The Punisher Season One
Killing of the Castle
released OUT NOW! 2017 | sVOd
Showrunner steve lightfoot Cast Jon Bernthal, amber rose revah, Ben Barnes, ebon Moss-Bachrach, deborah ann Woll, Jaime ray Newman
The Punisher opens with the world believing that Frank Castle is dead. A few episodes in, and you wonder if he’ll end this series the only man left alive.
Netflix’s latest Marvel show was always going to be a violent affair. The Punisher is a cold-blooded killer who dishes out his own justice. He’s a man who, by his own admission, loves being covered in blood. He uses weapons as casually as the rest of us use mobile phones. The Punisher may exist in the same universe as the Defenders, but a cameo from Harry Callahan wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. This is as hardboiled as on-screen Marvel has been, which is great if you like designer violence, but surely there’s more to the show than that?
Well… yes. A lot more. Though if you judge the quality of a show on how far you agree with its political message, it’s worth knowing that you could accuse The Punisher of being a thinly disguised recruitment ad for the NRA.
Introduced in Daredevil season two, the Punisher/Frank Castle is an ex-marine who embarks on a bloody crusade for justice after his wife and children are murdered. This series sheds new light on the slaughter of his family, as he learns that he was unwittingly part of an illegal operation in Afghanistan, the fall-out from which is far-reaching – right to the upper echelons of the US government.
The show impresses on many levels, especially early on, which feature some sympathetic explorations of what it means to be a soldier, and how they need to reacclimatise to civilian life. The series is also blessed with a compelling lead performance from Jon Bernthal and an impressive roster of supporting characters. Castle’s uneasy ally throughout, the techy Micro (Ebon MossBachrach), is at the centre of a very unusual, slightly creepy and unexpectedly tender love story, while deranged former marine Lewis is brought to life with such intensity by Daniel Webber that you’re constantly on edge waiting for him to explode.
With better pacing over its 13 episodes than some Netflix series, excellent action sequences, slimy, believable villains, and twists galore, The Punisher is perfect binge-watching material, though the final couple of episodes do descend a little into a blood-filled splatterfest, which is a shame. There’s also an ongoing problem with trying to justify Frank’s “code” – one episode he’s worried about killing ordinary soldiers just doing their jobs, but the next he’s happy to slaughter ordinary private contractors. It’s also annoying that the only anti-gun voice in the entire thing is an odious slimeball.
A well-crafted, hugely entertaining series, then – even if its own attitudes towards violence as a solution are deeply, deeply muddled. Dave Golder
In the original comics, The Punisher often used rubber “mercy bullets” when guesting in The Amazing Spider-Man.