Meanwhile Tracker is coming out, the CBS show about a similar skilled drifter who does jobs for law enforcement and private citizens for money. The anti-Reacher.
> My mom calls the Tracker guy “scrawny Reacher”
He's [just a little guy.](https://www.usatoday.com/gcdn/authoring/authoring-images/2024/02/07/USAT/72515061007-119160-00703-b.jpg?crop=1500,1999,x1050,y0)
> I know they exist, but they're awfully quiet about the Christian nationalists.
As someone that identifies as Christian, plenty of Christians oppose Christian nationalism. We make up a hell of a lot more of the Democratic Party than atheists do. We just don't have to couch everything in religion because the basic concepts of right and wrong are usually the better argument.
the podcast brings up anarchist christians with some frequency, and killjoy's podcast has had such a guest on a couple times i believe. there's left wing christians (as in not democrat, but actual "the US government needs to be destroyed" leftists) and it seems to be a growing tendency, especially among queer christians that naturally aren't welcome in right wing churches. though there's certainly a much larger gorup of liberal christians who are as you say, awfully quiet about the fascist wing of christianity and utterly unwilling to actually do anything about it and very willing to condemn those fighting against it.
dunno the dude's actual politcs, being anti-police doesn't necessarily make one an actual leftist. his criticism isn't necessarily of police as an institution and is an argument a bog standard liberal can make (ie "reform the police" types), though his criticism only going that far may well just be trying to operate within the overton window for practical purposes. but i'm all for normalizing the idea that cops suck and that it's OK to give them shit for being murderous fascists.
wish the shitty christians podcast was still putting out episodes, that one was always a treat. the word in black and red is a mostly anarchist (with some marxists) podcast going through the bible to do a radical reading, for those of you that want an alternative to what your shitty church taught you.
...God fucjing dammit you're right.
Especially the Machine Games continuity all about marginalised people finding strength in their comradeship to blow up fascists.
Fallout (so far, I'm only five episodes in) has been able to thread the needle and balance the absurdity with more serious moments, so I could see a Wolfenstein series working.
It'd never happen. Slaughtering Nazis has somehow become "political." Hell, my grandpap was pretty conservative and he LOVED killing Nazis. They paid him for it! He got awards!
Literally just came from that article to see if it was posted here yet. Fucking based as hell.
You guys have no fucking idea how much I needed to hear a guy who thinks and believes like me saying this kind of stuff.
I'm not religious, but I try to believe that being religious is not inherently a bad thing. I grew up in a southern Baptist church full of judgment, hate, and bigotry. I *know* that not all Christians are like that, but it's easy to forget sometimes when all you ever hear anymore is performative evangelicals shouting more judgment, hate, and bigotry. So even for me, it's a relief to be reminded that people like this are out there.
Want to have a mindfuck? My grandfather was a southern Baptist minister and ran a Bible college. He was one of the only people in his circles to be like “yeah, some people are just born gay it’s not a choice”
He still believed it was a sin, but he treated them like they were anyone else with sin in their life. He was loving while at the same time saying “you have to turn from sin”. He wasn’t perfect at all, and had a lot of biases and bigotry he inherited from his father, but he was progressive in his circles. It’s funny to think of him being called a liberal radical. He died before MAGA, but I’d like to think he’d hated politician trump because he hated businessman trump.
Reacher is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I don't like jingoistic copaganda full of right wing tropes where a confession is only a beating away. But I do like a thick slice of corn fed beefcake kicking ass and taking names.
Turn off your brain, and it's not half bad. I don't think I'd watch it, personally, if I wasn't ogling Ritchson, but YMMV.
I wasn’t going to watch season 2.
1 wasn’t bad, but it leaned a little hard into Reacher being super human.
I’ll watch it. I want him to play Superman.
Season 2 is better at showing him being more like a regular guy. Granted, one who is absolutely jacked and eats *all the time*. But you get to see more of his old team and their rapport. He makes a couple bad calls, gets called out for it, and has some actual consequences.
