On our streaming radar this week, we have superhero tales once again, a workplace comedy that works really well as, well, a workplace comedy, and a thriller that’s become a fan favorite and is back for another season.
Prime Video is back with the fourth season of Reacher, based on the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child, which were previously brought to the silver screen with Tom Cruise in the titular role.
Now, Alan Ritchson is Jack Reacher, and he’s received so much praise in the role that his name has even been thrown around as a potential candidate to play Batman. For me, that feels like a little bit of a stretch, but I can see it.
Season 4 is based on Lee Child’s Gone Tomorrow and begins when Reacher encounters a distraught stranger on a New York City subway. That encounter, guess what, goes horribly wrong, providing the inciting incident that pulls Reacher into a dangerous conspiracy involving powerful enemies operating at the highest levels.
Reacher has become one of the biggest wins for Prime Video, with Season 3 drawing more than 54 million viewers globally in its first 19 days. And when you combine that with Amazon’s acquisition of MGM and MGM+, you can see them really finding their footing with these star-driven thrillers and dramas. Earlier this year, we had Spider-Noir, and then The Westies, the J.K. Simmons-led gangster series. They’ve really started to carve out a lane in this genre, and Reacher remains right at the top of the list.
Reacher Season 4 is streaming now on Prime Video.
Coming up next, Tires returns for a third season on Netflix.
The aforementioned “workplace comedy” is actually how star and co-creator Shane Gillis described the show during a recent late-night appearance, which made me chuckle, but it’s also a pretty apt description.
The series follows a group of friends working at Valley Forge Automotive Center in Pennsylvania. They’re debaucherous, they’re rough around the edges, and they’re probably operating on the lower end of both the income scale and the social-emotional intelligence scale.
Steve Gerben plays Will, the nervous and underqualified heir to his family’s auto-repair chain, who is desperately trying to turn the business around. This season, that includes an attempt to join a female small-business empowerment group.
Unfortunately for Will, most of his ideas are either interfered with, interrupted by, or completely torn down because of his cousin and employee Shane, played by Gillis, who remains the constant creator of chaos at the shop.
I think Tires has quietly become one of the best-written comedies Netflix has done. The third season is an improvement upon the second season, which itself was a major improvement upon the first. So this is clearly a show trending in the right direction.
Tires Season 3 is streaming this week on Netflix.
And finally, HBO, Warner Bros. and DC continue their attempt to expand their superhero horizons.
Since taking over DC Studios, James Gunn and Peter Safran have pushed the franchise in some very beneficial ways and, depending on who you ask, some less-than-stellar ones.
Superman, released in 2025, was generally well received and brought Gunn’s distinct, almost Marvel-esque sensibility to arguably the most famous superhero of all time. That was followed on the cinematic side by Supergirl, which struggled both critically and commercially, opening to around $38 million domestically against a reported production budget of roughly $170 million.
Now the DC Universe returns to the small screen with Lanterns.
Kyle Chandler stars as veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan alongside Aaron Pierre as new recruit John Stewart. The impressive supporting cast includes Kelly Macdonald, Laura Linney, Jason Ritter, Poorna Jagannathan, Nathan Fillion and more.
The story follows Stewart and Jordan, two intergalactic cops who find themselves drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery while investigating a murder in the American heartland. What initially appears to be a terrestrial crime gradually reveals connections to something much larger and much more cosmic, which is exactly where the Lanterns become most useful.
Based on the early footage, the Comic-Con presentation and the buzz surrounding the series, things appear to be trending in the right direction for Lanterns.
But ultimately, audiences will decide whether they want to continue playing in James Gunn’s DC Universe. Can Lanterns do what its cousin Peacemaker, the James Gunn series starring John Cena, was able to do: find its audience, build a following and help expand this interconnected universe?
Only time will tell.
