The Punisher - Season 2

A weaker story, but much more action-packed. As if he wanted to save some ideas for later, Frank returns to season 1 and starts digging around in old motifs instead of developing new ones. That’s a tremendous shame. And it seemed as if Billy Russo shut down the fairly intriguingly developing storyline with religious fanatics. Once again, Bernthal carries the entire season on his shoulders and, without him, there would probably be no point in watching. His Punisher is the spitting image of the comic-book character. It’s true that his civilian identity is a little more human, almost at the level of Dad of the Year, but that is for the good. Some scenes and twists are like something out of NCIS, but that’s counterbalanced by the quality blood-spattered action with emphasis on destruction; see the fantastic episode 10. The ending disappointed me, mainly because of the last scene, but at least that means Frank is signing off with a bang. (01.03.2019)

More psychology, faith, family and interaction between the main characters, all this at the expense of the brutal action and breakneck pace of the first season. Of course there's action here too, very decent in places, but the steroid-pumped rage and revenge for the deaths of the family has dropped by about 50 percent. Good casting in Frank as a teenager, an excellent take on the main antagonist, a mysterious priest, and a decently built complex underbelly of the "party of villains". However, the pacing loses momentum in the middle due to the more complex plot entanglements of multiple characters on stage. Frank doesn't steal everything for himself this time, but plays his part almost evenly with several other characters, though it's still true that his is by far the most interesting and absolutely pivotal. It doesn’t matter, it’s still bloody good stuff, but that intensive vengeance feeling of the first season is gone. (13.02.2019)

Frank once again did what he could, but far more shabbily than I would have liked. In addition to the typical silence on the trail during the filler parts, the random solutions to problems or, on the contrary, their creation are too much this time, and the stupid behaviour of some of the characters (Madani?!) doesn’t help at all. In the shadow of the third series of Daredevil, the lack of a steady creative hand really hurts, because even in terms of craftsmanship, it loses at least one, maybe two notches. Don't get me wrong, Bernthal continues to be a badass and works well with his girl sidekick, but he only fully capitalises on his qualities in the brilliant opening sequence essential to the entire Punisher. But there are 13 episodes... (30.01.2019)

The Punisher returns in full force and goes over the corpses again, though he is so torn up at the end that he is not far from dead himself. Jon Bernthal is so natural in this role that I can't imagine anyone else playing the Punisher today. I was a little annoyed that Russo was back on the scene, I wouldn't have minded at all if the priest played by Josh Stewart had more space, he does great things after The Collection and is more than solid as the bad guy. Dinah Madani as always is amazing and I can't get enough of her, Mahoney is annoying but fair, and the new character Giorgia Whigham was quite annoying at the start but I grew to like her in the end. A couple of episodes were slower, but in the end I was satisfied again and the final three episodes were really packed. 90%. (07.02.2019)