How ‘The Punisher’ Became My Favorite Marvel Show

I was not expecting to fall in love with Marvel’s The Punisher, but damn, it happened.

The Punisher is not exactly my favorite comic book character. I tend to gravitate towards sassy heroines rather than out-and-proud pugilists. Still, I enjoyed Jon Bernthal‘s interpretation of the character in Daredevil Season Two and was curious about how Netflix would handle Frank Castle in his own series. Early trailers put me on edge. They suggested that The Punisher was going to be a non-stop rain of bullets. It would be blood and gore over emotion and pathos.

As it turns out, Marvel’s The Punisher is the most emotionally mature of all the Netflix/Marvel shows. Each character depicted in shades of glorious grey, with just almost every character doubling as both a victim and an agent of the disgusting corruption oozing around them. The performances are top notch. Bernthal presents Castle as a man who feels most comfortable as a monster, and yet, compassion somehow drives him. For all the bullets that he lets fly, note how many times this version of the Punisher finds himself trying gentle someone down. You could make a supercut of Bernthal going “Shhh, shhh, shhh” and “Easy, easy!” The rest of the supporting cast is equally sublime. Technically, the show is meticulously constructed. As Decider’s recapper Sean T. Collins has repeatedly pointed out, every frame is carefully designed to tell its own story. Negative space and beautiful wide shots are both used to emphasize a character’s isolation, while peculiar angles and jarring camera movements suggest all sorts of emotional turmoil, or even connection. 

However, what’s blown me away about this show is how it refuses to conform to what it’s supposed to be. I wrote my initial review after binging more than a handful of episodes on my tiny laptop screen. The experience was less than ideal, but it’s how advance reviews often work. In this format, the show sort of worked for me. I thought it had promise because I thought it had fascinating things to say about the epidemic of depression, anger, and trauma burning its way across modern America. Still, I wasn’t initially dazzled. I made a note that the show eschews the kind of thrilling escapism that defines the superhero genre in favor of difficult self-reflection.

What I did not also note was that Marvel’s The Punisher is the most anti-Netflix show on Netflix. The streaming service helped usher in a new style of television viewing that revolved around the binge. You fly through multiple episodes, if not whole seasons of television, in the space of a few days. It’s an intoxicating way to fall into the rhythm of a story, but it doesn’t work for Marvel’s The Punisher. Between its tough topics and gleeful experiments with form, this is a show made to be savored one episode at a time. That is how you can best meditate upon its themes, appreciate the delicacy of the actors’ performances, and take in all the great tiny details. Burning through episodes under the duress of a time crunch is not the way to watch Marvel’s The Punisher. Perhaps Marvel’s The Defenders can be guzzled quickly with total abandon, but Marvel’s The Punisher needs to be dealt with slowly.

What really drove this notion home for me — that Marvel’s The Punisher was doing something quite extraordinary — was Episode 10, “Virtue of the Vicious.” Episode 10 is usually where Netflix/Marvel series tend to sag. Not so with The Punisher. “Virtue of the Vicious” is a gobsmacking delight. The show plays with narrative structure to tell the the story of a terrorist attack in a luxury hotel from multiple perspectives along divergent timelines. The attack isn’t just a heart-pounding bit of action, but a stage for all the major characters to collide in emotionally riveting ways. While most Marvel/Netflix shows are presented as one big long story told in chapters, this single episode proved that Marvel’s The Punisher was using individual episodes to address different themes. Again, this is something you only pick up on if you slow down the pace of viewing. Once you do, each episode feels like a mini feature.

What really sold me on Marvel’s The Punisher? By the end of the series, I found myself invested in each major character as though they were friends, but not in a happy, hugging way. These felt like people whose tragedies I understood intimately. How does that happen? Only when your television show tells a damn good story.

Marvel’s The Punisher is great because it isn’t a “good” Marvel show. It’s a bold bit of television storytelling. 

Stream Marvel's The Punisher on Netflix