Reacher is one of the best action thrillers on streaming right now, but viewers trying to find its alternatives will not have to look too far.
When it comes to its portrayal of its protagonist, Reacher is a unique crime thriller. The sheer size of its titular character and his nonchalant and stoic outlook towards life makes him a one-of-a-kind detective. Owing to how Reacher perfectly etches its own identity in the genre, it would be unfair to call any other series its replacement.
However, there are quite a few action thrillers that either feature the same storytelling formats or immerse audiences in similar detective TV shows that revolve around solitary outsiders drifting into unfamiliar towns.
The Night Agent
The Night Agent‘s main character, Peter Sutherland, is not a 6’5″ human wrecking ball like Jack Reacher. However, like Reacher, he finds himself embroiled in a new conspiracy in every installment of the Netflix series and is often forced to go rogue when the very institutions meant to protect people are compromised.
While Jack Reacher’s strengths lie in his physical prowess and Sherlock-level deductive abilities, Peter Sutherland uses the best of his situational awareness and quick thinking to solve crime. Both characters rely less on external technology and leverage their physicality and tradecraft during their high-stakes missions.
Interestingly, The Night Agent has gone down the Reacher route in season 3 by giving up on its old female lead, Rose, and replacing her with a new one.
Cross
Similar to Reacher, Cross‘ narrative foundation is set in a highly acclaimed book series written by James Patterson. Like Reacher, Cross has also previously received the big screen treatment, which garnered a fairly lukewarm response. Although Cross is yet to be as successful as Reacher on Prime Video, it has managed to improve in season 2, which seemingly sets it up for a brighter future.
Jack Reacher and Alex Cross are both treated as the smartest men in the room in their respective narratives. While Reacher is portrayed to have more deductive abilities, Alex Cross, in the Prime Video show, is capable of brilliantly connecting all dots that lead him and his team to the bottom of a criminal mystery.
Cross operates well within the confines of the legal system and is not a vigilante like Reacher. However, he, too, does not shy away from bending rules and defying orders to ensure he follows his own moral code.
Bosch
One of the biggest similarities between Jack Reacher and Harry Bosch is that they both have a solid background in the military. Although Bosch takes a more procedural and slow-burn approach towards unfolding its criminal drama, both Harry Bosch and Jack Reacher face crime with the same detached demeanor.
They care little about the setting, nature, or politics of the crime, and their sole purpose revolves around serving justice to wrongdoers.
Although Bosch is initially an LAPD detective, he, too, is portrayed as an isolated figure like Reacher. While Reacher goes from one town to another without being tied down by any commitments, Titus Welliver’s Harry Bosch often feels emotionally untethered despite having a badge and a fixed jurisdiction.
Jack Ryan
When it comes to overall stakes and the scalability of its story, Jack Ryan takes things even further than Prime Video’s Reacher. It unfolds a globe-trotting adventure for his central character who primarily dabbles with international conspiracies. Reacher, in contrast, seems to work best when it focuses on the titular character’s crime-solving endeavors in small towns.
A movie follow-up to Prime Video’s Jack Ryan series is expected to premiere in 2026.
Still, just like Jack Reacher emphasizes heavily on how “details matter,” Jack Ryan, too, dives deep into everything from financial data to satellite surveillance to prevent global disasters. Similar to Reacher, Jack Ryan also finds himself butting his head with his superiors in law enforcement because of his anti-bureaucratic methods of getting things done.
The Day Of The Jackal
The Day of the Jackal, based on Frederick Forsyth’s book of the same name, is not your conventional crime thriller. Unlike Reacher, it does not come off as a modern Western, and even its titular protagonist is actually the main villain. However, like Jack Reacher, The Day of the Jackal‘s main character is a stoic master of his craft who almost seems invincible.
Similar to Reacher, he is also a ghost and little is revealed about his past, which makes him even more intriguing.
Just like Reacher focuses more on how and why its titular character solves crime, The Day of the Jackal remains fixated on the methods of its main character.
Considering all the similarities between Reacher and The Day of the Jackal‘s main characters, it is not surprising that Lee Child drew inspiration from the original Frederick Forsyth’s book when he first wrote the Jack Reacher novels (via The Guardian).