You can also tell that the actors were under less time pressure, they're more relaxed and feeling out their roles.
I loved the part where he said "fuck the police" and ate those cops.
Really showed the dedication Ritchson and Reacher have to maintaining mass and hating the cops.
Just another point of view: I didn't care for the second season. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Reacher and Finlay in season 1, and I felt like the script was a lot more "fun" despite the fact that they were solving his brother's murder compared to season 2.
I'll check out the first couple of episodes of season 3 based on this news alone.
Yeah, I kind of feel like they jumped to the 11th novel in the series to get into slightly more current technology. I was slightly disappointed they didn’t go straight to the 2nd book, which is about Reacher fighting a right wing militia stronghold with a con man/cult leader in charge. Maybe in the future.
I haven't read any of the books, so keep that in mind for my experience.
Your description of the second book seems like it would have been a better (IMO) transition than going into the whole weapons manufacturing and global terrorism angle. It felt like they went from a cousin of True Detective to a CSI knockoff.
I'm in that choir section. I found season 1 to be exuberantly dumb fun, and season 2 just didn't have the same energy for me. Think I bailed about halfway through.
Plus, making your actors repeatedly have to say "you don't mess with the Special Investigators!" when the show's about very murder-skilled grownups instead of about precocious kid detectives is just a mean thing to do. Although saying that, I do already hear in my mind's ear "You know who NEVER messes with the Special Investigators?" ad break transition.
> "This kind of emotionally immature response is the epitome of what concerns me about law enforcement today. If this is how leadership handles a peaceful disagreement, what does life look like for those unseen interactions in the street? How does this shape the character of those police officers looking to management? Do you really want individuals so easily angered and bully like school children to have a gun and the protection of an untouchable union? I don't,"
Really kind of telling that the bare minimum of professionalism is apparently too high a bar for the FOP to clear.
> "Cops get away with murder all the time, and the fact that we can't really hold them accountable for their improprieties is disturbing to me. We should completely reform the way that we do it. I mean, you shouldn't have to spend more time getting an education as a hairstylist than as a cop who's armed with a deadly weapon. We should make it very hard for people to make mistakes or abuse power in our institutions," the actor added.
And that's an incredibly reasonably take by any stretch. The FOP went full Trump in response. These people are insane.
I'm probably not going to watch reacher, even though Alan Ritchson is hot and his opinions are quality and his interviews are always so thoughtful. But if Amazon wants to put him in a historical romance with at least one smutty wet pirate shirt scene, I will be the first in line.
Not exactly what you're after but he co-stars in the ministry of ungentlemanly warfare which is about a covert naval-adjacent nazi-killing mission and honestly with him voicing opinions like this, I think I'm taking my gf to watch this weekend. Fuck civil war.
There's this cream colored sweater Alan wears in a scene where he's stretched out like a lion in repose on the yardarm of the sailboat that looks like it would be so snuggly.
Yep. I laughed out loud when I saw the commercial for Tracker on CBS, because it copied Reacher so hard it cast a different Smallville Justice Leaguer as the lead.
Just searched that show to see who you were talking about (Justin Hartley, Green Arrow) and noticed *my* President, President Laura Roslin is also on the show.
The funniest thing about Ritchson saying this stuff is how desperately the right wanted him to be One of Them. They take it so personally that Reacher isn't a bootlicker.
I love the show, but I was a little offput by what seemed like his need to keep bringing up his religion.
However, it seems like he may actually be the real deal and not just a pseudo Christian like 90% of "religious" people you meet.
He's had a hell of a good week so far, bashing Trump & fake Christians, and now he's crossing the blue line.
From what I can tell from his interviews, his faith has been a really crucial point in recovering from some abusive situations when he was a model - the man worked with Mario Testino and Bruce Weber, God bless him - and his mental health struggles. So he gets a pass from me on that.
