Reacher Season 4 vs. Neagley Season 1: Who Wins?
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
Reacher is the latest hit Amazon show to get spun off into a larger universe. Whenever Prime Video has a popular show with a big fan base, whether it’s Bosch or The Boys or The Terminal List or Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, it can’t resist expanding the franchise with more shows and turning it into a sprawling Marvel-style cinematic universe. These spinoffs have been a mixed bag; some of them have turned out just as great as the flagship show, like Gen V, while others have been disappointing and unnecessary, like The Terminal List: Dark Wolf. So, where does Reacher’s spinoff fall on that spectrum?
As soon as Reacher dropped its season 4 finale, Amazon provided viewers with the perfect dessert course: a full season of the franchise’s first spinoff, Neagley. In every previous season, Reacher had reached out to his trusty pal Frances Neagley to come in and help out with his latest investigation. Neagley was the only other true main character, who showed up in multiple seasons, and she’s appeared in every season of Reacher, except for this one.
If you were wondering why Neagley never showed up in Reacher season 4, it’s because she was getting her own show. Neagley follows Reacher’s old army buddy on her own Reacher-style standalone adventure. Her childhood friend dies under mysterious circumstances, she takes a break from her usual private eye work to investigate, and she ends up getting drawn into a much deeper conspiracy.
As its near-perfect 93% Rotten Tomatoes score would suggest, Neagley is much closer to the Gen V end of the spectrum than the Terminal List: Dark Wolf end. Not only does it live up to the flagship show; it might even surpass it.
Neagley Is A Much More Complicated Character Than Reacher
For starters, the title character in Neagley is a lot more complicated (and, therefore, a lot more interesting) than the title character in Reacher. Don’t get me wrong, I love the character of Jack Reacher — he’s like a deadly Golden Retriever — but there’s not much to him beyond the power fantasy of being big and strong and intimidating enough to stand up to bullies.
Reacher lives a very simple existence off the grid, but Neagley actually participates in civilized society — she has a job and a permanent home and people who depend on her — and yet she has the same roguish impulses that prevent Reacher from following the rules. Neagley is a version of Reacher who lives on the grid, so there’s an interesting push-and-pull tension between her rule-bending rebelliousness and her real responsibilities.
Maria Sten is giving a much deeper performance than Alan Ritchson. He’s perfect for Reacher, but the role doesn’t demand very much. Reacher is the modern-day version of the kind of superhuman action heroes that Stallone and Schwarzenegger played in the ‘80s, and that’s great in its own way, but Neagley is a real human being who also happens to be a gun-toting badass.
Reacher Season 4 Had A Better Supporting Cast
While Neagley has a better main character, Reacher season 4 had much better supporting characters. Neagley herself is a great character, but the same can’t be said about her castmates. There are some promising players, like Neagley’s everywoman assistant Renee Birdwhistle, but they’re few and far between. Her boss, Gerry York, is a walking cliché: he likes her results, but doesn’t like how she gets them, so he’s constantly busting her chops like an angry police chief in an ‘80s cop movie.
Neagley’s reluctant partner from Chicago P.D., Detective Hudson Riley, is like the flipside of Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan; whereas Hal has the smoldering charisma to make up for his arrogance, Hudson is nowhere near charming enough to be as obnoxious as he is. Keno, the kid helping her out, is supposed to be a plucky underdog, but he’s just annoying.
Reacher’s fourth season, on the other hand, had a stacked supporting cast. Sydelle Noel ably filled the sidekick role as a scrappy Philadelphia detective, Scorsese regular Kevin Corrigan was perfectly cast as her grizzled partner, and Kevin Weisman provided a hilarious foil for Reacher as a prying freelance journalist. Barry’s Christopher Marquette gave a nuanced, emotional turn as a vengeful small-town cop grieving his family, and the Hoths proved to be a pair of terrifying villains.
Neagley Season 1 Is Less Contrived Than Reacher Season 4
Reacher’s fourth season had a great conspiracy storyline — perhaps the most complex and high-stakes Reacher plot to date — but it got a bit far-fetched and relied on a lot of coincidences. Three episodes in a row ended with Reacher being held at gunpoint, with seemingly no means of escape, only for the next episode to begin with his unlikely escape.
Four seasons in, it’s starting to feel rote and formulaic. Our suspension of disbelief is being stretched thin. Neagley, on the other hand, is a fresh start, and it’s completely its own thing. It’s a darker, weirder spin on the Reacher formula, taking us deep into the heart of a sinister cult. It mixes the pulpy action-adventure thrills of Reacher with the creepy, ritualistic terrors of something like The Wicker Man or Resident Evil 4. It has more in common with Ben Wheatley’s gonzo chiller Kill List than a typical season of Reacher.
Reacher season 4 had a fun plot overall — like the previous seasons, it satisfies as a ripping-yarn thriller about good versus evil — but the political machinations got a little contrived by the time a bomb went off at a campaign event. Neagley’s cult storyline, on the other hand, was just a gripping mystery.
Neagley Is Ultimately A Better Show Than Reacher
While Reacher is still going strong in its fourth season, Neagley is ultimately a better show. Reacher continues to be the best action show on TV — no other series has fight scenes as exhilarating or as sharply choreographed as this one (even Neagley) — but the spinoff has a little more going on under the surface.
It’s got a bit more depth, a bit more emotional substance, and it puts a fresh spin on what is becoming a very familiar formula. Both Reacher season 4 and Neagley season 1 were awesome, but Amazon definitely saved the best until last.
Neagley
- Release Date
- September 16, 2026
- Network
- Prime Video
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Greyston Holt
Detective Hudson Riley
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Maria Sten
Frances Neagley
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