Reacher was not especially coherent or particularly well done, although I did enjoy it in a time-wasting sort of way. More significant to me is that it seems like a validation of something I said a few months ago. Specifically, the medium of TV, which reigned artistically supreme at the outset of this century, has regressed 50 years. We are back in the '70s with game shows galore, cheesy soaps about corrupt business people, and instead of bad sci-fi we have bad fantasy. Reacher is the dramatic equivalent of loner private-eyes who take no prisoners in the name of personal justice. Kind of a hyper-violent mash-up of Mannix and Then Came Bronson. And like most of those old shows, dramatically it's crap. If there is a positive side, at least it's not woke. We once had The Sopranos, The Wire, and Deadwood all at the same time. Now "at least it's not woke" makes the cut. Season 2 should come next year.
