I watched the first episode last night. And I really liked it. But that was just 1 episode. I am hoping for a cool and calculated Frank Castle for the entire season.
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I watched the first episode last night. And I really liked it. But that was just 1 episode. I am hoping for a cool and calculated Frank Castle for the entire season.
He's a much friendlier, jokier, and emotional Frank than any of the other Punisher portrayals that came before. I don't mind it at all, it gives him a more definable personality, but I'm sure plenty of fans do. It is a bit weird watching The Punisher screaming when he's shooting and psyching himself up first before going into battle, and just generally being so talky.
I think the show wants to portray him more as an overwhelmed underdog than a killing machine.
I enjoyed the first episode. It was a complete story with some minor stakes and a nice re-introduction to the character.
But I tapped out around the third or fourth episode because []
That's the thing that made it so obvious that this show was unplanned and was put together hastily because of Bernthal's breakout popularity as the character. []
The first ep had me hoping it could be a crime version of Twilight Zone where you follow a sympathetic criminal story and at the end the "twist" is that they all run into Frank somehow. Alas.
YES! Exactly! Holy shit, I thought that was so weird.
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Also, gotta mention from the first episode:
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I'm on ep4 or 5. So far its interesting, but not freaking out about it.
I flat out loved this, and I am not much of a Punisher fan. Some of the material is ground already covered but the sharp cast and everything else makes up for that. And yes Curtis is awesome.
Not sure why but I finished this, but I did. So here are some thoughts about it overall:
- It actually ends up justifying the 13 episode length better than some of the recent outputs of this mini-franchise. The main plot is really unengaging as Irish and I already noted, but it's good that it concocts these side missions that feel like a part of Frank's world for whenever the main story needs a pause. It's closer to classic television in that way. It doesn't feel like a thin story drawn out for no reason like Iron Fist, a story that lingered beyond its proper end point like Luke Cage, nor a haphazard mix of competing stories that don't work together like DD S2 (there's nothing like that dumb "and now that Frank Castle's urban thriller story wrapped up, he can help with fighting ninjas" structuring). By the end, it feels like they made a genuine effort to tie things together.
- But the themes, oy. This show really, really, really wants to be political and timely, which I appreciate because I think far and way the best things about Daredevil S1 and Jessica Jones were their (successful, IMO) attempt to tackle a very relevant social issue through its own unique superhero lens, but unlike those two seasons, this failed to commit to saying what it is that it actually wants to say. It spends so much of its screen time to conversations about gun control, the disenfranchisement of white people, the plight of the abandoned veterans, but it seems to confuse nuance with incoherence. It never acknowledges why a guy who's radicalized by a fraud would then become more radicalized, or explains Karen Page's characterization as someone who positions herself to be an anti-gun control pundit while insisting that she completely disagrees with the terrorist's belief of the second amendment. Not that I don' think people can't have multitudes when it comes to complex issues, but the show just... leaves it there, and instead makes up the easy strawman of anti-gun people being hypocrites when their life's in danger. It brings these things up that would be so fucking interesting to actually challenge in a show about "a good guy with a gun," but treats them like they're ranch dressing rather than the meal. Why even bother? Textbook case of writers wanting to be relevant but the studio is afraid of pissing off either side of the debate?
- I like that it goes all in on making Frank look like a psychopath. The weirdness of Bernthal portraying him as a more emotional guy clicks for me as I realized that it wants Frank to come across more Patrick Bateman than Terminator. There's a terrific meta-commentary moment where we see Frank let loose on a bad guy and it's designed to be a fan service satisfying moment, but then it goes on a little too long and becomes genuinely disturbing with the violence, and suddenly it cuts to another bad guy watching him going "Damn, Frank, I love to watch you work" like he's aroused and I was like, Shit that's us. We're that horny. Haha, classic.
- The Punisher has the most heartwarming premature ejaculation scene I've ever seen.
I forgot to mention: the very last scene is a really, really, really good.
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So is that a recommendation? Because it sounds like a recommendation!
I also enjoyed this. I was worried they would over-glorify "good guy kills bad guys" but they did a good job presenting it as a topic to be questioned.
Its also gross. Its gory. Sometimes in a fun movie way and sometimes in a disturbing make-me-turn-my-head-away way.
I'm on Episode 9 and this show is surprisingly great!
More when I'm done.
Arya, rank it with the other Marvel shows please.
I dunno, Jessica Jones > Daredevil Season 1 > Varying degrees of this, Luke Cage, and Defenders > Daredevil Season 2 > Iron Fist
Ok, finished this show. I don't think it's absolutely perfect but it stands up there with Jessica Jones as the most engaging stuff to come out of the Netflix MCU.
It's not the comic book Punisher I'm used to - like 8 says, this one has a shitload more feelings and communicates them far more often - but it works for the show. The mental gymnastics I did was to figure out that this is who Castle was at the beginning and he eventually became the killing machine. I also agree with 8 that the show doesn't fully commit to its own themes, but, eh - what's worse? That or being completely shallow in the first place? Loved the way they handled Micro, his scenes with Castle have a lot more chemistry than I expected.
I have some nitpicks but I'm definitely enjoying this more than the other Netflix series.
Hey, I also started watching Agents of Shield again.
Anyway, just came in to say I'm almost done and it's been renewed for Season 2.
I fully agree with this.
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Damn, that second to last episode was a doozy.
Yup. Loved this. Can't wait for season 2.
Wasn't sure in the beginning, but then I started to warm to its leisurely pace, and started to really get engaged with where it was going. And boy, it really cuts loose in the last two episodes. I fucking loved it, especially when I realized at the very end, rather quickly I might add, what they were doing with the Russo character. Like fuck!!!!
Right now, I'm thinking "I hope this gets more than 2 seasons". Good to read that this is being appreciated by some of you as well!