Truckin'

By the second episode. We know that Reacher and Duffy planned to infiltrate Beck's oriental importing business.

Duffy wants to find the missing operative Theresa Daniel. While Reacher is searching for Lieutenant Colonel Francis Xavier Quinn. The man who sold military secrets.

Only Duffy has not covered her tracks properly. The cars used to stage Richard Beck's attempted kidnapping are in a storage area and are a liability.

Angel meanwhile suspects Reacher's motives and confronts him. Leading Reacher to take drastic action.

There is certainly bone crunching action and you get the feeling that Duffy and her crew are not that good. Which does not bode well in keeping hold of their prisoner.

Reacher does deliver with some fun though. I liked that arm wrestling match with Paulie. Talk about pulling a lion's tale.

Reacher continues to be tested along the way. He is being asked to do things when he hasn't had enough sleep. He is sent on a six hour truck trip to see if he slips up. He also goes with a guy named Angel to check out the car that was used in the staged kidnapping. Afterward, Angel rightfully suspects him of being a cop and Reacher takes dramatic action.

Like every episode there are a series of close calls which are avoided by a hair's breadth.

The son who lost an ear to a kidnapper is becoming sensitized and wondering if her will face this again. A bond is working between him and Reacher without Reacher lifting a finger.

Reacher is one of the best action shows of the past few years. I couldn't wait til this season started but the first 1.5 episodes seem stiff and a bit unconvincing.

These are what came to mind:

First off , the new character Duff speaks with a very heavy, what I guess is a Boston or NY accent. It's way over done and is irritating. I don't know why they felt that added something, because it doesn't.

Second , there are some little things that don't seem to be logical, as one other reviewer said... for instance in one scene Reacher says he doesn't know how to hot wire a car. Seriously?? Reacher can MacGuyver bombs but doesn't know how to hot wire a car!? I know It's not a big issue but it's a lot of these little things that just stand out to me, unlike the first 2 seasons.

With that being said , it got a lot better halfway through episode 2.. so stick with it.

Quite the drop in quality from the first episode (and earlier seasons). Reacher continues his own mission subsumed into that of the broader aims of Duffy. And so our protagonist reports back at regular intervals, confirms next steps and we play that out: not quite inert but one of Reacher's strengths - other than physical - has been his autonomy and this season in burying that beneath the goals of the amazing Duffy.

Duffy is up and at it at 3AM - she's like that. And she's the best there is - another character tells us that. She doesn't seem to be since she fails to implement process to avoid stuff ups with warrants but she is so we'll just have to accept it. She's also called the B-word in this episode. Oh no! Amongst the drugs, death and other shenanigans this is a step too far for her other admiring partner who seems ready to slap him with an immediate 10 years in the pen for misogyny. The horror!

There's not really a great deal that actually happens in this episode to move things forward: we make a shipment and drive back. There is the threat of exposure and that's probably the key problem for now and how Reacher - with deference to Duffy no doubt - will resolve that will surely be the focus of episode 3.

And little kids have been playing the arm wrestling thing (and variants) for a while so just as well our physical threat wasn't aware of it. I suppose we'll start to see something come of the physical presence (as implied episode 1) but certainly nothing here.

Still, this is Duffy's show at this point and Reacher is along for the ride. It's enjoyable, yes, but hardly the 'agency' we might expect from our earlier action hero. Too tied to home, too much consultation and too much Duffy.

Sonya Cassidy is a pretty good actor but her fake Bawston accent is killing me. Cringing here. British actors doing American accents only works about half the time otherwise the attempt is completely distracting and irritating. Gerard Butler comes to mind. If it's important enough to match these actors to these parts, then please modify the script to let them speak in their native accent. It can be done and it has been done. The series is steadily declining. It's losing its fantastic mix of action and plot momentum. More Reacher and less Duffy please. I'm not sure how many episodes I can get through before Duffles accent finally crushes my soul.