One of the delights of Reacher‘s first two seasons was seeing this enormous man be the best. He was consistently be the smartest, strongest, and most dryly sarcastic cat in any room. The creative team messed with the formula a bit in Season 3 with the titular hero (Alan Ritchson) finally met a dude bigger than him. In Reacher Season 4, Jack Reacher finds himself outsmarted and overwhelmed. For most of the season, he’s running to catch up, facing attacks on several fronts. The number of threats has him overlooking clues. As a result, his newest investigation goes on longer and bloodier. This gives Ritchson a couple new notes to play. That’s a good call at a moment where Reacher could start to feel a bit predictable as a character.

Jack’s miscalculations start right away. On a Philadelphia subway, he spots a woman, Anna Merrick (Karen Kwong-Chip). She’s seated alone and exhibiting several of the warning signs associated with a suicide bomber. He approaches, hoping to stop her from setting off the explosive. When her dangerous weapon unexpectedly turns out to be something else, he has to improvise. Trying to talk Anna down, he claims he’s a police officer, evidently unaware of the less-than-positive attitude many have toward cops these days. Rather than deal with him, she ends her life. Unable to help her in life, he sets out to honor her death by figuring out why she was on the subway and what had her so scared.

It is a case that will lead him to team up with her brother Jacob Merrick (Christopher Marquette), a small-town Jersey cop, and Tamara Green (Sydelle Noel), a disillusioned Philly cop looking to ride out her years until retirement doing the smallest amount of work possible. Somehow the trio attracts the attention of the CIA, an endless stream of mercenaries of unknown employ, DoD agents, and a Presidential hopeful. Less prominent allies include Green’s partner Docherty (a perpetually grumpy Kevin Corrigan), annoyed at her sudden desire to play cop again; disgraced journalist Russell Plum (Kevin Weisman, underused but welcome); and mother-daughter Amisha (Anggun) and Lila (Agnez Mo) Hoth, two Indonesian nationals Anna was helping before her death. It’s a lot of people packed into a season, but the show juggles them well without shorting its lead.

While Reacher takes it on the chin in the clever department more this time, Reacher Season 4 is hardly devoid of action scenes. If anything, there are even more. Additionally, the brutality has been stepped up considerably. Ritchson always gets a little bit bruised and bloodied in his efforts, but even by those standards, he has a rough go of it in Philly and the surrounding environs. Facing so many enemies and unable to crack the case, he spends most of the season on his heels. So often, he thinks he has the advantage only to find himself unexpectedly facing a gun, knife, or large piece of wood.

It is compelling, but the cavalcade of baddies squeezes out a lot of the humor that was so well utilized in previous seasons. Reacher does dark things, and without jokes, his activities can get grim in a hurry. Reacher Season 4 isn’t a desperate night of the soul, exactly, but there are several moments where one wishes for the show’s usual dark humor.

By now, most viewers know what to expect from Reacher and are happy to get it. It seems likely Reacher Season 4 will be received with similar appreciation. It manages to surprise the big man a couple of times, which is a nice change of pace. The audience will likely figure a couple of things out before him, but at least one twist will legitimately surprise. That combined with Ritchson’s continued commitment to the character enlivens what could easily feel like a paint-by-numbers actioner. It’s uncomplicated entertainment that rises above the lowest common denominator. That might seem like damning the season with faint praise, I’ll allow. But in a TV landscape this cluttered, sometimes a straight-ahead procedural with above-average acting and plotting is a rare treat indeed.

Reacher Season 4 grabs a tv shirt from the thrift store to hit Prime Video on August 12.

Reacher Season 4 Trailer: