10 Best TV Shows Like Reacher You Need To Watch Next

Ever since "The Bourne Identity" became a blockbuster film franchise, studios have been digging through airport bookstore shelves looking for the next great story to adapt into a hit movie or TV series. One of the best in recent years has been "Reacher," a small-screen adaptation of a series of mystery novels by Lee Childs. Initially turned into a pair of solid theatrical action-thrillers starring Tom Cruise, the "Reacher" TV series has been even better than the films, meeting with rave reviews and turning Alan Ritchson into a fan favorite superstar.

Chronicling the do-gooding adventures of a former military cop, "Reacher" sees the eponymous hero return home from service and become a one-man army fighting for what's right. The series has Reacher aiding law enforcement on their toughest cases, or even taking on investigations that the police refuse to get involved in. A classic loner motivated by a pure sense of justice, Reacher will do whatever it takes to help the little guy. Despite the differences between the show and the movies, "Reacher" has been a hit with fans, with Ritchson's imposing stature serving as a sharp contrast to Cruise while making him a massive TV star at the same time.

Of course, "Reacher," for all that makes it unique, is hardly the only show of its type. Stories of maverick crusaders bucking the system is a tried-and-true formula, and sometimes the hero isn't even a good guy. There have been plenty of shows that will scratch the itch of "Reacher" fans, from cop dramas to action-adventure thrillers, and we've collected a list of the 10 best.

Long before author Lee Childs was scribbling down the first adventures of Jack Reacher, author Elmore Leonard was writing similarly gritty crime novels. Some of his best-known works were adapted for the screen, including "Hombre," "Out of Sight," and "3:10 to Yuma." In 2010, a short story called "Fire in the Hole" was expanded into the prime-time cable drama "Justified" — the story of a tough, swaggering law enforcer named Raylan Givens (played expertly by Timothy Olyphant). 

As the series kicks off, Deputy U.S. Marshal Givens is trying to put his old ways behind him, having recently been involved in the controversial shooting death of a suspect. As punishment, he's sent back to his old stomping grounds of Kentucky, where he reconnects with family and friends that he's been trying to escape for decades. Once there, Givens discovers that his hometown is rife with problems that he is uniquely qualified to handle — like a former coal miner buddy named Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) who's since become the leader of a violent white supremacist group.

Running for six seasons, "Justified" began as a more episodic crime procedural, but quickly morphed into season-long story arcs. Facing deadly gun-runners, escaped convicts, blackmailers, and kidnappers, Givens — like Reacher — is the kind of guy who never backs down, no matter the odds. Even when he's in way over his head — outgunned and outnumbered — he always finds a way to come out on top. The series returned in 2024 after almost a decade with a sequel miniseries, "City Primeval," proving that some heroes only get better with age.

If you love "Reacher" for its intense violence and the hero's take-no-prisoners attitude, you won't find much better than Netflix's version of Marvel's iconic gun-toting loner, "The Punisher." Yes, it's a comic book adaptation, but let's face it: Reacher himself is more like a comic book vigilante than anything else. And the only thing separating him from the Punisher is a cool nickname and willingness to spill buckets of blood.

"The Punisher" is a spin-off of the 2015 series "Daredevil," in which Jon Bernthal guest-starred as the vengeance-seeking former soldier Frank Castle in that show's second season. Now headlining his own series, Castle gets a chance to really shine as he hunts down the man who killed his family, sparking his vendetta against New York's dangerous criminal element. Though the two-season series easily could have been a series of paper-thin stories sending Castle on vicious manhunts, "The Punisher" has a depth that might surprise you. Whether it's examining the plight of poverty or the horrors of war and the difficult choices good men are forced to make, "The Punisher" does more moralizing than you might expect from a comic book adaptation of a hero with a skull on his chest. 

Of course, for all the powerful messages, the real appeal is the action — and if you're looking for a fist-first hero with a gun looking to make the bad guys pay, "The Punisher" is your show. Though it originally aired on Netflix, it can now be seen in Disney+, while a streaming movie follow-up is also in the works.

"Reacher" is known for its compelling mysteries and fast-paced action but also its wry sense of humor. Turning up the dial on the smiles, "Tulsa King" is what you'll want to watch if you are seeking something dark and gritty, but with a playful side. With Sylvester Stallone starring, you know you're getting a man who knows how to get things done — often with his fists — but in this series, the Italian Stallion is an aging gangster far from his prime.

His name is Dwight Manfredi, and he's recently been released from a decades-long stint behind bars for refusing to turn on his mobster buddies. Once freed, he's sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma by his gangster superiors back in New York, and he isn't happy about it. Yet when he arrives, Manfredi realizes that the backwater city has a lot more to offer than he thought and he quickly assembles a new crew. This includes a crypto-mining weed slinger, a wannabe gangbanger, a guitar-playing bartender, and a former mob associate who owes him some favors.

