‘Neagley’ (2026) Prime Video Series Review - How Did This Reacher Spinoff Get So Much Wrong?

A man walks on a railway platform, takes off his clothes, gets down on the track, looks at the bright yellow headlight of the train approaching him, and says, "It's all so beautiful." Those are his last words, and based on what he whispers with eyes that clearly look intoxicated, you would be right to say that he took a lot of drugs, lost his senses, and met his maker. But remember that, for instance, the latest season of Reacher began with a woman shooting herself in front of the titular character. As Jack investigated the matter, he found it to be quite complicated. How, then, can Neagley, which is set in the same world as Reacher, initially present you with what appears to be a similarly intriguing mystery only to reduce it to something so simple? Who drugged that man? Who was he? Did he intentionally commit suicide? Is there a larger conspiracy at play? Fret not, Neagley provides all the answers. It's just that those answers are pretty lame. How lame? So lame that you would find it a little hard to digest the fact that the series is a spinoff of the much superior Reacher. Nick Santora is involved in both projects. How did he screw up here? Is his co-creator Nicholas Wootton to be blamed?

The more you watch Neagley, the more it feels as if no one cared enough about what happens here. Where do I even begin? Okay, so, Reacher isn't a very complicated action thriller. The stories it tells are straightforward enough, but that simplicity is elevated by brisk momentum, good humor, and classy action sequences. That show also knows how to use its hero's body as both a killing machine and eye candy to delight your senses. Neagley, by comparison, drags itself to its conclusion. It has a lumbering pace that kills your mood and renders the tone dull, solemn, and monotonous. The problem extends to its attempts at humor, which often feel confused—you are more caught up wondering whether you should laugh or stay sober. When a naked man picks up a hammer and hits his penis, it's not clear whether it's meant to be funny or shocking or both. As for me, I couldn't care less. I was frustrated and puzzled and kept asking why the creators did not give this show the care they gave to Reacher.

Maria Sten is every bit as capable an action star as Alan Ritchson, if not more so. She kicks and jumps and leaps across walls with such smoothness that her body seems to move with an effortless grace, a hypnotizing momentum. It's unfortunate that we merely get a brief peek into that silky motion. The series never offers Sten's Frances Neagley the chance she deserves to unleash her full physical prowess. She is saddled with routine, unremarkable, basic fight choreography that's devoid of dazzling propulsion. Even during the action sequences, Neagley's movements land with a thud. There is simply no visual imagination to compensate for the routine choreography. Everything reeks of utter indifference. The shallow, uninteresting characters derive most of their personality from the competent performances, and since they have little to talk about except delivering exposition, you don't really care what happens to them.

Santora and Wootton make Neagley about a cult, mental problems, and Frances' "touch-me-not" phobia. If the idea was to distinguish this spinoff from Reacher by concentrating on psychological aspects, then the creators shouldn't have bothered, considering the half-baked, surface-level, undeveloped "psychology" that they tackle. Enough noise is made around Frances' phobia, though when the reason behind it is revealed, the explanation reduces a psychological issue to a single simplistic incident. It sounds so lousy, so unconvincing, that you want to ask somebody whether this is a joke or whether you should cry out of disbelief. I strongly believe the creators were forced to develop Neagley at gunpoint. It's a result of zero wit, zero creativity, and zero thrills. You can also add zero plausibility to the list, considering you are told to buy a man like Lawrence Cole (Damon Herriman) as a charismatic cult leader with a sufficiently large following. Lawrence's voice lacks the pull required to sell him as an authority figure capable of manipulating his followers. He, in fact, looks more like Jeffrey Dahmer.

But if the creators think that someone like Lawrence can be sold as a charismatic cult leader, it shouldn't, then, be surprising that they also probably think that with Neagley, they have done fine work. Who will inform them that words like "bland," "unexceptional," "cliché," "boring," and "flat" exist precisely to describe projects like this? I really wanted to like Neagley. It would have been nice to have a female-led action thriller on par with Reacher in terms of quality and fun. Alas, the series leaves you frustrated rather than exhilarated. By the end, you are both heartbroken and exhausted. As the end credits begin to roll, the sole thought that occupies your head turns out to be, "Maria Sten deserved better."

Final Score - [3/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times
Note: All 8 episodes are screened for this review.
Premiere Date: September 16, 2026, on Prime Video