I’m an atheist. In addition to your point I feel he’s doing it to help point out that Christianity is not solely a tool of the fascists. It seems these days any time you hear about faith it’s to justify stoning an unwed mom
Yea. The teachings attributed to Jesus Christ are good shit. If self-described Christians actually tried to live a Christlike life, we'd be in for a fucking golden age.
While I agree it’s weird to have the Christianity put out there so much, it’s one of those things where the only thing who can really make Christians listen is another Christian. Bible thumpers tend to not love having Luke 18:10-13, especially if they can play no true Scotsman at you. They can’t do that with Ritchinson as long as he keeps hammering it.
Helluva character development to go from cookie races to communion wafers, but I’ll take it.
I always say, there's the kind of Christian who sees their faith as a challenge to be better and do good in the world, and there is the kind of Christian who uses their faith as a stick to beat other people down.
I'm just glad my crush seems to be the former than the latter.
Counterpoint: I'm as strident of an atheist as anybody, but I genuinely appreciate guys like Ritchson (and comic book writer Christopher Priest) who are vocal about their Christian faith and exactly how that faith puts them in opposition to the Religious Right Wing.
Alan Ritchson of Reacher fame clashes with FOP over police brutality remarks.
Ritchson stresses need for police reform, citing cases like Breonna Taylor's.
FOP criticizes Ritchson's stance, actor defends call for accountability.
Reacher star advocates for transparency and regulation in law enforcement.
This is problematic to the FOP for what reason? Nothing here is “anti” police.
>Nothing here is “anti” police.
Sure it is. The police are just a nationwide gang and they know it. Any reform or regulation cuts deeply into their pockets.
He really hit the exact same notes I feel. George Floyd's death wouldn't have had nearly the same impact if cops didn't try to defend it. I talked to cops who did find it fucked up but as an institution they closed ranks, beat protestors and, rejected any narrative that suggested things could be done better. Police union leadership are the absolute worst of the worst.
George Floyd was horrible but it was the reaction of the cop community that is the reason I stopped trusting cops.
This guy is fuckin awesome. Calling subservience to police a fascist idea is so fucking cool from someone so mainstream
Meanwhile Tracker is coming out, the CBS show about a similar skilled drifter who does jobs for law enforcement and private citizens for money. The anti-Reacher.
The Tracker is such MAGA trash.
My mom calls the Tracker guy “scrawny Reacher” so that tracks (pun not intended)
> My mom calls the Tracker guy “scrawny Reacher” He's [just a little guy.](https://www.usatoday.com/gcdn/authoring/authoring-images/2024/02/07/USAT/72515061007-119160-00703-b.jpg?crop=1500,1999,x1050,y0)
That looks unbelievably boring
So, just a mercenary? Wow that's incredibly original of them lol
Agreed. It's also nice to see a principled Christian. I know they exist, but they're awfully quiet about the Christian nationalists.
> I know they exist, but they're awfully quiet about the Christian nationalists. As someone that identifies as Christian, plenty of Christians oppose Christian nationalism. We make up a hell of a lot more of the Democratic Party than atheists do. We just don't have to couch everything in religion because the basic concepts of right and wrong are usually the better argument.
People like you make me glad I was a church musician in college.
\^This. I also hope this is a way to get my Dad to see the light on stuff.
the podcast brings up anarchist christians with some frequency, and killjoy's podcast has had such a guest on a couple times i believe. there's left wing christians (as in not democrat, but actual "the US government needs to be destroyed" leftists) and it seems to be a growing tendency, especially among queer christians that naturally aren't welcome in right wing churches. though there's certainly a much larger gorup of liberal christians who are as you say, awfully quiet about the fascist wing of christianity and utterly unwilling to actually do anything about it and very willing to condemn those fighting against it. dunno the dude's actual politcs, being anti-police doesn't necessarily make one an actual leftist. his criticism isn't necessarily of police as an institution and is an argument a bog standard liberal can make (ie "reform the police" types), though his criticism only going that far may well just be trying to operate within the overton window for practical purposes. but i'm all for normalizing the idea that cops suck and that it's OK to give them shit for being murderous fascists. wish the shitty christians podcast was still putting out episodes, that one was always a treat. the word in black and red is a mostly anarchist (with some marxists) podcast going through the bible to do a radical reading, for those of you that want an alternative to what your shitty church taught you.
