Lee Child’s man-mountain anti-hero Jack Reacher was the victim of the worst real-world plot twist in thriller history when pint-sized Tom Cruise played the character in two wildly unforgettable movies. But after that humiliating run-in with Hollywood, Reacher has recovered and is now thriving on screen as portrayed by Alan Ritchson – a monosyllabic muscleman who, true to Child’s description of Reacher in his novels, looks like he could hold Cruise in a headlock while doing the dishes.Not that the small-screen Reacher (Prime Video from Wednesday) hasn’t had its own woes. Last year, Ritchson was caught on camera in a face-off with a neighbour. It was a life-imitating-art moment that threatened to derail Prime’s enjoyable Reacher adaptation.But police in Tennessee decided Ritchson was acting in self-defence and declined to press charges – clearing the way for Reacher to rumble back on to the screen for a fourth time and with perhaps his best adventure yet.The biggest problem with Reacher to date has been that, just like Child in his books, the series stands in awe of its main character to the point that it removes any dramatic tension. As a power fantasy for both author and show, he rarely meets his match. He’s always the smartest, biggest and funniest guy in the room. Whenever he’s in a fight, the only question is how long it will take him to KO all the baddies.So it comes as an enormous relief and novelty to find Reacher on the wrong side of things as the new season, adapted from Child’s novel Gone Tomorrow, opens with the brawny bruiser taking the subway in Philadelphia, where he sees an anxious-looking middle-aged woman clutching a bag. Anyone else would mind their own business. Reacher, however, intervenes – he thinks the woman has a bomb. In the ensuing standoff, she produces a gun and blows her brains out.Was it Reacher’s fault for poking his nose in where it was not required? Sort of. But now he’s involved and is soon tangled up in a scheme that involves not only the dead woman and her family but also a politician running for president and a US military conspiracy going back decades.It’s all deeply convoluted. But that’s always been the fun of the Child books, which weave a tangled web and then have Reacher rip the whole thing to pieces. He does just that here – coming up against corrupt Feds, an Asian gang and the family the woman on the subway left behind.In other words, anyone put off by Tom Cruise’s smarmy take on the character can come out of hiding. Jack Reacher is back bigger, badder and sillier than ever – and it makes for a top-tier mindless binge-watch.