Colter Shaw is a professional reward hunter. A gifted tracker, he knows human nature, survival probabilities and just how far to push the law. He never stops moving, never stops working and everything is about to catch up to him.

It’s hard doing this work to not feel a little cynical sometimes, especially when a show goes big and something else along similar lines arrives soon after. Jack Reacher’s very large shadow is where Tracker lives and it’s both a good thing and a bad one.

Good, because ‘tough, competent dude does kind things’ for people is a very difficult format to get wrong and there’s some very good elements here. Justin Hartley is a pathologically likable leading man and has the right combination of leading man looks and worryingly calm pragmatism. He’s starting to play with the idea that a man like Colter is not as good at being normal as he thinks he is and there’s lot of interesting work to mine there. Robin Weigert and Abby McEnany are fantastic too as his dog loving married couple support staff. The family mystery is an interesting set up too and Lee Tergesen, as Colter’s possibly dead father, is always nice to see.

It’s a shame then that the episodic elements, at this very early stage, don’t work. Colter’s one episode romance with Paziz Zade’s criminally under used Officer Amini is chemistry free and given no room to breathe. Likewise Fiona Rene’s Reenie Green, a hyper competent lawyer and one of Colter’s exes who gets to sweep in steal the show, remind us how hot Colter is and leave. Green is superb and Reenie feels like a fully formed character in the exact way none of the others characters do.

Most of all though, the issue here is the collision between the adventure show requirements of the format and the tone it’s aiming for. Colter gets shot in the shoulder at one point and then goes through an extended action sequence, admittedly one armed, but in no noticeable pain. There is, and this is a weird thing to even write, a surprisingly unneeded cliff jump. It’s a little like Reacher, a little like The A-Team and not enough like either to fully work.

Verdict: Tracker has a lot going for it. It’s a fun concept, and the cast are excellent. Plus it’s early days and no show knows what it is for the first six episodes or so. But it does have a lot of work to do. 6/10

Alasdair Stuart