You Should Be Watching…

The Punisher

The Punisher. No, not that Thomas Jayne mess. The new Marvel series on Netflix starring Jon Bernthal.

I never read the comics, but I am a huge fan of most of the Marvel series – Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Luke Cage…we’ll leave Iron Fist out of this. Frank Castle (The Punisher) debuted in season 2 of Daredevil and he was the breakout character. Pretty quickly, they announced The Punisher would get his own series. Well on November 17th that series came out.

Marvel's The Punisher
Jon Bernthal as The Punisher

Based on Jon Benthal’s screen time in DD 2, I was all in for The Punisher no matter what. I did see some reviews that called the series “boring.” So I took it with a grain of salt and started it. It does drag a little in a few spots, but it seems like it’s a little Homeland and a little John Wick, which is a combo I’m on board with. I could have watched 13 episodes of Frank and the sledgehammer – HOT! – but there are other people in it and a storyline, too. The supporting cast is great. The villains are appropriately crazy by Marvel standards. We find out what Prince Caspian has been up to since his time in Narnia. Although Frank Castle is not a mutant or an Inhuman, he is pretty indestructible. He takes a beating – several beatings and bullets – and keeps on ticking. I only cringed a handful of times – big kudos to the makeup department for clearly working overtime on this!

The Punisher is not for everyone. If you get queasy at the sight of fake blood, keep it moving. Nothing to see here. But if you don’t mind vigilante justice at any cost, binge on!

And if you’re a fan of lists, here’s how I would rank Netflix’s Marvel series:

  1. Jessica Jones
  2. The Punisher
  3. Luke Cage
  4. Daredevil Season 1
  5. The Defenders
  6. Daredevil Season 2
  7. Everything Else on Netflix
  8. Iron Fist

 

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