CBS’ ‘Reacher’ Replacement Is a Streaming Hit on Paramount+

For folks looking for a fun binge after the last season of Reacher, consider the CBS mystery drama that’s currently making waves on Paramount+. Nestled in the streaming platform’s Top 10 is Tracker, which is only a few episodes into its fourth season. Whether you’re already caught up or considering giving this series a shot for the first time, Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) may be an enjoyable replacement while you wait for the Prime Video series to return.

‘Tracker’ Is Doing Numbers on Paramount+

Tracker is unique in that it doesn’t follow an ex-military type who tackles a new localized mystery each season. There are enough of those shows, especially with The Terminal List back after a long hiatus. Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some strong similarities between Tracker and Reacher. Not unlike the Prime Video hero, Colter travels all across the U.S. on new jobs, often getting himself in trouble. The main difference is that the CBS drama is a network procedural. Each episode follows a new plot with only a handful of two-part episodes extending the narrative beyond a standalone adventure. While episodic television is perhaps no longer the standard in our modern, streaming world, it works wonders for a show like Tracker, giving Colter new material to try out each week and occasionally exploring other subgenres in the process. It also makes the show a fun binge.

Tracker works because the case changes every week and the four people
solving it never do. Here is which of them you are, what it says about you, and the case for yours
being the best of the four.

You would rather handle it yourself and you are usually capable
of doing so. Colter is a survivalist who lives in an Airstream and takes reward money for
finding missing people, which is a premise that only works because he is clearly running
from something of his own.

• You are competent and self-contained, and the people who love you find both of those
  slightly difficult.
• The show premiered after the Super Bowl in February 2024 and became the most watched new
  drama of that season.
• Justin Hartley came straight off This Is Us into it, which is about as hard a pivot as
  network TV offers.
• Your flaw is that handling everything yourself is a decision, not a personality, and
  people can tell.

You know somebody, and that somebody owes you a favour. Reenie is
the lawyer Colter calls when a case needs a door opened legally, and she is the only person
on the show who can get further with a phone call than he can on foot.

• Your network is your real skill, and you have been quietly building it for years.
• She was promoted to a series regular because the audience responded to her faster than
  anybody planned for.
• Every episode where she takes the lead is an argument that the show should let her do it
  more often.
• Your risk is that being the fixer for everybody leaves nobody fixing things for you.

You are two steps ahead and you rarely mention it. Bobby is the
one who finds the thing that unlocks the case, usually from a desk, usually about ninety
seconds before anybody realises they needed it.

• You do the part of the work nobody sees and you are completely fine with that, mostly.
• Eric Graise brought the character in from the pilot and he has grown into the show’s
  best deadpan.
• Every procedural needs this role and very few of them make it this watchable.
• Your weakness is assuming people have noticed what you did, because they have not.

You turn up, change the temperature of the room, and leave people
arguing about you. Russell is Colter’s brother, ex-military, and the show has never once let
the audience settle on whether he is a help or a problem, which is exactly why he keeps
coming back.

• You are the most interesting person in most rooms and the hardest to plan around.
• Jensen Ackles arrived in the first season and the response was strong enough that CBS
  kept bringing him back.
• Fifteen years of Supernatural means he can play charming and unsettling in the same line
  reading.
• Your flaw is that keeping people guessing is fun for you and tiring for everybody else.

Folks have championed Tracker ever since it first hit the network, as the show slowly rose to become TV Show until Marshals — also currently on Paramount+’s Top 10 — overshadowed it last season. But that hasn’t slowed Colter down, and the series continues to find new and creative situations to put the reward-seeking protagonist in. Sometimes that means dealing with the military, as is the case whenever his brother Russell (Jensen Ackles) is in town — and the good news is, he shows up every season, with his Season 4 return imminent. Other times, it means making his way to a small town in Middle America to help a grieving parent track down their missing child. No matter what his next case looks like, Colter will stop at nothing to do everything he can to reunite loved ones and ensure that justice is done in the process. He may not be as big a hulking presence as Alan Ritchson‘s Jack Reacher, but he more than makes do.

‘Tracker’ Continues To Make Waves Four Seasons In

Image via Sergei Bachlakov / ©CBS / Courtesy Everett Collection

Image via CBS

Image via CBS

Image via CBS

Image via Sergei Bachlakov / ©CBS / Courtesy Everett Collection

Image via CBS

Image via CBS

Image via CBS

Reacher fans will also find that, just like the Lee Child novels — which may be ending here soon — that inspired the series, Tracker is actually based on a series of Colter Shaw-led novels by author Jeffery Deaver. The series was inspired largely by the first entry, The Never Game, but also pulls in elements of other books when constructing its larger Shaw family mythology. In fact, Season 4 is set to tackle an element of Deaver’s material that the CBS drama has only occasionally delved into before: failure. Considering how many cases he takes in a year (we only see around 20-ish), it would stand to reason that Colter wouldn’t always be able to secure a happy ending for everyone involved. As the season continues, we’re interested to see how Tracker tackles that idea.

Of course, while you could always pick up on Tracker with the new season — it’s not exactly a show where every episode requires encyclopedic knowledge of past events — we do recommend you go back and binge the first three seasons if you haven’t already. Not only are the cases enjoyable, but it helps you appreciate how the show has continued to evolve. With Tracker currently dominating the streaming numbers on Paramount+, likely due to the show’s recent return, there’s no better time than the present to catch up with Colter Shaw on the road.

Tracker airs Sundays on CBS and is available for streaming the next day on Paramount+.