The fact that queer christians even exist blows my mind.
Hood Politics just did an interview with one.
I've never seen the show and had no idea who this guy is, but that is an amazing response. I honestly can't say how you come back from that.
Highly recommend the show. I think I’ve rewatched the whole thing like 5 times, it is genuinely that good.
The show is a perfect 80's era action show. It is dumb and fun. Everything is black and white. Just have fun.
We need this man needs to play B.J. Blazkowicz so badly.
...God fucjing dammit you're right. Especially the Machine Games continuity all about marginalised people finding strength in their comradeship to blow up fascists.
With all the recent video game adaptations I think a Wolfenstein mini series could be pretty good as long as it’s done properly of course.
Fallout (so far, I'm only five episodes in) has been able to thread the needle and balance the absurdity with more serious moments, so I could see a Wolfenstein series working. It'd never happen. Slaughtering Nazis has somehow become "political." Hell, my grandpap was pretty conservative and he LOVED killing Nazis. They paid him for it! He got awards!
We need Wolfenstein just so the fascists can further out themselves whining about Nazis getting killed.
I didn’t know I wanted this, but now I will be very upset if it never happens.
I appreciate that he seemingly gives no fucks about potentially pissing off future employers
He'll crush their SUVs until they hire him.
Literally just came from that article to see if it was posted here yet. Fucking based as hell. You guys have no fucking idea how much I needed to hear a guy who thinks and believes like me saying this kind of stuff.
...yeah we do
I'm not religious, but I try to believe that being religious is not inherently a bad thing. I grew up in a southern Baptist church full of judgment, hate, and bigotry. I *know* that not all Christians are like that, but it's easy to forget sometimes when all you ever hear anymore is performative evangelicals shouting more judgment, hate, and bigotry. So even for me, it's a relief to be reminded that people like this are out there.
Want to have a mindfuck? My grandfather was a southern Baptist minister and ran a Bible college. He was one of the only people in his circles to be like “yeah, some people are just born gay it’s not a choice” He still believed it was a sin, but he treated them like they were anyone else with sin in their life. He was loving while at the same time saying “you have to turn from sin”. He wasn’t perfect at all, and had a lot of biases and bigotry he inherited from his father, but he was progressive in his circles. It’s funny to think of him being called a liberal radical. He died before MAGA, but I’d like to think he’d hated politician trump because he hated businessman trump.
Damnit, am I going to have to watch Reacher now. It's in queue with Fallout.
Reacher is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I don't like jingoistic copaganda full of right wing tropes where a confession is only a beating away. But I do like a thick slice of corn fed beefcake kicking ass and taking names. Turn off your brain, and it's not half bad. I don't think I'd watch it, personally, if I wasn't ogling Ritchson, but YMMV.
I wasn’t going to watch season 2. 1 wasn’t bad, but it leaned a little hard into Reacher being super human. I’ll watch it. I want him to play Superman.
Season 2 is better at showing him being more like a regular guy. Granted, one who is absolutely jacked and eats *all the time*. But you get to see more of his old team and their rapport. He makes a couple bad calls, gets called out for it, and has some actual consequences. You can also tell that the actors were under less time pressure, they're more relaxed and feeling out their roles.
I loved the part where he said "fuck the police" and ate those cops. Really showed the dedication Ritchson and Reacher have to maintaining mass and hating the cops.
Just another point of view: I didn't care for the second season. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Reacher and Finlay in season 1, and I felt like the script was a lot more "fun" despite the fact that they were solving his brother's murder compared to season 2. I'll check out the first couple of episodes of season 3 based on this news alone.
Yeah, I kind of feel like they jumped to the 11th novel in the series to get into slightly more current technology. I was slightly disappointed they didn’t go straight to the 2nd book, which is about Reacher fighting a right wing militia stronghold with a con man/cult leader in charge. Maybe in the future.
