intensity in what was already an intense story, doubling the action for those who absolutely crave it.
Warrior (2019 - 2023)
Warrior is a crime-action historical drama created by Jonathan Tropper that ran for three seasons from 2019 to 2023. The most important detail about this series, however, is that it is based on a concept written by none other than the legendary Bruce Lee. Warrior therefore, rather unsurprisingly, centralizes martial arts, with high-grade fight choreography that easily rivals shows like Reacher and Neagley. The violence here is just as visceral and shocking, even if it's more hand-to-hand than weapon-focused.
Question 1 of 3
Though the way Reacher and Neagley's heroes fight differs from Warrior's, we still get a similar dynamic here. Warrior's Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji) is fierce, capable, and absolutely no nonsense. His physical presence parallels that of Lee more than that of Ritchson, but, like Neagley, this series demonstrates the different ways powerful forces can pack a punch.
The Night Agent (2023 - Present)
The Night Agent is another action series based on a book, though this time it's a single novel by Matthew Quirk rather than a sprawling series. The Night Agent is created by Shawn Ryan for Netflix, and is currently headed into its fourth and final season, bringing what has been a fiercely intense, Reacher-adjacent series to a definitive close.
Once again, everything here revolves around the solitary hero, this time in the form of former FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso). The Night Agent is all about government conspiracy and corruption, with seasons that take on a more anthology-like format while linking overarching parallels. Peter Sutherland is as inherently good as Jack Reacher, though the added layers of moral complexity make The Night Agent that much more delicious.
Tracker (2024 - Present)
CBS's answer to the action-drama television boom is the 2024 series Tracker, based on the book The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver and created by Ben H. Winters. Justin Hartley stars as Colter Shaw, a skilled survivalist and tracker who makes a living as a consultant for law enforcement. This is another complicated lone-wolf type, though a little rougher around the edges than the infallible heroes of Reacher and Neagley.
Tracker is every bit as high-stakes and intense as Reacher, though the story uses a more traditional, case-of-the-week, episodic format. This allows for a different sort of viewer experience, better suited to casual viewing or aimless binging. It's just the thing for passing the time before Reacher or Neagley returns.
-
Reacher
8/10
- Release Date
- February 3, 2022
- Network
- Prime Video
-
Jack Reacher
-
Maria Sten
Frances Neagley
Without a phone and traveling light, former military police officer Jack Reacher drifts between American towns, embroiling himself in local crimes and bringing justice in his wake. Based on the series of novels by Lee Child, Reacher's journey offers him an intimate understanding of the nation he once served.
-
Neagley
- Release Date
- September 16, 2026
- Network
- Prime Video
-
Greyston Holt
Detective Hudson Riley
-
Maria Sten
Frances Neagley
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.