In the first episode of Neagley, Alan Ritchson’s Reacher has a cameo. It’s brief, but makes the point that Neagley, a featured character in three seasons of Reacher, now is going solo. Maria Sten’s Neagley is just as complicated and fierce as her military buddy. And Sten holds back nothing, whether in the fight scenes, or face offs with colleagues, to create a woman we want to spend time getting to know.

The Danish Sten is an interesting choice to play Neagley. In 2008, she was crowned Miss Denmark Universe and went on to represent her country in Miss Universe 2008. She moved to New York City when she was 18 to pursue a modeling career. Soon after, she began acting. In 2019, she appeared in the DC Universe television series, Swamp Thing. But most audiences first encountered her in 2022 when she appeared as Frances Neagley in the premiere of Reacher.

Neagley served with Reacher in the Army’s 110th Special Investigations Unit as a master sergeant. Everything she knows, including loyalty, she learned from him. She is now living in Chicago working for an investigation firm and taking care of her father, Calvin (Tyrone Benskin), a former police detective, who is battling pancreatic cancer. Neagley suffers from haphephobia, the fear of being touched, unable to even shake hands. She suspects something happened to her in childhood, but her father stonewalls her push for facts.

Damon Herriman as Lawrence Cole

Tommy Crane, one of Neagley’s childhood friends, was killed by a train after walking onto the tracks. The police say that Tommy was nude and seemingly on drugs when he killed himself. His parents insist he was clean and blame his death on the cult that he had joined. Neagley is inclined to believe them. Before he died he wrote Neagley a letter saying he loved Echo Canyon Farm as much as he loved a summer camp they once went to together. Neagley knows Tommy hated that camp and believes he was trying to send her a message, knowing all outgoing letters were read by supervisors at the farm.

Adeline Rudolph

Neagley is even more suspicious after visiting the farm. Judith Gray (Rebecca Liddiard), the operations director at Echo Canyon, gives Neagley a quick tour and a box with Tommy’s belongings. Nothing Judith says about Tommy rings true, especially about how he died. 

Chicago Police Detective Hudson Riley (Greyston Holt) tells Neagley that cameras around the train had been disabled, but what footage exists shows a young homeless man fleeing the scene. Keno (Jasper Jones) proves to be a valuable witness and, after years spent fending for himself on the street, he’s even better at playing whatever role he’s assigned. He soon becomes part of the team investigating Echo Farm agreeing to go undercover. The fourth team member is Renee Birdwhistle (Adeline Rudolph) an administrative assistant eager to learn from Neagley. 

Matthew Del Negro

It doesn’t take Keno long to learn that Echo Farm preys on vulnerable individuals, primarily young people battling addiction. The cult’s leader, Lawrence Cole (Damon Herriman) is working for Pierce Woodrow (Matthew Del Negro), who needs subjects to test a new pharmaceutical called Tranqlara, a psychedelic that the company is promoting as a cure for anxiety, depression, and other mental conditions. Any experiment that ends badly often results in the subject dying or, if severely disabled, killed. Keno’s efforts to get documented proof, however, prove difficult.

Neagley knows that Woodrow isn’t running this scheme. The key to finding out rests with Riley’s father, Boone (Ian Tracey) head of a Chicago crime family known as the Water Rats. Police Office Murphy (Mal Dassin), frequently taunts Riley about his family, calling him “Rats.” Riley, however, knows that Murphy is a dirty cop, protected by  his godfather, James Pemmel (James Downing) a deputy chief. Against Riley’s better judgment, he agrees to visit his father in prison to uncover who is really behind the drug scheme. He gets the information, but at a huge price.

Jasper Jones

The architect behind the plan, Arvid Rawlings (Peter Outerbridge), owns a biotech empire, and hires assassins to kill Neagley. While someone close to Neagley is killed, she and the other members of the team manage to survive. When no one has heard form Keno in days, Neagley knows they have to storm Echo Farms, even though they will be hugely outnumbered. 

As a series, Neagley has the same fast paced feel as Reacher. Each episode ends with a teaser that makes us want to keep watching. We barely have time to catch our breath before we’re onto another battle. And like Reacher, Neagley shows little remorse when dispensing with a bad guy, something that Renee and Keno have yet to accept.

Maria Sten, Greyston Holt

The supporting cast is strong. Herriman is particularly effective as the deranged cult leader who, despite his lack of integrity, manages to convince his followers that he is the next Jesus. Holt is convincing as the son trying to distance himself from his criminal roots. He works well with Neagley because, as he says, they both have daddy issues and are trying to do the right thing. Mostly, they succeed. Renee’s development as a crime fighter is a nice surprise, especially in one fight where she, not Neagley manages to kill the assailants. Her mother, she tells Neagley, was a cop and she always wanted to follow in her footsteps.

Jones, who plays Keno, said in one interview some scenes he filmed were “intense.” (We won’t spoil that surprise!) But he’s a a fresh member of the cast and hopefully will continue to develop the role in season two.

Greyston Holt, Alan Ritchson, Jasper Jones, Maria Sten

But the entire series depends on a strong performance by Sten and she delivers in force. When Reacher appears in the last few scenes and says she should have called him, she assures him that she had it covered. Indeed she did.

Photos courtesy of Amazon Prime Video