What I’m Watching: The Punisher (Season Finale)

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 13 “Memento Mori” (B+)

Most loyal viewers of this series watched this finale way back in November, but I’m happy to be concluding it now after getting to thoroughly process each and every hour. That proves to me at the very least that this show is greatly superior to the one that spun it off, “Daredevil,” which took ten episodes to get me hooked. This was an expectedly violent conclusion to Frank’s hunt to kill all those who took his family from him, though not quite as deadly as it could have been. With David safely reunited with his family and Frank rescued after killing Rawlins, it came down to Billy versus Frank, with the former tracking down first Curtis and then two innocent young employees of the carousel to bait the one person he felt he needed to kill in order to somehow get away, despite everyone knowing who he was and no way out truly existing. Billy seemed genuinely hurt that the two guys he could actually call friends had betrayed him, though lying about Frank being dead is hardly comparable to allowing Frank’s family to be killed, especially when we saw just how close Billy was with them, visiting that same carousel earlier when things were much sunnier. One thing this show did tremendously well was to visualize Frank’s psyche through the night terrors and daydreams he had about what he lost, and while he got a pass and can now live peacefully as Pete, he’ll never be able to recover from that in a real way. At least David is back with his family with no imminent threat to his life, and Marion proved to be as good as she could when it came down to it. I don’t know where season two will go, but seeing Frank try to help other people process their experiences in war while admitting that he has no idea what’s next for him is a truly appealing start.

Season grade: B+
Season MVP: Jon Bernthal as Frank

What I’m Watching: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 12 “Home” (B+)

Well, this was certainly a penultimate installment. I’m starting to see casting announcements about the second season of this show and making sure not to read anything since I’ve gotten this far without having anything spoiled for me about what happens. I thought it was so devastating when Sarah and Zach finally saw that David was alive only to see him get killed as the prisoner exchange was happening, but fortunately that was just a stunt on Dinah’s part that he had himself arranged to make sure that no one would come after him. Having the cameras on in his hideout so that everything that Billy and Rawlins did would be recorded was brilliant, but it probably would have helped if they had tuned in a bit earlier so that they wouldn’t have to show up to save the day at exactly the right moment after Billy cut Frank loose so that he could kill Rawlins right before Billy took care of him. It was intense to watch Frank go in and out of consciousness, remembering romance with his wife while Rawlins was beating him to a bloody pulp. The conversation between Billy and Frank about what Billy knew about his family was a good, sincere one, and now he’s going to be the last piece of the puzzle for Frank to track down in the finale. Having Frank admit on camera what happened and that he and not Billy was the executioner makes it clear that even releasing these videos publicly won’t make for an easy transition to normal life, not that we would ever expect that for someone like Frank, who isn’t exactly cut out (bad pun for the cringeworthy scene towards the end of this episode) for a normal day job with a dress code.

What I’m Watching: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 11 “Danger Close” (B+)

This is when I can understand why people want to binge shows. There are only two hours left in this season, and though I’ll probably watch them closer together than I might usually since my TV schedule is lighter at the moment, I’m not going to marathon all three in three hours as most people experienced the end of this season. I did think that this was a very compelling hour, with Frank initially mad at David for going to Dinah and then ready to change his tune right away when Sarah and Zach got taken. David going to meet his daughter was an unexpected development and certainly not the way that he thought they would be reunited, and Frank stayed behind to go full-on Punisher, donning the skull outfit and brutally taking out every single person who came for him. Finding out that Billy betrayed him was a huge blow, and it turns out that our friend Billy isn’t sitting all that pretty, surprised to learn that Dinah knew Rawlins’ name and now apparently being set up to take the blame for everything after Rafi and Dinah talked to Marion and she expressed just how unhappy she was with Rawlins. It’s good to know that Rafi is another serious ally for Dinah, and the sight of Dinah, Frank, David, and Leo all together is comforting since it means that half the good guys are together. Let’s hope Frank can save the rest in the next two episodes and head off towards some remotely happy ending that I’m sure will be negated by whatever’s to come in season two.

