An Old Conspiracy with New Targets

In all honesty I never expected that one of the superheroes I’d end up enjoying the most, in any form, was The PunisherAn anti-hero who was never meant to be a hero in the same way as the Avengers, the Punisher has taken on his own life in pop-culture, but that doesn't change the troubling qualities to his characterization.. Generally speaking he was not a character I was ever thrilled by. I saw his episodes in the 1990s Spider-man show, where he was toned down but still pretty gruff. I watched the few movies he’d had (the 1989 movie with Dolph Lundgren, the 2004 movie with Thomas Jane, and the 2008 movie with Ray Stevenson), but came away from all of those finding the character pretty one note. He’s a dude with guns that kills people out of a need for revenge. While I can understand the character, at a certain level, he felt more like a power fantasy than a real superhero.

That changed when Jon Bernthal took over the role for the second season of Daredevil. That show, for the first time, illustrated a version of the character that actually felt interesting and relatable. While I am not someone prone to want revenge, the way that Daredevil built up the Frank Castle / Punisher character, giving us insight into his backstory, making us care about the character, it all worked together to make him more than just a revenge power fantasy. And much of that credit goes to Bernthal, who absolutely takes over the role and makes it his own.

At that point it felt only natural for the character to get his own further adventures. Marvel had been trying for decades to get some kind of The Punisher project off the ground (see all those previous movies), but this was the first time audiences actually seemed truly interested in the character. So despite Frank not appearing in The Defenders, and there originally being absolutely no plans for a The Punisher television series as part of the original NetflixOriginally started as a disc-by-mail service, Netflix has grown to be one of the largest media companies in the world (and one of the most valued internet companies as well). With a constant slate of new internet streaming-based programming that updates all the time, Netflix has redefined what it means to watch TV and films (as well as how to do it). Marvel package, Frank got the green light to come back in his own series.

That series picks up months after Frank (a returning Bernthal, of course) has finally finished killing all the men from all the gangs that were involved in the shootout at the park that killed Frank’s wife and kids. Still alive, and with no further mission to live for, Frank becomes a kind of walking zombie, a shell of a man. He picks up a job working demolitions at a construction site, and he spends all day breaking concrete. At night he reads books, trying to stave off sleep and the nightmares that inevitably come with. And occasionally he goes and talks to his buddy, Curtis Hoyle (Jason R. Moore), a former Marine and colleague of Frank’s, who is one of the few people that knows that Frank is still alive.

But Frank is shaken out of his stupor when a CIA tech wiz, David "Micro" Lieberman (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), finds him. David had previously dug up classified intel on a CIA operation in Kandahar, one that led to the death of an Afghani reporter, all seemingly because of drugs and secrets. Frank was actually one of the soldiers on that op, and he eventually struck out against the CIA ringleader of the operation, a man known only as “Agent Orange”, because what they were doing was clearly illegal. Micro theorizes that Frank’s family getting killed was part of an attempt to actually kill Frank and cover everything up. This gives Frank someone to fight, and something to live for again, but it also means that the Punisher is going to start killing once more…

This first season of The Punisher is pretty solid, although it does take some time to get set up and rolling. Frank is a man who (by the show’s own admission) “does not play well with others”, so the show has to work hard to give him a mission he can care about, characters he’s willing to work with, and a story that justifies bringing the character out of retirement. Making it about his family is good enough, even if it does feel like a massive retcon of a story we already saw (back in the second season of Daredevil). Giving him a like-minded partner is also good, even if it feels like a way for the show to try and soften Frank in the process.

Making Micro another person that’s been screwed over by Agent Orange, who has been forced to hide and pretend he’s dead so the CIA doesn’t come for him, is a workable solution. David is allowed to relate to Frank simply by grace of the fact that they’re both on the run from the same guy, for functionally the same reasons, so even if they aren’t friends (and it’s hard to say if Frank really has any friends) they at least can work together whenever Frank actually wants that. The show tries to make it a workable relationship (in large part because you really need two characters on screen, talking to each other, to make shows work) and this is probably the best the series could do on that front. But it still does feel a little awkward, like the show is trying to shoehorn Frank into a story that doesn’t entirely suit him.

It’s better when it lets Frank be Frank. Any time he gets to go out in the field, hunting down those that wronged him, the season comes alive. In many ways Frank is the best at what he does, and the show proves that through a number of well-executed action set pieces. Frank is an efficient and effective killer, and the show illustrates that time and again. Although it does also help that Bernthal is a big dude who willingly throws himself into all the stunts, all so that everything feels grounded and real.

Honestly, if the season could have just focused on Frank and let him do his thing for eight episodes or so, I think it would have been perfect. Unfortunately the series got a 13 episode order (as so many of the Netflix Marvel shows received), so there’s a lot of padding thrown in that doesn’t necessarily feel like it needs to be there. One aspect is DHS Special Agent Dinah Madani (Amber Rose Revah), who is also on the case of Agent Orange because she was partners with the Afghani reporter who was killed in Kandahar. She gets wrapped up in Frank’s case, and eventually starts hunting him so he can help her get to the men who were actually in charge of the illegal operation, but Madani’s inclusion in the series never really feels necessary.

On one hand, yes, it makes sense for the government to be investigating itself when news of an illegal operation comes up. But at the same time, the series has to twist itself into knots to try and have Frank and Dina work together without her ever arresting him. They chase, he escapes, they chase again, he gets caught but, magically, he’s let go. Over and over this plays out and it stretches all credulity. Frank isn’t a good guy. Frank knows this. He knows if he gets caught it means life in prison, at best. But then we wouldn’t have a show, and certainly not the potential for additional seasons, so Dina has to let him go whenever she can. It just doesn’t work.

There are also subplots included in the show that really should have been dropped as well. Deborah Ann Woll's Karen Page shows up since she’s one of the few characters from Daredevil that struck an actual connection with Frank. I understand her inclusion, but I’m hard pressed to say she really adds anything to the show. Hell, by the last few episodes even the season forgets she exists as she fades away, not even getting a final concluding scene with Frank.

And then there’s Lewis Wilson (Daniel Webber), a young soldier back from the Middle East who struggles with PTSD. He eventually gets radicalized and goes off the deep end, becoming a mad bomber who tries to hold the city hostage. His story is clearly meant to illustrate how soldiers struggle when they come back from war, and how the U.S. doesn’t do enough to support its former military men, but Lewis never feels like a strong character. Once he exits the scene, three episodes before the end of the season (in a fiery explosion), the season shrugs and forgets he existed at all. If he were removed from the plot I’d be hard pressed to say it would even be noticeable.

All of this is to say that this season of The Punisher feels very padded. A lot of it could have been cut to get us to a leaner revenge story about Frank and Agent Orange, and I think it would have been much stronger. That the season works at all is because all the actors do their level best to make it work. Everyone in the cast (listed here or that I didn’t even touch on) are great, and they make their scenes solid. It’s a lot of padding, but not necessarily terrible padding, and it’s watchable even as it slowly moves. I was never truly bored during the 13 episodes of the season, but I did realize that so much of this content was here simply to justify the long episode count and not because the main story really needed it.

This first season of The Punisher is a bit messy. It works, and at times works fantastically, because Bernthal and co. do all they can to elevate the material, and frequently they succeed. But The Punisher also once again shows the flaws in Netflix’s approach to their shows at the time. The rigid requirements for episode count, length of a series, and how things had to be done undercut all the good work this season managed to do. It takes an excellent season of television and makes it just pretty darn good. I’d still recommend it to anyone that hasn’t seen the show before, but I would do it while noting the many caveats above. It’s good, damn good, but there’s a universe where this season was even better.