Reacher, review: Lee Child fans can rejoice – Alan Ritchson rights the wrongs of Tom Cruise

My, hasn’t Tom Cruise grown? The 5ft 6in actor has miraculously transformed into a 6ft 5in slab of prime beefcake for Reacher (Amazon Prime Video). Talk about method acting. Such a metamorphosis demonstrates Cruise’s commitment to his craft.

I jest, of course. Amazon’s all-action adaptation of the mega-selling Jack Reacher thrillers wisely forgets the misfiring movies and goes back to author Lee Child’s original vision of a hulking human wrecking ball. Strapping, six-packed Alan Ritchson takes over the role from Tiny Tom. This rollicking eight-parter is all the better for it.

Despite what the film-makers gamely insisted, ex-military policeman Reacher’s imposing physical stature was always key to the character. He’s supposed to turn heads when he walks into town, to be whispered about and feared. Fully 25 years after he first appeared in fiction, this series gets that right. Ritchson is the epitome of Reacher.

Even more pleasingly for purists, this series – superbly adapted by Emmy-nominated writer Nick Santora, whose CV includes The Sopranos and Prison Break – has gone back to Reacher’s roots. Based on Child’s 1997 debut novel Killing Floor, it’s like the book has been lifted straight off the page, which is all the legions of fans worldwide ever wanted.

The series opens with the decorated war hero-turned-drifter arriving in the small town of Margrave, Georgia. He finds a community reeling from its first homicide in 20 years. The local police immediately arrest the suspicious stranger for murder. Officers describe him as “a giant vagrant” and “Jack the beanstalk”, adding: “Sasquatch don’t speak.”

It’s seven minutes before Reacher utters his first words: “I didn’t kill anybody. At least not recently. And not in this town.” While he proves his innocence, the case becomes even more personal. A second body is identified as Reacher’s estranged elder brother Joe – “the only man I ever felt small next to”.

He soon team ups with his only two allies in town: chief detective Oscar Finlay and rookie officer Roscoe Conklin (Malcolm Goodwin and Willa Fitzgerald, both excellent). As the plot thickens and corpses pile up, this unlikely Scooby gang must work out why this seemingly sleepy backwater has suddenly become a murder hotspot.

What’s the connection to a missing banker, river pollution, cow feed and a Venezuelan military hit squad? It’s a tangled web that requires Reacher’s keen mind and ready fists to unravel. As Conklin says, he’s “250lb of frontier justice”. Reacher growls: “Payback, justice, vengeance – I’m looking for the whole gang.”

The snappy script is knowing enough to poke fun at himself. Reacher’s laconic wit meets its match in his sidekicks. Finlay is a “tweed torpedo”. Conklin is a tough, resourceful loner. Naturally, both hide secrets of their own. Their spiky relationships with Reacher blossom into mutual respect and tentative romance respectively.

The narrative barrels along like Child’s page-turners, with new episodes picking up precisely where the previous one left off. At times, it recalls 80s tea-time romps like The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider or The A-Team. I mean that as a compliment.

Fight scenes, which reliably arrive every episode, are bruising close-combat battles in similar style to the Jason Bourne films. Reacher’s trademark move is a head-butt but he’s equally partial to an ankle-stamp, eye-gouge or elbow in the throat. These aren’t airbrushed Hollywood punch-ups, they’re more visceral. You hear bones crunch and blood squelch.

Whenever you worry that Reacher enjoys all the killing a tad too much, he’ll gallantly rescue a mistreated dog or bullied child. We’re reminded that he has “kind eyes”. That’s part of the character’s appeal – he’s a modern-day knight-errant in thrift store workwear instead of armour. Childhood flashbacks flesh out Reacher’s back story.

He has Sherlock-like powers of observation and deduction. “In an investigation, details matter,” becomes a catchphrase. Veteran character actors Bruce McGill and Currie Graham have a ball as the baddies. Danish actress Maria Sten arrives mid-series as Reacher’s army protégé Neagley, now a PI, and steals several scenes.

Like its hero, this series isn’t perfect. The pace sags in the middle act, the conspiracy gets fiddly and the explosive climax almost tips into cliché. The protagonist’s habit of correcting people who call him “Mr Reacher” (“It’s just Reacher”) is inadvertently reminiscent of Ian McShane as antiques-dealing rogue Lovejoy.

However, Reacher is huge, pulpy fun and far classier than you might expect. Reacher only came to Margrave to pay homage to bluesman Blind Blake, who died there, and the prominent soundtrack mixes swampy blues with ragtime, country and classic rock. There’s even a treat for eagle-eyed Lee Child fans in the final frames. Listen carefully and you’ll hear the sound of millions of readers sighing with relief and settling down for a binge-watch. Listen even more carefully and you might hear Tom Cruise admitting defeat.