What I’m Watching: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 10 “Virtue of the Vicious” (B+)

I don’t typically see the need for time-stamped episodes that piece information together one fragmented scene at a time, especially when a series doesn’t typically employ them. But in this case it turned out to be very effective, showing how far we’ve come with four main characters all playing parts and sharing what they’re really up to with pretty much no one. Karen showing up to interview Senator Ori and speaking to Billy beforehand gave us a bit of conversation about gun control that I’ve been noticing more and more as it becomes a front-and-center issue in contemporary society, even though this episode was of course released back in November. The fact that Karen didn’t use her gun until Lewis was holding her hostage with the bomb demonstrated that it really seemed to be a last resort, and Frank got shot a whole bunch of times before he ziplined out of the building following Karen’s remark that he wouldn’t storm a place without having a way out. Both Dinah and Frank have now realized Billy’s true colors, and let’s hope they start talking quickly, and loop a conspicuously absent David in, so that they can prevent Billy from hunting them down or, worse, villainizing them any more before they take action. While this definitely didn’t look good for Frank, this was one hell of a job on his part, and it’s always astonishing watching him walk around fearlessly and talk so bluntly to the late Lewis, unafraid of what will come next since he’s been so close to dead so many times before.

What I’m Watching: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 9 “Front Toward Enemy” (B+)

I was a bit confused when I sat down to watch this episode after taking a month off since I remembered that Lewis had started to go off the deep end but been much less certain of where he was headed and how he was going to relate to the main plotline. We got that answer in the opening moments of this episode with the three explosions he set off in an attempt to be the latest antihero to take a stand against what he believes to be unjust. Targeting Karen as his enemy and Frank as his ally was intriguing, and both of them weren’t shy about sharing what they thought of what he was doing. Karen did it publicly on the radio, while Frank starting talking down to him when he saw what he had done to Curtis and how he was somehow villainizing a Marine who served his country while trying to prove what he felt. While his beside manor leaves something to be desired, it appears to have worked since he told him which wire to cut to save Curtis’ life. While that crisis was handled for the time being, the bigger issue is that Frank’s face is out there and everyone now knows that he’s still alive. David going to see Dinah just then was probably helpful since now she’ll be able to work with them, but they have just about everything going against them which means that they’ll have to trust each other in order to be able to survive.

What I’m Watching: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 8 “Cold Steel” (B+)

Now this was an intense episode that really got things going and showed that this show isn’t interested in wasting any time. Previously, we thought Billy was just someone who was on the wrong side but not necessarily a bad guy. Seeing him at the start of this episode tormenting his bedridden mother and keeping her immobile because she gave him up was a window into this extent of his cruelty, and watching him get some satisfaction from killing Sam and then help Dinah wash his blood off of her suggests that he’s completely evil and merely capable of simulating empathy and kindness. Frank didn’t want David to call Dinah because he wasn’t sure if they could trust her, but honestly she needs to realize that looking for bugs in her office isn’t going to do anything if she’s sleeping with the enemy and confiding in him. It was good to see Frank and David bond and really enjoy some good times together, but things took a much more serious turn when David started thinking about how he wasn’t able to be with his family. Sarah kissing Frank was hardly surprising but David didn’t take it well, and the fact that she then called him with a legitimate problem even when it was awkward showed how much their connection has meant to her. Trying to scare Zach into submission didn’t quite work, but it did reveal how he felt, leading to some sweet football-tossing that fortunately didn’t result in David revealing himself to be alive in that moment, something that can’t be too far off now.

What I’m Watching: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 7 “Crosshairs” (B)

I’m not sure why we’re spending so much time focused on Lewis. Obviously he has some serious issues that are turning him into an uncontrollable killer capable of going completely unnoticed by society, but it’s not clear how he’s going to tie in with the main plotline. Frank’s main mission is to take out the trash, to go up against those like Agent Orange who are evil because they know what they are doing is wrong, not because a switch has flipped and they’re unable to control what they do or why they do it. As dynamic as Lewis is in his creepiness, his father Clay, played by Tim Guinee, an actor I first came to dislike watching the awful “Revolution,” is completely bland and relatively personality-free. Fortunately, more of the hour was focused on Frank and David, and his family, who are becoming increasingly close to Frank as David starts to think about what it might be like to actually get to reveal that he’s alive to them, something that he doubts will go all that smoothly. It was not a good episode for Colonel Morty Bennett, who got caught in the middle of some sexual behavior that he probably wanted to keep quiet, was spared by Frank, and then killed anyway by a far from trustworthy Billy. The ending of the episode was quiet but appropriately intense, with Frank getting that perfect shot to the head while staring right at Agent Orange, only to discover that his walls were bulletproof and he now knows exactly how close Frank is to him.

