I've watched all 8 episodes of Reacher spinoff Neagley and think longtime fans will love it — mostly because they feel like the exact same show

With Reacher season 4 still streaming on Prime Video as of writing, fans are divided on whether its pivot to a political espionage plot has worked.

But there is one detail that unites them: the show was better with Neagley (Maria Sten) in it.

After three seasons of dedicated service to Reacher (Alan Ritchson), Neagley is now a spinoff all her own.

Taking on the lead role, she's working as a private investigator in Chicago, learning that a beloved friend from her past has been killed in a suspicious accident.

Obviously, Neagley is hell-bent on justice, and "puts herself on a dangerous path to uncover a menacing evil," according to Amazon .

Who does that remind you of? We might have changed the surname in the title, but aside from Neagley's return, very little differs.

From the aesthetic look of each scene and the eight-episode storyline structure to how new supporting characters are introduced and utilized, everything is feeling exactly the same.

It's also no secret that Reacher will make an appearance in Neagley , which, while incredibly enjoyable, blurs the lines between the two shows even further.

Sure, some elements of the new spinoff have been effective (more on that below), but when the opportunity arises to create an entirely original story that's adjacent to an existing, beloved IP... could we not have been a little bit braver? Neagley is still Reacher... just with a different focal point Even though I know that a review of Neagley is something that Reacher fans will be looking for, this is one of the rare times in my job where I don't feel enthused to write... well, anything.

Why? As a reviewer, the most difficult movies or TV shows comment on are the ones that are forgettably fine.

It's easy to lift something brilliant up and fun to trash something that you've hated — but if a project has nothing to say for itself, you're stuck.

This is where I think both Neagley and Reacher sit in the TV landscape.

Both are designed to be intentionally dumb fun wrapped in the popular package of a crime drama, and therefore, they require very little of you as a viewer.

Credit where credit is due, though.