All 40 Episodes Of Prime Video's Thriller Franchise Deliver R-Rated Action At Its Best

Published Nov 10, 2026, 6:58 PM EST

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

While Prime Video’s best action thriller series was successful enough to spawn a spinoff show already, the hit’s popularity comes down to a big risky change that the book adaptation made at the beginning of its development. There are a lot of great thriller book adaptations on TV and streaming, from Prime Video’s Bosch franchise to Netflix’s hit spy thriller The Night Agent.

It takes a lot for an action thriller show to stand out in this busy genre environment, especially when network TV still has massive franchises like the NCIS shows, the Law & Order series, the 9-1-1 franchise, and the FBI shows to compete with any new thriller. However, a handful of great thriller adaptations have managed to excel in the past few years, with ABC’s Karin Slaughter adaptation Will Trent earning particular praise. Then, of course, there is the most popular action thriller in the world right now.

Unapologetically gritty and R-rated, with moments of genuinely nasty gore, Reacher follows Titans breakout star Alan Ritchson’s unstoppable drifter as he encounters human traffickers, corrupt cops, political assassins, and all manner of other villainous evildoers in every new city he visits. Based on the book series of the same name by author Lee Chid, Reacher adapts one of the writer’s bestselling books in each season. However, it was Reacher’s risky decision to go with TV-MA rating that allowed the show to spawn a spinoff, Neagley, and become a global streaming sensation.

Reacher’s Brutality Helped Prime Video’s Thriller Stand Out

Reacher season 1 started with Book 1, Killing Floor, before season 2 adapted Book 11, 2007’s Bad Luck and Trouble, season 3 brought Book 7, 2003’s Persuader, to life, and 2026's season 4 adapted 2009’s Book 13, Gone Tomorrow. However, while all of these novels were successful upon publication, Prime Video’s Reacher needed its TV-MA rating to stand out among the many other high-quality action thrillers on the small screen.

An R-rating was the biggest thing missing from 2012’s passable but unspectacular Jack Reacher movie adaptation and its 2016 sequel, even more so than star Tom Cruise not fitting Reacher’s physical description from the novels. What makes Prime Video’s Reacher and its spinoff Neagley so great is the fact that neither show shies away from the bloody brutality of the source novels, with Ritchson’s Reacher mercilessly snapping necks and killing villains throughout the series.

Before Reacher’s 2022 debut, few streaming action shows were as unapologetically harsh as the Prime Video hit, and this was a major reason that critics called Netflix’s Iron Fist, Prime Video’s Alex Rider, Citadel, and other high-profile releases forgettable. In contrast, since Reacher’s success, everything from Daredevil: Born Again to Lioness, to Cross, Black Doves, The Night Agent, and The Day of the Jackal has borrowed this once-rare approach.

Reacher’s Spinoff Neagley Wisely Retained The Original Show’s Edge

Via MovieStillsDB

The style of these action thriller shows varies wildly, with The Day of the Jackal being a tense psychological thriller while The Night Agent is more of an escapist adventure. However, one thing they all have in common, and one thing that is missing from the comparatively critically lambasted Taylor Sheridan series Marshals, is their shared R rating.

Reacher’s moments of vicious gore and jaw-dropping violence ground the show in something resembling recognizable reality, meaning the title character’s adventures always have tangible stakes, even if he is seemingly indestructible. It would have been very easy for Prime Video to cautiously tone down this approach with the 2026 spinoff Neagley, as Marshals did when moving the Yellowstone franchise to CBS.

However, the streaming service instead doubled down on its winning formula, and reaped the rewards quickly. Neagley is now almost as massive a hit with critics and audiences as c, and the era of the TV-MA action thriller is only getting stronger.