Summary
- Lee Child praises improvements made to the TV adaptation of his book “Persuader”
- Child acknowledges weaknesses in his original book that the show was able to smooth over
- Reacher season 3 has been well-received, with a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it accessible for new viewers.
Reacher season 3 debuted on Prime Video last week with the thrilling first three episodes. Alan Ritchson’s eponymous action hero is working undercover to bring down a drug smuggler called Zachary Beck. The latest series is based on Lee Child’s classic book, Persuader, and the legendary author recently opened up about how his book and the third season differ, and had some interesting things to say about it.
Lee Child was very honest about his book, which is over 20 years old, and waxed lyrical about the improvements Nick Santora and the rest of the creative team brought to the story when adapting it for television. Persuader was Child’s seventh Jack Reacher book, and it was released in 2003. It follows adaptations of Killing Floor and Bad Luck and Trouble.
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Lee Child Claims Reacher Season 3 Addressed Weaknesses In His Book Version
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Reacher Season 3 |
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Starring |
Alan Ritchson, Maria Sten, Anthony Michael Hall, Olivier Richters, Brian Tee, Johnny Berchtold, Roberto Montesinos and Daniel David Stewart. |
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Based on the book, Persuader by |
Lee Child |
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Created by |
Nick Santora |
Reacher‘s third season has hit the ground running in terms of upping the ante, after the huge success of the second season. However, Lee Child opened up in an interview with Screen Time about how the creative team behind the show were able to improve upon the source material in his original book:
It was a favorite of mine. It was kind of in the first third of my output and I feel I was still learning my trade a little bit. As a book, I think there’s a couple of weaknesses in it but, of course, they were able to smooth those over for the TV.
Lee Child didn’t go into detail about which particular aspects of his book required improvements, but fans of both might be able to figure certain things out. Having said that, Lee Child is very modest about his work, and heaps praise on Reacher showrunner, Nick Santora and his team, who have successfully brought his vision to television screens. Child added:
Really, in order to preserve the feel of the book on the screen, you have to change practically everything. So many things are changed, inevitably, because a book exists only in the imagination. First of all, mine and then yours as a reader. It’s not real, it’s just in your brain. Of course, for TV, it becomes a real physical space with real physical humans in it.
For the most part, Reacher has been relatively faithful to the books, but as Lee Child says, a book is based on everyone’s individual imagination, and a television series is something completely different.
Reacher Season 3 Has Got Off To A Great Start And It Looks Set To Be Another Huge Hit
Reacher season 3 has a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, after the first three episodes dropped on January 20. Lee Child is an executive producer on the hit Prime Video action series, and while he’s been on board to provide vital information to the creative team, he has stated that he trusts the creative team to take Reacher in the right direction. Each season of the show is self-contained, which makes it more accessible to new viewers, who can then go back and catch up on previous seasons. Ahead of the third season premiere, Reacher amazingly returned to the streaming charts, which is testament to the heavy marketing it has received.
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Reacher Season 3 Episode Runtimes |
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Episode 1 |
51 minutes |
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Episode 2 |
41 Minutes |
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Episode 3 |
52 minutes |
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Episode 4 |
50 minutes |
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Episode 5 |
47 minutes |
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Episode 6 |
46 minutes |
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Episode 7 |
50 minutes |
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Episode 8 |
50 minutes |
In the first three episodes of season 3, Reacher teams up with DEA Agent, Susan Duffy, to bring down drug trafficker, Zachary Beck. The ex-110th Special Investigator is now firmly established as Beck’s number 2, and a big fight with season 3’s big villian, has been teased after they took part in a brutal and funny arm wrestle. The chemistry between Reacher and Duffy is on a par with Roscoe Coughlin and Karla Dixon, and it looks likely to result in another love interest for the hulking hero as the current season progresses.
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