The Punisher

I have no clue why it took me so long to watch The Punisher on Netflix, but I am glad that I finally did. This may have been the best of the Netflix Marvel shows (okay, aside from Daredevil). I thought that the series built on Frank Castle’s character from season two of Daredevil. There will probably be spoilers in here.

I never really liked the Punisher. I mean, I always thought he was a good supporting character (always great when he would show up in a Daredevil comic), especially to a vigilante who does not kill. However, on his own, the stories get a little stale (okay, do not list all of the Punisher arcs that were amazing, especially by Garth Ennis or anything). I mean, at the end of the day, the character is a bit insane. He kills bad guys: mobsters, gangsters, drug dealers, etc. However, who decides he gets to be judge, jury, and executioner? And to what degrees does he operate? Does he kill some pot dealers? Would he go after Walter White in Breaking Bad? Who would you root for in that situation?

You see what I am getting at here? We say it would be great if there were a character like the Punisher (in fact, many people in the show say how they are happy he was wasting bad guys), but at the end of the day we need to trust in the institutions and systems we have in place.

Daniel provided such a good voice to Frank’s madness. Constantly questioning what makes Frank any different than any other murderers out there. The show does a great job of pushing that dichotomy on us, that fine line between being a mass murderer and someone seeking justice (or revenge). That is why the side story of Lewis was so important, it let us know that Frank is not the same as some domestic terrorist, but instead has some sort of misguided code he lives by.

I thought Billy Russo (better known as Prince Caspian) was an excellent villain. Granted, the show telegraphed that betrayal from the moment we meet him, but it was still very well done. He seemed conflicted about his decision (especially to shoot Dinah), but then by the end, he was pretty much a psychopath. It was pretty great. Also, ladies, was he sexier in this or Narnia?

Unlike some of the other Netflix Marvel shows, I did not think this one suffered from being too many episodes. I thought they did a great job tying all of the side stories together at the end and making each character matter.

As you can tell, I definitely enjoyed the first season, if you watched it, what were your thoughts?