Reacher Is At Its Best In Small Town America

Reacher is a massive success for Prime Video yet the show truly thrives when it uses small-towns like Margrave as the setting for its action.

Prime Video’s Reacher successfully adapted the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child into a TV series. Starring Alan Ritchson in the titular role as the retired special investigator, the show follows the hero as he drifts in and out of towns and cities, getting roped into crime stories.

The first and second seasons stand in stark contrast when it comes to their setting — with the first season’s small-town setting standing as a much better style for the series.

When the first season of Reacher dropped in 2022, fans of the Lee Child novels were elated. The show found the perfect actor for the role of Jack Reacher in Alan Ritchson and followed his time in Margrave, Georgia. An adaptation of the novel The Killing Floor, the season saw Reacher join forces with the small Margrave police department after discovering the murder of his brother, Joe.

The series’ remote setting and the small, tight cast of characters gave it a neo-western style in the vein of Yellowstone. By contrast, the second season’s big city setting drained much of the color of the series, while also removing the ability to develop the character of the location itself. The character and his stories are at their best in quaint, small-town America, where appearances can be deceiving.

Reacher’s First Season Is Peak Neo-Western TV

The Best Reacher Episodes (IMDB)

#1 – Reacher Said Nothing (8.5)

#2 – Welcome To Margrave (8.3)

#3 – Pie (8.3)

The first season of Reacher follows Jack Reacher’s arrival in the small town of Margrave. Before the retired investigator can take a bite of his pie, he’s arrested by the local police, who believe he’s connected to two recent murders. Initially reluctant to get involved, the revelation that his brother is one of the victims forces the soldier to stay.

Teaming up with an honest deputy and an outsider detective, Reacher uncovers an international and deadly money laundering and counterfeiting scheme. The series focused on Reacher and the few honest officers as they took on the corrupt members of Margrave governance, from the powerful Kliner family to the cops on the take.

The first season of Reacher was primarily set in Margrave, where audiences were shown the dynamics of the town. Particularly, the insulated nature of the residents, the power the Kliner family had over the town, and the different personalities on the police force all shone through.

All of these were key to the season’s story, and it’s this very small-town theme that made many of Child’s best novels great. While every place in America has its own story, the history of small towns is much easier to convey through television, where creators have limited time.

Small Settings Have Their Own Character

The Best Jack Reacher Books (Per Collider)

#1 – Killing Floor

#2 – One Shot

#3 – Worth Dying For

Although viewers don’t always view settings as “characters,” the first season of Reacher was successful in making Margrave stand out as something distinct. From the moment Jack Reacher sits down for his slice of peach pie, audiences get a sense of the type of small town Margrave is.

This only grows through pivotal scenes like the town hall meeting, where the locality is shown to be a small, insular area hostile to outsiders. It’s this very hostility that creates the story of a handful of good people working outside the system to seek justice, and compounds the sense of paranoia, as Reacher doesn’t know who to trust. This distrust has been a common trope throughout Westerns, as characters find themselves torn between true justice and the interests of people living on the edge.

In small-town settings of just a few thousand people, each character introduced to the story has more potential to affect its outcome than people shown in city-based stories. This typically means more attention is paid to each person, and fans can see more of even the smallest of characters.

In Reacher, this is shown through supporting characters like Mr Mosley, who represents the character and history of the town. As the 110th worked in New York and Las Vegas, each character they encountered mattered less to the story and felt more like faces in a crowd.

There were exceptions to this, such as Russo being a stand-in for the old-fashioned, hard-boiled honest New York cop. However, by and large, the faster pace and scale of the cities didn’t allow for any development of the settings themselves.

The City Setting Has Been Worn Out

The Best Scenes In Reacher (Per ScreenRant)

#1 – Rocket Launcher (S2,E08)

#2 – Homemade Silencer (S2, E06)

#3 – Biker Gang Fight (S2, E04)

While Reacher Season 2 had a good story, its city settings, mostly New York and Las Vegas, were nothing new for the genre. Crime and action shows have made major American cities their home for decades. Shows like the various CSI spin-offs, the NCIS-universe, FBI, and Blue Bloods have explored the likes of New York and Las Vegas in so much depth, that audiences are ready for something new.

Although cities are all unique, there’s only so much that can set two concrete behemoths apart from one another before stories become repetitive. Small towns, however, have much more character to them, something maintained by the varying dynamics between the small populations.

In a town where everyone knows everyone, police work becomes more interesting. On top of this, Reacher himself is a more noticeable and important figure when, as was seen in Margrave, everyone is acutely aware of his presence.

When examining the best crime shows in recent memory, small-town settings overlap with some of the best and most compelling stories. Whether it’s the first seasons of True Detective and Fargo or the ongoing story of Justified and Longmire, small towns have proven themselves more versatile settings than cities.

These areas present unique hooks and threats, such as more sweeping corruption, characters with deeply interconnected lives, and the low-tech trappings of isolated towns. In a small town, every action has more meaning, every politician has more influence and the stakes for the story are higher. For Margrave, the Kliner family’s power presented a unique problem for Reacher and others, as bringing down the crooks would leave the town poorer.

Reacher’s Nomadic Lifestyle Is Part Of The Charm

The Best Action Shows Ever Made (Per CBR)

#1 – 24

#2 – Strike Back

#3 – The Unit

Jack Reacher’s nomadic lifestyle that takes him across the country on a whim is one of the most endearing parts of the character’s story. The enviable ability to hop on a bus and head off for parts unknown makes every day in the life of the special investigator an adventure in its own right.

The character has historically been someone readers and viewers prefer to see in smaller towns, where crime comes as more of a surprise. The theme of frontier justice that only a small town can deliver has helped shows like Yellowstone take off, and Reacher should own it.

Reacher’s story as a drifter who lends a hand to small towns away from prying eyes captures the neo-western style that has become so popular on TV. Unlike big cities that are packed full of cops and investigators, the confines of a small town allow the retired soldier to stand out as the lone hero.

Returning the series to a smaller setting would allow future characters room to grow, rather than being subsumed by their urban backdrop. The best part about the first season’s Margrave setting was how well the town and its residents complimented one another. When combined with the Old West style of justice and vengeance, the season showed Jack Reacher at his most interesting in parts unknown to both him and the viewers.