Marvel Netflix: Ranking all seasons of Marvel’s Netflix dramas
By Josh Baggins
Photo Credit: Marvel’s The Punisher/ Marvel Netflix Image Acquired from Netflix Media Center
2. The Punisher Season 1
The Punisher trailed Frank Castle’s tale of brutality that began in Daredevil Season 2. For the sake of not covering the same ground, new players were put into the game. He operated with an offbeat sidekick Micro (short for Microchip in the comics) and Agent Madani, a surprisingly substantial role that was invented for the series. Castle’s best friend Billy Russo also played a big part and while this was the first series not to include Rosario Dawson’s Night Nurse, Castle continued to form a bond with Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page.
Between the focus on PTSD and terrorism, The Punisher’s themes were both distressing and topical. And the writers certainly put a spotlight on the gun control debate considering guns are our antihero’s weapon of choice. The creative team did not make a strong argument either way, if anything they further illustrated the divisive perspectives about guns in this country.
The timely themes are magnified by the forceful tone of the series – the action and violence were strikingly and gruesomely extreme, and Jon Bernthal incredibly cranked up his intensity even more than usual to play Punisher. Bernthal easily blows away Dolph Lundgren, Thomas Jane, and Ray Stevenson as Castle. He roared with passion and intimidation, pumping blood into even the more tepid episodes.
Creator Steve Lightfoot did an admirable job of differentiating individual episodes.
The premiere was an expertly paced story of a loner who works construction. The chapter about the assassination attempt showed different characters’ point of view. The storyline with Madani and her partner discovering a bug was resolved with an extraordinary fire fight where a sting operation went horribly wrong. The finale even paid homage to Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train by setting the brutal showdown between Punisher and Jigsaw on a carousel.
The combination of a lead actor who is 200% committed to the role and showrunners that want to offer more than just straightforward narratives push The Punisher closest to the heights of the first season of Daredevil.