Written by "Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan, "Tulsa King" may not be about a hero in the strictest terms, but it's still a classic underdog story. Manfredi's crew is full of outcasts and outsiders who work together, looking to make their mark on the world while fighting both the law and their more powerful Mafia compatriots who aren't happy about their upstart antics. Never afraid to go to dark places, "Tulsa King" is an intense watch, but always somehow finds a way to stay funny.

Where Jack Reacher works to investigate crimes that the police can't solve, Harry Bosch — of the eponymously titled "Bosch" — is the cop who will take the most difficult cases encountered by the Los Angeles Police Department. Like "Reacher," Bosch is also based on a series of mystery-thriller novels, this time by Michael Connelly. Like Alan Ritchson, star Titus Welliver is another long-time character actor finally getting the chance to show his acting chops by leading his own series.

A gruff, no-nonsense veteran homicide detective, Bosch hunts down the killer of a young boy while facing criminal charges himself. He's being investigated for a recent shooting and faces a lawsuit from the victim's family. Delving deeper into the life of the lead character than "Reacher," the series puts as much emphasis on Bosch's personal life and relationships on and off the job as it does on his hard-boiled cases. Like Reacher himself, Detective Bosch is a complicated man, and working within the rules is often a problem for him. He finds himself butting heads with his superiors more than once, even losing the badge for a time.

Joining Welliver is the late Lance Reddick as Bosch's stern and commanding police chief Irvin Irving, a part that remains among his best movie and TV roles. Jamie Hector, Amy Wersching, and "Star Trek" vet Jeri Ryan help fill out a stellar ensemble cast. Seven seasons and a sequel, "Bosch: Legacy," allowed for adaptations of more than a dozen "Bosch" novels, so there's enough to keep you busy for a while.

You might never have heard of "Banshee," a crime drama from 2013, but you've almost certainly become familiar with its star. Like Alan Ritchson, he's an actor who only became popular after years of being overlooked despite his enormous talent. Today you know him as Homelander in Amazon's comic book drama "The Boys," but a decade earlier, Antony Starr was starring as a different kind of villain.

"Banshee" sees Starr playing more of an anti-hero, hoping to escape his dark past. After being released following a lengthy prison sentence, the lowlife criminal thug finds himself a free man but is now the target of his former Ukrainian Mafia boss, a man known only as Rabbit (Ben Cross). At the same time, he also hopes to reunite with his former lover Ana (Ivana Miličević) who now lives a new life — but who also happens to be Rabbit's daughter. To escape the villain's gaze, he steals the identity of a recently murdered small-town sheriff, Lucas Hood.

An unlikely law enforcer, "Hood" wields his own kind of justice as sheriff while still moonlighting as a gangster — and trying to stay one step ahead of Rabbit. The series, created by novelist Jonathan Tropper, isn't based on a series of books like "Reacher," but has similar pulp fiction roots. It's a hard-hitting, unique series that does not try to be as grounded and realistic as other shows in the genre. Not only is it engrossing, but the story is always quick to drop the pretense of reality in favor of over-the-top action and visceral violence.

"Reacher" and the broader genre of determined, maverick lawmen is hardly new to television. Going back to the early 1980s, there's at least one that you might want to check out, and it's both a sequel to a big-screen classic and inspired by a true story: the short-lived 1981 action-drama, "Walking Tall." Bo Svenson starred as Sheriff Buford Pusser, continuing the role he'd played in two theatrical sequels after inheriting the part from Joe Don Baker.

Pusser is the lead lawman in McNairy County, Tennessee in the late 1960s, where crime is rampant and the police are often powerless. But Pusser isn't content to let the bad guys beat him, and just as in the previous films, works to stop everything from moonshiners to murderers to gun runners. He even faces off with the Ku Klux Klan in an episode that examines racism in small-town America.

"Walking Tall" has a lot in common with "Reacher," led by a man who will do anything to protect the innocent and often works as a one-man army against his town's worst criminals. Simple and to the point, the show's seven episodes include a healthy mix of male machismo and gun-toting, fist-flying action. The film received its own remake in 2004, with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson playing a beefier version of Pusser, while Kevin Sorbo took over the role for two more direct-to-video action movie sequels you had no idea existed.

