Need a New Series to Binge? These Are the Best Shows to Watch This Summer

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Tom Cruise is Top Gun’s cocky pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Mission Impossible’s slick secret agent Ethan Hunt. But one man Tom Cruise is not is veteran-turned-vigilante Jack Reacher. Not at least if you take author Lee Child’s many, many words for it.

The British author (who wrote 25 Reacher novels before passing off the franchise to his brother in 2020) once described the 6’5, 250-pound character as “extremely tall, extremely broad, long-armed and long-legged” with “hands the size of dinner plates.” That’s a stunt not even Cruise can pull off, at 5’8″.

Enter Alan Ritchson, who takes over the role on this adrenaline-fueled action series. An alum of Smallville (he played Aquaman), the 6’3″ Ritchson packed on 30 pounds of muscle for the part, weighing in at 235 pounds. But while size matters, results matter more. Based on the first Reacher novel, Killing Floor, Season One of Reacher finds our drifter hero untangling a conspiracy after he’s framed for murder—and Ritchson absolutely bodies the part. It’s no wonder Vin Diesel recruited him for an appearance in 2023’s Fast X. 

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