Xealot posted:

I watched Reacher and laughed the whole time. It feels perfectly engineered as wish fulfillment relevance porn for angry white boomer men, which fully tracks from my guesswork about the dad fiction ambitions of the source text.

Jack Reacher is a quiet genius in the body of a handsome giant, hyper-competent and cool under pressure despite a constant simmering rage that leads him to pound antagonists into the dirt 2-3 times an episode. His violence is always 100% justified though, because of the obvious low moral character of all the dog abusers, harassers of women, and (often non-white) criminals who for some reason instantly pick a fight with him so he doesn't have to be the one to instigate it.

The bougie, fancy people in town are intimidated by him, except for the pro-violence cool girls in his life who are very down to bone. Intellectuals condescend to him, until he clowns them with his superior detective knowledge. He's also not vain and wears whatever he can find, but has a perfect physique and eats whatever he wants. And boy, is he cool; although most of the Black or brown characters on the show are in a criminal cartel or prison gang, this old Black barber he befriends lauds him for his insider Blues tastes.

Of course, whenever Reacher isn't on screen, characters need to ask, "where's Reacher?" Total trash, 10/10.