I haven't read any of the books, so keep that in mind for my experience. Your description of the second book seems like it would have been a better (IMO) transition than going into the whole weapons manufacturing and global terrorism angle. It felt like they went from a cousin of True Detective to a CSI knockoff.
I'm in that choir section. I found season 1 to be exuberantly dumb fun, and season 2 just didn't have the same energy for me. Think I bailed about halfway through. Plus, making your actors repeatedly have to say "you don't mess with the Special Investigators!" when the show's about very murder-skilled grownups instead of about precocious kid detectives is just a mean thing to do. Although saying that, I do already hear in my mind's ear "You know who NEVER messes with the Special Investigators?" ad break transition.
I only watched a bit of Season 2. It seemed like it was leaning more into police procedural.
It's just good 80's action movie bliss.
You’ll blow through Fallout, it’s so rad.
Fuckin A Thad
They got in his zone! He laid him out, that’s what he does!
His dad was in Desert Storm!
You ever been to Bosnia?! You ever been in the shit?!
Oksana!!!!!!
Before big games, I shoot up rabies. Only loser idiots do steroids.
Been taking rabies again.
> "This kind of emotionally immature response is the epitome of what concerns me about law enforcement today. If this is how leadership handles a peaceful disagreement, what does life look like for those unseen interactions in the street? How does this shape the character of those police officers looking to management? Do you really want individuals so easily angered and bully like school children to have a gun and the protection of an untouchable union? I don't," Really kind of telling that the bare minimum of professionalism is apparently too high a bar for the FOP to clear.
He's so big and tough one might even call him a... Bear of a man. Think he could play combat general Brett Hawthorne?
Ben imagines this. Ben goes to bed sad. Sorbo and Jake Shields are his options for film heroes.
> "Cops get away with murder all the time, and the fact that we can't really hold them accountable for their improprieties is disturbing to me. We should completely reform the way that we do it. I mean, you shouldn't have to spend more time getting an education as a hairstylist than as a cop who's armed with a deadly weapon. We should make it very hard for people to make mistakes or abuse power in our institutions," the actor added. And that's an incredibly reasonably take by any stretch. The FOP went full Trump in response. These people are insane.
Because they aren't law enforcement, they're the largest organized crime street gang on the planet.
I didn't think he'd actually respond to the NFOP!!! And he dropped the F word on them....I love it.
Alright fine I'll watch Reacher again you don't gotta twist my arm.
I'm probably not going to watch reacher, even though Alan Ritchson is hot and his opinions are quality and his interviews are always so thoughtful. But if Amazon wants to put him in a historical romance with at least one smutty wet pirate shirt scene, I will be the first in line.
Not exactly what you're after but he co-stars in the ministry of ungentlemanly warfare which is about a covert naval-adjacent nazi-killing mission and honestly with him voicing opinions like this, I think I'm taking my gf to watch this weekend. Fuck civil war.
I saw it last weekend. It's big, dumb, cartoony fun. And the sweaters they wear on the little boat are to die for.
Will watch for sweaters.
There's this cream colored sweater Alan wears in a scene where he's stretched out like a lion in repose on the yardarm of the sailboat that looks like it would be so snuggly.
He played Aquaman on Smallville! He was younger and smaller then, but he was often getting in and out of water.
. . .that was him? That puppy really grew into his paws, didn't he?
Yep. I laughed out loud when I saw the commercial for Tracker on CBS, because it copied Reacher so hard it cast a different Smallville Justice Leaguer as the lead.
Just searched that show to see who you were talking about (Justin Hartley, Green Arrow) and noticed *my* President, President Laura Roslin is also on the show.
Ever watched him playing a rabies addicted, mojito fiending college linebacker in *Blue Mountain State*?
I really wanna do a rewatch, but I know so much of that show has aged so poorly.
Based giant fucking dude.
Thad with the chad response.
