‘Neagley’ Season One Review: The ‘Reacher’ Universe Expansion Pack

I wasn’t a big fan of this season of Reacher. I’ve read a lot of Lee Child’s books, and I think the smaller the story, the more successful Reacher is as a protagonist. In small towns impacted by local crimes, Reacher is a giant, an unstoppable force. But put him in the middle of a city and a big government conspiracy, and he is somewhat diminished. Look how he got his ass handed to him in this season.

Luckily, Neagley dropped all its first-season episodes on Prime Video the same day her buddy wrapped up. And while the series follows the same formula as Reacher, Frances Neagley has her own story to tell and demons to face.

The season opens in Neagley’s (Maria Sten) hometown of Chicago, where her childhood friend has died under circumstances that immediately seem suspicious to the former MP-turned-Private-Eye.

Much like her mentor, Neagley is a dog with a bone when she gets a whiff of something that just doesn’t seem right. The investigation into her friend’s death leads her to a farming commune out in the Illinois countryside led by charismatic cult leader Lawrence Cole (Justified’s Damon Herriman). He’s being bankrolled by a Swedish pharmaceutical company that’s using the members of Cole’s cult as guinea pigs for its new drug, Tranqlara.

I don’t know why they brought the Swedes into this when we have Big Pharma here at home, but anyway. Tranqlara is marketed as treating trauma-related conditions. In its testing phase, however, it forces users to relive their most traumatic moments in vivid detail. Leaving many of them in vegetative states. Or it can send them on a fatal hallucinatory trip. There’s a lot of money in pharmaceutical development. The stakes are high for the head of the company and all of his henchmen, which puts a lot of the unsuspecting commune members at risk.

As in Reacher, Neagley quickly picks up a team of accomplices who aid her investigation and become closer to her than Neagley bargained for.

Detective Hudson Riley (Greyston Holt) comes from a family of criminals and is seen as untrustworthy by his fellow cops. Renee Birdwhistle (Adeline Rudolph, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) is Neagley’s boss’ secretary. She has aspirations of becoming a PI herself and forces her way into Neagley’s investigation. Rounding out the group is street-smart con artist Keno (Jasper Jones). He’s pressed into service because he owes money to dangerous people and owes Neagley a favor.

The team quickly finds themselves in over their heads. Despite their Island of Misfit Toys vibe, they have too much integrity to back out when they realize how dangerous the situation is and how far the cult’s power reaches.

We’re also introduced to Neagley’s father (Tyrone Benskin), who has been referenced a few times in Reacher. Neagley’s investigation into her friend’s death forces her to confront him over the repressed childhood memory that triggered her haphephobia.

Haphephobia, the intense, irrational fear of being touched by other people, has been with Neagley all of her life. Or so she thought. But being home and seeing pictures of herself and her friend with their arms around each other’s shoulders in kindergarten makes her realize that she hasn’t actually always been this way. Over the course of the season, Hudson prompts her to get a better understanding of her fear before it takes over her life.

Beyond the action sequences and gunfights, the exploration of Neagley’s past, and that fundamental building block of Neagley as a character, drives a lot of the story. That’s one of the things that separates this show from Reacher. Formula-wise, it’s almost an exact duplicate of its predecessor. But the formula works! And Neagley is a good show in that respect. While Alan Ritchson makes a couple of cameos, I didn’t miss him at all. Neagley holds its own as far as action and intrigue go. And the characters develop a stronger, more permanent bond than Jack Reacher does with anyone, ever.

By the end of the season, we understand more about Neagley’s emotional life than we do about Reacher four seasons in. Neagley is made more human than Reacher. Maria Sten does a fantastic job of building on what we already know about her and fleshing her out over eight episodes. The supporting characters, who look like they’ll all be back if there’s a second season, mostly work well together. I think Jasper Jones was the real standout there and will be a great sidekick/protégé for Neagley moving forward. I don’t necessarily buy Greyston Holt as the love interest, but I’m willing to give him a shot because it’s hard to build chemistry with a character who can’t touch anyone else.

While the show courts, and should win over, Reacher fans, this exploration of mental health, complicated emotions, and human connection is the biggest difference between the two. And that’s great news because we don’t need two Reachers. But if you, like me, find yourself often rewatching the first season of Reacher, you’ll enjoy Neagley and will add it to your rewatch rotation.

All episodes of Neagley are now streaming on Prime Video.