"The Night Agent" hails from the mind of Shawn Ryan, creator of the critically acclaimed cop drama "The Shield" and co-creator of the prime-time police procedural "S.W.A.T." With Gabriel Basso, who starred in the Academy Award-nominated drama "Hillbilly Elegy" as future U.S. vice president J.D. Vance, "The Night Manager" is based on a novel of the same name by author Matthew Quirk. Though a bit more of a political thriller than "Reacher," it shares the latter's sense of mystery while being led by a man on a mission to unravel a conspiracy.

Debuting in 2023 on Netflix, "The Night Manager" centers on a fictional government project that feels all too plausible: Called the Night Action Program, this clandestine group exists to help intelligence operatives across various departments within the United States government, be it the FBI, CIA, DEA, or Homeland Security. When an agent is in trouble in the field, and they have no other place to go for help, they call the Night Action operators, who work out of a hidden room underneath the White House.

One such operator is Peter Sutherland (Basso), but when his latest call leads to the revelation that there may be a mole somewhere within the U.S. government, it's up to him to find out who may be leaking intelligence to the enemy and compromising the identity of undercover agents. It all makes for a gripping, nail-biting thriller that adds politics and international espionage to the tried-and-true formula seen in "Reacher," while still being the same brand of escapism, something star Gabriel Basso credits for the show's popularity.

Like "Reacher," the Paramount+ drama "Tracker" is based on a series of airport adventure novels, and strangely both of them star an actor who previously played DC Comics' underwater hero Aquaman. In fact, "Tracker" star Justin Hartley was the man who replaced Alan Ritchson when the CW filmed a pilot for an "Aquaman" spinoff that never made it to air. Here, Hartley trades gills for thrills as he steps into the boots of Colter Shaw, an expert tracker who often assists local police, U.S. marshals, and even the FBI on some of their toughest cases.

A true mountain man, Shaw has exceptional survivalist skills, which come in handy when help is needed to assist in missing persons cases. The series is a weekly procedural, like classic cop dramas, with most installments featuring a story that begins and ends within the episode. It might be a teenage runaway or a kidnapping victim, but each week Shaw finds a new way to save those missing people that the authorities can't seem to locate. 

Operating out of an RV, he travels from region to region like a modern-day David Banner, doing good wherever he can. This provides the show with a different setting each week, along with a different set of characters. This helps the loner-on-a-mission story from ever getting too stale, as you never know from week to week where he'll turn up. Premiering on CBS in February 2024, "Tracker" earned a second season which kicked off later that year.

Ever wonder how Jack Reacher's life might have ended up if he'd made one wrong decision? Well, you might get your answer in "The Old Man," a gritty crime drama starring Jeff Bridges as curmudgeonly ex-soldier and former FBI agent Dan Chase. Also based on a book of the same name, "The Old Man" portrays Chase as a classic mystery man with a shadowy past and the kind of unstoppable, quiet rage that makes him dangerous to cross, no matter whose side you're on.

When "The Old Man" begins, Chase is a seemingly ordinary older man, but we quickly realize that he's more than meets the eye. He's been living a quiet life with a pair of dogs in a secluded Vermont town when a home invasion rocks his solitude, and suddenly he finds himself on the run from both international enemies as well as agents of the U.S. government. As his dark past is slowly revealed, we learn that his time working in Afghanistan is coming back to haunt him.

Though a decidedly different premise than "Reacher," "The Old Man" also boasts the exact same flavor of tough guy: a determined agent of justice who everyone underestimates, and who is far more vicious and capable than anyone imagines — a beast hiding beneath a subdued exterior. Producing two seasons before it was canceled, "The Old Man" is a showcase for Bridges — who was originally against doing a TV series – demonstrating that some acting talents shouldn't be limited to two-hour runtimes.

More and more TV shows are featuring big-screen stars either returning to television after years of blockbuster movies or starring in a small-screen adventures for the first time. "The Terminal List" is an example of the former, with "Parks and Recreation" star Chris Pratt coming back to television after starring in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Jurassic World" trilogies. He headlines "The Terminal List," the perfect action-adventure for fans of "Reacher."

Similar to "The Punisher," Pratt plays James Reece, a U.S. Navy SEAL who may or may not be responsible for the death of his entire platoon in a mission gone wrong. Once home, Reece's memories of the event don't seem to make much sense, contradicting the evidence. Unable to reconcile the situation, Reece soon realizes that he may be the target of a government conspiracy. Now he's on his own, forced to go after the very people he thought he could trust to prove his innocence and enact bloody revenge.

Based on a book by Jack Carr, "The Terminal List" is another series that adapts the first in a series of thriller novels. Though it was met with mixed reviews from critics, audiences ate it up, praising its dark story and take-no-prisoners attitude. The series is also loaded with talent, with a premiere directed by Antoine Fuqua and a stellar cast that includes Constance Wu, Taylor Kitsch, and Riley Keough.