What I’m Watching: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 6 “The Judas Goat” (B+)

I’d argue that Frank’s nightmares are the most powerful part of this show, since each one of them begins with a happy family memory disrupted by everyone he loves being executed in front of him. The one that opened this episode incorporated the entire Lieberman family, and it was well bookended by Frank repeating over and over to Sarah that things were going to get a lot better for her and her family soon. Their kids fighting is an unfortunate development since Sarah is having trouble dealing with it on her own and it clearly pains David to see it from afar without being able to do anything about it. Dinah telling Billy that Frank was still alive sent him straight to Curtis, and David was surprisingly keen on Frank approaching Billy if he trusted him. While their interaction was relatively positive, the closing shot of Rawlins sitting in the car next to Billy waiting for Frank to show up demonstrates that he was wrong to trust him. Lewis has been relatively tangential to the plot thus far, but now he’s shown that he’s completely unstable and very dangerous. Getting into it with a cop when he was told to stop protesting outside the courthouse was one thing, but repeatedly stabbing the man he considered his mentor when he realized that he had lied to him proved that he’s out of control, and the fact that he wants to be recruited so badly means that everyone he encounters may be in danger.

What I’m Watching: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 5 “Gunner” (B)

This was a somewhat slow-moving episode, one that left things looking very bad for our main antihero. Frank can put up with a lot, but he was in bad shape at the end of this hour. There’s no denying that Frank is a force to be reckoned with, hunting down the operatives who were after him in the woods and then looking straight into the camera so that Rawlins would know exactly who was coming for him. David isn’t quite as skilled in the field, and instead he’s busy making sandwiches for himself without bothering to ask Frank if he wants one. Dinah seemed to be most concerned about the state of her car after the events of last week, and brushed off the reaction her bruised body got while she was in the middle of having some very passionate sex. Trusting Karen with the information that Wolf was dirty but telling her not to print it shows that she’s well aware that she shouldn’t know this and definitely shouldn’t be spreading it, and hopefully it’s putting her closer and closer to being able to work with Frank once they inevitably meet again. Rawlins getting offered the deputy director job from the newly promoted Marion James, portrayed by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, last seen as a series regular on the sadly short-lived “Limitless,” has nefarious connotations since he doesn’t seem to care at all about the ethics of what they’re doing, which is sure to put him and Marion right at the top of Frank’s hitlist. Frank is going to have to fend off a negative reaction from David’s family, though I think he’ll need to be nursed back to health first.

What I’m Watching: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 4 “Resupply” (B)

I didn’t find this episode to be as engaging only because I think that Frank’s central storyline is the one that’s most intriguing, and deviating largely from that to focus both on the police investigation and contractor operations didn’t appeal to me as much. Watching Frank and David work together is interesting since they still don’t see eye-to-eye, and what that meant in this episode is that, after a pretty intense car chase, Frank had no intention of harming Dinah, and David crashing into her got him very angry since he was hoping to tiptoe on the line of legality and ensure that innocent people didn’t die. Anyone who’s guilty, on the other hand, is fair game, and therefore Frank was willing to admit that he took out a few henchmen when David seemed disappointed in him. Let’s hope that Frank’s life-saving gesture can convince Dinah that he’s not a bad person and that she should be looking into the boss that he confessed to killing. I don’t know why we’re spending time with Lewis, who so far hasn’t proved to be a very magnetic character, but I’m sure that Anvil will end up playing much more into this, especially if they’re eventually tasked with taking a former operative who went rogue. Frank isn’t exactly great at staying under the radar, though I’d argue that he’s never tried to do that aside from the obviously intelligent steps like not vomiting and leaving DNA behind at a crime scene for the police or anyone worse to find.

