Prime Video’s 96% RT Thriller Series Needs One More Great Season To Become Its Best

Although Reacher has an impressive history already, Prime Video’s action thriller series still needs one more season to truly perfect its formula. If Prime Video’s failed Reacher replacement Scarpetta proves anything, it is that everyone wants to replicate the show’s breakout success. The show’s critical and commercial popularity make the formula of the series a hot commodity.

Based on British author Lee Child’s best-selling novel series of the same name, Reacher stars Alan Ritchson as the titular Reacher, a hulking military veteran who uses his considerable combat expertise to uproot criminality and corruption across the United States. A soldier of fortune, Reacher tackles a new threat in a new setting with each new season.

With One More Great Season, Reacher Would Strengthen Its Claim To Being Prime Video’s Best Series

While Reacher’s seasons have been ever so slightly uneven so far, this is not necessarily because the show is lacking. Instead, it is more because the show’s first outing was so unexpectedly successful that Reacher’s time in Margrave set an unreasonably high bar for subsequent outings to clear.

While Reacher could go on forever, since there are a whopping 30 novels in Child’s ongoing book series, the show has not yet proven itself to be Prime Video’s best show ever. This is understandable, since the streaming service has produced masterpieces like The Boys, I’m A Virgo, Fleabag, and The Expanse.

However, Reacher does have the potential to pull this off. For three seasons in a row, as Ritchson’s protagonist traveled to new settings, took on new villains, and sparred with new love interests, the series has managed to maintain a staggering 98% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Reacher’s audience score might not be quite as consistent, but this critical rating is not easily dismissed. For a frame of reference, Reacher’s potential replacement, Scarpetta, barely managed to earn over 65% from critics upon the release of its first season in March 2026. As such, Reacher has earned a credible place in Prime Video’s “best series ever” conversation.

Early Signs For Reacher Season 4 Are Already Promising

However, for Reacher to pull off this feat, the show’s fourth season must be truly flawless. The series needs to nail the elements of Child’s books that make them so compulsively readable, something that season 1 pulled off with aplomb. Based on the book being adapted and the new cast members that have been announced, the show just might manage this.

Reacher season 4 adapts 2009’s Gone Tomorrow, a novel that opens with a gripping set piece set on the New York subway system. This gritty adaptation will see Reacher get involved in a complicated government conspiracy that has further-reaching implications than any of the show’s earlier stories, making this the most ambitious outing so far.

Combine this with the fact that Reacher’s adaptation of Gone Tomorrow will feature both returning fan-favorites and new characters, and the Prime Video show has all the ingredients needed to make this the franchise’s best adventure yet. Pull this off, and Reacher may well become the streaming service’s most consistently acclaimed show of all time.