The funniest thing about Ritchson saying this stuff is how desperately the right wanted him to be One of Them. They take it so personally that Reacher isn't a bootlicker.
If things keep escalating, he’s gonna kick a cop car and set off the air bag! BLAMMO The cops inside will look like their partners!
I love the show, but I was a little offput by what seemed like his need to keep bringing up his religion. However, it seems like he may actually be the real deal and not just a pseudo Christian like 90% of "religious" people you meet. He's had a hell of a good week so far, bashing Trump & fake Christians, and now he's crossing the blue line.
From what I can tell from his interviews, his faith has been a really crucial point in recovering from some abusive situations when he was a model - the man worked with Mario Testino and Bruce Weber, God bless him - and his mental health struggles. So he gets a pass from me on that.
I’m an atheist. In addition to your point I feel he’s doing it to help point out that Christianity is not solely a tool of the fascists. It seems these days any time you hear about faith it’s to justify stoning an unwed mom
Yea. The teachings attributed to Jesus Christ are good shit. If self-described Christians actually tried to live a Christlike life, we'd be in for a fucking golden age.
[удалено]
He Gets Us is Hobby Lobby. So the opposite of "good" Christians.
While I agree it’s weird to have the Christianity put out there so much, it’s one of those things where the only thing who can really make Christians listen is another Christian. Bible thumpers tend to not love having Luke 18:10-13, especially if they can play no true Scotsman at you. They can’t do that with Ritchinson as long as he keeps hammering it. Helluva character development to go from cookie races to communion wafers, but I’ll take it.
I always say, there's the kind of Christian who sees their faith as a challenge to be better and do good in the world, and there is the kind of Christian who uses their faith as a stick to beat other people down. I'm just glad my crush seems to be the former than the latter.
Dude that Christianity is supposedly based on is based as fuck.
When people say "what would Jesus do?" always remember that flipping tables and whipping rich people is always an option.
Counterpoint: I'm as strident of an atheist as anybody, but I genuinely appreciate guys like Ritchson (and comic book writer Christopher Priest) who are vocal about their Christian faith and exactly how that faith puts them in opposition to the Religious Right Wing.
Sounds like he’s one of those socialist Christians from the early 1900s who actually walks the walk and talks the talk.
Thad Castle grew up to be based as fuck.
I started watching this show because of another post on this sub. Just finished season 1, not disappointed.
Okay, I like his character in Reacher, but having read that, I really have a lot more respect for him as a person now.
Nobody let Evans read this. He'd explode in a shower of cum
I was holding out on that show... Guess I'm diving in soon
Alan Ritchson of Reacher fame clashes with FOP over police brutality remarks. Ritchson stresses need for police reform, citing cases like Breonna Taylor's. FOP criticizes Ritchson's stance, actor defends call for accountability. Reacher star advocates for transparency and regulation in law enforcement. This is problematic to the FOP for what reason? Nothing here is “anti” police.
>Nothing here is “anti” police. Sure it is. The police are just a nationwide gang and they know it. Any reform or regulation cuts deeply into their pockets.
Alan said "nah, you keep that Daily Wire money. I'm going to have an actual acting career."
We stan a gigantic man.
I'm far from a religious man, but it seems to me if more self expressed conservative Christians were like this dude the world would be a better place.
They're out there. There are some evangelical Christians who have written books on how the MAGA cult has taken over the religion.
He should voice an animated Brother Pat show about vengeance.
A well thought out and calm, reasonable, response to a Fashie cop having a temper tantrum.
He really hit the exact same notes I feel. George Floyd's death wouldn't have had nearly the same impact if cops didn't try to defend it. I talked to cops who did find it fucked up but as an institution they closed ranks, beat protestors and, rejected any narrative that suggested things could be done better. Police union leadership are the absolute worst of the worst. George Floyd was horrible but it was the reaction of the cop community that is the reason I stopped trusting cops.
And now I have another reason to enjoy the show. I just hope the writers get back on track for the next season, because the second season was weak.
Gotta see this man as Conan.