Take Three: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 3 “Kandahar” (B+)

There’s a lot about Frank that we don’t know, and this episode was helpful in chronicling his transformation from patriotic military man to someone hypnotized by the violence around him and capable of being swallowed up into it. I immediately recognized the two commanders who were barking orders at them, Paul Schulze from “24” and “Nurse Jackie” as William Rawlins and Clancy Brown from “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Carnivale” as Major Schoonover. It seems that Rawlins will play a bigger part, and his reaction was even more intense than Frank punching him in the eye with his bloody fist. Frank seemed ready to led David’s bunker blow up rather than cut him free every time his alarm sounded, but then the talkative analyst turned the tables on him by using that pen he was hitting the computer keys with to sedate him. David’s story seems believable, presented with flashbacks to suggest that it’s meant to be taken as fact, and we know that he’s on the right side of things since the late Carson Wolf shot him when he was surrendering. He’s managed to convince Frank to join him as long as he lets him kill all of them, so it will be good to see Frank working actively with a partner rather than just flying solo. The requisite Marvel subplot of an honest cop trying to catch a misunderstood criminal is taking up more and more of each episode, delving into Dinah’s home life with her mother, played by the incomparable Shohreh Aghdashloo, factoring in and showing that she’s layered with complications too.

Round Two: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 2 “Two Dead Men” (B+)

It’s jarring just how different the flashback segments to Frank’s happy times with his family are from the brutal violence that happens in Frank’s present-day life and is even inflicted on others by Frank himself. Most of what Frank recalls isn’t all happy, of course, as the opening segment with him smacking his son for glorifying what he would be doing in the military indicated and his many nightmares about his family being killed again and again in front of him clearly demonstrate. This second installment helped to frame what this first season is going to be about, as Frank is trying to make everyone responsible pay as multiple parties are interested in him, both in giving him information and in tracking him down. I didn’t expect that C. Thomas Howell’s Carson Wolf would be taken out so early, and at Frank’s hands no less, but he showed his allegiances in his response to Frank’s rather aggressive questioning. Micro, better known as David Lieberman, is quite an intriguing character, pretending to be dead while watching his family on many TV screens. I couldn’t place what I knew actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach from, and a moment’s worth of research reminded me that it was from his far less aware role as Desi on “Girls.” Frank tracked him down quickly, and I’m hoping that he’ll find another ally since the two friends he has won’t be enough to protect him from the number of people who want him dead. I was thrilled to see Karen return and take on a prominent role here, and I’m continually amazed by the contracts that those who star on these Marvel shows must sign to appear as main characters on multiple series.

Pilot Review: The Punisher

The Punisher (Netflix)
Premiered November 17

Here we have Netflix’s sixth original series from the Marvel cinematic universe. Though Luke Cage appeared throughout most of the first season of “Jessica Jones,” he was always intended to have his own show, whereas it seems that the popularity of the Punisher during season two of “Daredevil” was what got him his very own series. I felt strongly that he was the main reason to watch that season, since everything having to do with the Hand bordered on completely unbearable, and therefore I think this show could have potential. It’s not immediately clear from this debut installment what the focus of this show will be other than to follow Frank Castle as he goes through life taking out the trash he encounters on a daily basis. Watching him work through all that demolition with his hammer shows just how much aggression he has to get out, and the entire first hour was spent waiting for him to finally take out those obnoxious construction workers who mocked him and didn’t include the one nice guy until they got him roped into a criminal job for which he wasn’t ready at all. After he took care of all of them, he went after the mob bosses who would have tracked him down, therefore cleaning up a big mess and making sure that there aren’t bad guys left to go after innocent people. Unlike the heroes we’re used to, he isn’t concerned about how many people he kills and doesn’t bother to try to save lives of those who might be less guilty. Jon Bernthal is the perfect actor for this, capable of bottling his emotions entirely and conveying a truly lost man whose only outlet is getting rid of bad people. I’m intrigued enough to see what comes next, even though I imagine this will be considerably less tied in to the mythology of the Marvel cinematic universe than the other shows.

How will it work as a series? Like Luke Cage and Jessica Jones before him, Frank has become the subject of a police investigation by someone interested in getting the whole story behind this complicated antihero. As long as this show is focused enough on something, I think that its protagonist can make it an engaging viewing experience.
How long will it last? “Daredevil” is already immensely popular with Netflix viewers, or so the limited viewer reports that have been released indicate, and fans were clamoring for this show, even if its reviews aren't that great for the extended franchise. I’m sure that, as long as there’s a story to tell, this show will return for many more seasons.

Pilot grade: B+