While there have been a lot of iconic TV adaptations of popular novels over the years, Prime Video‘s flagship franchise offers a textbook example of how to nail this tricky format transition. From the classic period drama miniseries Brideshead Revisited to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper’s iconic adaptation of author Stephen King’s small-town vampire novel Salem’s Lot, there are countless great TV shows based on books.
More recently, Prime Video’s Carrie managed to retell one of King’s most famous stories and earned stellar reviews for writer/director Mike Flanagan in the process. Even though Flanagan’s earlier adaptation The Haunting of Hill House is widely considered a masterpiece, it was still a big risk for the writer/director to take on King’s debut novel. After all, Carrie‘s original 1976 movie adaptation is an Oscar-nominated genre classic.
That said, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Prime Video opted to adapt the book into a series anyway. In recent years, the streaming service has enjoyed some historic critical success with adaptations of popular books and comic books. Not only was Prime Video’s The Boys franchise based on the comic book series of the same name by Garth Ennis, but the action thriller that replaced The Boys as Prime Video’s flagship series, Reacher, is also a stellar adaptation.
Reacher Brings Lee Child’s Books To Life On Screen Perfectly
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Based on the book series of the same name by author Lee Chid, Reacher is a gritty, R-rated action series that follows Alan Ritchson’s hulking military veteran as he travels from one US city to another, uprooting criminal evil wherever he roams. While season 1 saw Reacher take on corrupt cops in the small town of Mangrove in an adaptation of the first Reacher novel Killing Floor, season 4 saw him take on a political conspiracy in New York City.
It is not yet clear what story Reacher season 6 will adapt, but season 5 is set to bring Reacher book 20, 2015’s Make Me, to the screen for the first time. Since Ritchson’s own favorite novel in the series is Reacher book 2, 1998’s Die Trying, there is a good chance that particular novel will eventually make it to the screen. Meanwhile, season 2 was based on Reacher book 11, 2007’s Bad Luck and Trouble, while season 3 was based on Reacher book 7, 2003’s Persuader.
This rundown might make it seem like the series is jumping all over the place in the franchise timeline, but there is a good reason for this. Child’s long-running series of bestsellers is remarkably well suited to TV adaptation, since Reacher is a lone wolf with few longstanding personal relationships, and he moves on from the setting of each book once his work in a specific city is done.
Prime Video’s Reacher Redeems Tom Cruise’s Ill-Fated 2010s Movies
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This means that each new season of Reacher and its spinoff Neagley can introduce new settings and new characters without feeling like a betrayal of earlier outings. This has resulted in the show deservedly becoming one of the biggest critical hits in the action thriller genre in years, as well as one of Prime Video’s most-watched original shows of all time.
The success of Prime Video’s Reacher adaptation also does a great job of making up for a pair of earlier movie adaptations of the franchise that, while passable, were still misjudged from start to finish. Tom Cruise was as entertaining as always in 2012’s Jack Reacher, based on Reacher book nine, One Shot.
However, he was badly miscast as the gargantuan title character, as Ritchson’s subsequent casting in the show proves. 2016’s sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, based on Reacher book 18 of the same name, was a lesser follow-up to an already flawed adaptation. Thus, the arrival of Prime Video’s Reacher was a big relief and redemption for the franchise.
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