Marvel’s Punisher Recap – Should We Hope for a Sequel Season?
“Marvel’s The Punisher” is a spin-off series of the wildly successful and excellent show, “Marvel’s Daredevil”. It follows the story of Frank “Punisher” Castle as he uncovers a military conspiracy (which involved the deaths of his beloved wife, son, and daughter) and, as anyone who watched “Daredevil” Season 2 may have guessed exacts revenge on everyone behind the ordeal. This conspiracy dates back to Frank’s days in Afghanistan, where he was selected, along with a handful of other excellent soldiers, to be part of the Cerberus Squad – which later turns out to be a highly illegal, off-the-books team that goes around killing and torturing anyone that Agent Orange, Carson Wolf, Morty Bennett, and Colonel Ray – the heads of the operations – see fit. Eventually, a few of the members have had enough; one of them, Gunner Henderson, videotapes an illegal torturing of an innocent civilian and emails it to NSA analyst David “Micro” Lieberman, who is “killed” by a team sent by Orange. Except he miraculously survives, finds Frank, explains the whole situation to him, and the pair decide to enact revenge. Meanwhile, fellow comrade Billy Russo is revealed to be working with Orange, who has paid him generously (well, his motivation is slightly deeper than that) to help him kill off any remaining Cerberus members who may dig up the video. As that happens, one of Castle’s friends and a fellow war veteran, Curtis Hoyle, runs a support group for veterans that have lost their way. One such soldier is Lewis Wilson, whose severe PTSD has led him to become a terrorist in the name of far-right conspiracy theories.
A major issue with this season was the pacing. Both story lines took extremely long to set up; as a matter of fact, the pilot is an hour of wasted time. It involves Frank doing what he believes to be “tying up loose ends”; in other words, killing gangsters responsible for his family’s death. Then he gets a job as a construction worker, kills some mobsters, then, at the very end, he is contacted by Micro. It takes three episodes – three out of thirteen hours – for Frank to learn about the whole conspiracy. The second story line does not fare much better: it takes Wilson well over half of the season to finally realise his support for far-right ideals and become terrorists. Thus, his arc where he turns from a regular civilian into a bomber feels very rushed. Speaking of the two story lines, they are both oddly jarring to watch. This is because they’re hardly connected to each other at all.
While I may sound as if I detested the season, the contrary is true. This show was, for the most part, decently enjoyable, especially towards the last stretch of around three or four episodes. Although, I must admit that the second story line – involving Lewis – felt far more charged and tense than the primary story line did. As a result, the season almost fizzles out of energy around the twelfth or thirteenth episode.
I can imagine that anyone viewing this season will be due to their excitement garnered from “Daredevil” Season 2. However, viewer beware: “The Punisher” is hardly similar to “Daredevil”. It’s odd how detached the Punisher is from any of the Marvel Netflix shows. Disregarding the recurrence of “Daredevil” character Karen Paige, the show has almost no mention of our red-clad, devilish hero, nor does it – in the slightest – resemble the same tone. This is both good and bad: good in the sense that the Punisher should attempt to be a separate, independent entity than its big brother show, but unfortunate because the world-building and setting is inferior. “Daredevil” was vastly successful because of its portrayal of the Hell’s Kitchen district of New York (yes, that’s the real name of the district, but Matt Murdock, not Gordon Ramsay, is the devil there). Since the “Punisher” is almost never set in the same place – it varies regions – the setting is never well-established and never given a life of its own. This is why the “Punisher” feels so different from “Daredevil”. Although one similarity is the action, which is just as brutal – if not more – on this show as was seen in “Daredevil”.
Thus, viewers going to see the “Punisher” may not be entirely satisfied if they expect a “Daredevil”-y show.
