'The Punisher' Review (Season 1)
02:15
Everbody has been aching to see Frank Castle get his own Netflix series since he made his glowing first appearance in Daredevil Season 2. And of course, Netflix responded to the fans with an announcement of a series, coming after this year's Iron Fist and The Defenders. It's great to know that at least this show excels over those last two disappointing shows, and Jon Bernthal is great in his role as the murderous and vengeful Punisher, but the show is lacking really with what it could have been. The show has a lot of potential, but unfortunately due to it's 13 episode run, there's filler, boring plotline's and not that much punishing.
Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) is dead. Well, to the public eye he is. Now, he lives in seclusion after avenging the death of his family at the hands of the men he used to fight with. However, when a government conspiracy involving him and his ex-army brothers and leaders come to his attention, he joins with Micro (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and old friend Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) to take them down and for the Punisher to come back to life to take vengeance once again.
So yeah I'm quite mixed on how I feel about The Punisher. With that I'm going to split this review up into three sections, the good, the bad and the ugly. So for the good, Bernthal straight off the bat is amazing as Frank Castle, as he was in Daredevil. His character is captivating, headstrong and sometimes, quite vexing, but in a good way. You don't want to mess with Bernthal, nevermind Castle. And what I really didn't think I'd like, but was the best part of the series for me, was his relationship with Micro and his family. These scenes really help Frank's development and show his softer side, and Moss-Bachrach's performance is something I thought I wouldn't like, but he's easily become one of my favourite new Marvel characters. As with Woll's presence as well, we get a lot out of Castle from Karen and their past, which is also great to see, if only we had more. There are some great action scenes in this show, well, when they are there. There are a couple of stand out ones with some great cinematography to go nicely along with these, creating some great moments.
The bad, isn't really too bad, but more nitpicks. Ben Barnes' Billy Russo is a really interesting character but midway though the series becomes quite lost in his intentions and I didn't fully believe a lot of them. There's a lot of characters, who at the start of the show probably due to pacing issues, I couldn't care less about them and their storylines. They do get better, and the way things end up connecting in the end becomes quite interesting, but it does take some time to get into, you have to be really patient. The multiple directors brought along for the show all have different styles of shooting and you can really tell, it's not a massive thing but I felt distracted in how many of the episodes were shot very differently, and it threw me.
Now this is where things get ugly. For a show about the Punisher, there's hardly any punishing. The beginning episode is a great start but from then until the latter portion of the series the action is missing a lot of the time, at least from Castle. I'll admit that the last three episodes have some breathtaking scenes where this punishment comes into play but it's really a lot of standing around and talking. The pacing in the first half is terrible and becomes ultimately very boring unless Castle, Micro or Russo are on screen. Call me a comic book geek but I'd rather have seen Castle take on gangsters than the government. It's interesting at times and we get to see a lot of Frank's war days through flashbacks but theres nothing to really innovate you as you get to the middle of the series. A sub-plot involving a young veteran had me bored senseless and only really payed off at the end of his arc. Make of it what you will.
So it's not a bad start for Frank Castle, but it feels like they could have done a much better job here. It's mediocre at best and there is a lot of pay off in the end, but you have to do a lot of waiting, and you shouldn't do really. This is the Punisher, and he really does deserve to punish. It's saved by Bernthal, but I really hope they can do better in Season 2. But hey, at least its better than Iron Fist.
6/10
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