‘Neagley’ series review: A jolly good comfort watch

All episodes of Neagley dropped on the same day as the finale of Reacher Season 4. The Reacher spin-off tells the story of Frances Neagley’s (Maria Sten). In Lee Child’s novels, Neagley worked with Reacher in the Army. She was his very competent Master Sergeant, a military police officer, and part of Reacher’s 110th Special Investigators unit.

Neagley has since quit the Army and is now a private investigator in Chicago. Reacher (Alan Ritchson) bookends the series but does not overwhelm it and Neagley remains firmly about her and the team she puts together. When a childhood friend, Tommy Crane (Jhaleil Swaby), throws himself in front of a train, everyone is willing to dismiss it as Tommy being under the influence, except Neagley.

Her investigation leads her to Echo Canyon Farm, a commune run by the charismatic Lawrence Cole (Damon Herriman). Pierce Woodrow (Matthew Del Negro), CEO of Invection Pharmaceuticals, promises a wonder drug. There are cultists, an assassin couple, cops on the take and a behind-the-scenes puppet master.

In detective fiction, it helps to give the investigator a personal mystery to solve. It works as a shorthand for their almost obsessive search for the truth. In Peter James’ Roy Grace novels, Sandy, Grace’s wife’s disappearance and his search for her is a crucial element.

In Neagley, the mystery she has to solve is her dislike of physical contact. Her father, Calvin (Tyrone Benskin), who is ailing and in hospital, might know something but refuses to tell her. As Neagley uncovers the truth behind Tommy’s death, a photograph and fragments of memories show her a version of the truth, but without clarification from her father, Neagley is floundering.

The team Neagley gathers around her is quirky, with their own personal mysteries to solve. Hudson Riley (Greyston Holt) from the Chicago PD, is from a well-known criminal family and not trusted by the law or criminals. He hopes this case will place him firmly on the side of the angels.

Keno (Jasper Jones) lives on the street and does whatever he can (not strictly legal) to survive. When Neagley meets him, he is running from some very bad people he scammed. Renee (Adeline Rudolph), an administrative assistant in Neagley’s firm, helps her because Renee wants to become a PI and locate someone close to her.

While identifying the bad guys right at the beginning might be counter-intuitive in a mystery, Neagley moves quickly enough and there are so many side quests to keep things hopping. Sten makes for a sturdy, fragile and eminently watchable Neagley.

She moves with panther-like grace through the show while letting the shadow of doubt flit past every time she questions what happened to her as a child. The action is brutal but not stomach churning, though the finger in the pigpen reminds one of Make Me, which, incidentally, is the novel Reacher season 5 is going to be based on.

Neagley is the right kind of spin-off with enough in common with the original, right down to the black-and-white title sequence with thunder in the background, and a fleeting visit from the big guy. Neagley, however, is its own beast.

Sometimes all you want from a crime thriller is a crime, a charismatic lead, a smart supporting cast, a suitable villain, twists, turns and action, and Neagley provides exactly that. Neagley is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video