The Punisher Review: Holding Pattern (Season 1 Episodes 5-8)

It’s a bit hard to imagine how a show that features a massive, guns-blazing shootout at least once every other episode could be dull.

Yet, that’s exactly what happens in Marvel’s The Punisher, which pads its middle four episodes with enough extraneous plot, unnecessary characters and confusing tangents to exhaust even the most dedicated viewer.

Surely this show must have a point, but at the moment it feels lost under way too much other stuff.

The conspiracy plot thickens, as we learn the same nebulous group of government officials are after both Frank Castle and his new friend David Lieberman (a.k.a Micro). Much of the series’ middle segment is devoted to figuring out the identity of the mysterious Agent Orange, who’s busy trying to cover up the murder video shot inside Frank’s old regiment.

Viewers, however, find out well in advance of Frank that Agent Orange is really a CIA employee named William Rawlins.  A cookie cutter government type who spouts bland platitudes about patriotism while also turning out to be a secret war criminal isn’t exactly a new trope. The Punisher doesn’t exactly do anything new with it, either.

The series’ constant focus on the conspiracy theory that ruined Frank’s life is often derailed by the show’s stubborn refusal to answer or explain anything just yet. There’s a sense that much of The Punisher is in some kind of holding pattern, waiting for the series’ final episodes to arrive before really telling the audience anything.

Unfortunately this means that a significant portion of these episodes contains inconsequential filler.

Agent Rawlins is one of those inconsequential pieces, since he’s not even the true villain of our piece. He’s just a bad guy involved with bad things. The Punisher doesn’t bother to give him much motivation or perspective, so in the end he’s just another person for Frank to get revenge on.

Sometimes, however, the filler turns out okay. After all, we often get some great character scenes as a result. Frank is at his most interesting, not when he’s murdering someone, but in his quieter, more thoughtful conversations with others.

His debate with Karen about whether there’s a life for him that doesn’t involve being a single-minded revenge machine is an interesting attempt to frame the series as something more than a revenge fantasy.

Frank’s conversations with Micro’s wife Sarah about the guilt involved in moving on after loss, as well as his attempt to be a pseudo-father to her son who can’t stop being angry, are genuinely touching.

Yet, every time someone is shot, has their neck snapped or is violently stabbed, we’re reminded that none of that is a story The Punisher is a particularly interested in telling.

Additionally, the middle segment of The Punisher reveals the series’ biggest flaw, which is, for the record, not the show’s relentless violence. It’s its villain.

The Marvel Netflix universe includes some of the best bad guys in all of the MCU. From Wilson Fisk in Daredevil to Kilgrave in Jessica Jones and Cottonmouth in Luke Cage, the Netflix dramas make a point to feature complex, complicated bad guys.

The Punisher tries to do the same with surprise villain Billy Russo, leaning hard on his evolution from trusted ally to selfish psychopath. Only, it doesn’t entirely work.

Why? Well, despite the series’ best efforts to pretend that Billy isn’t going to become our main villain, his ultimate identity is painfully obvious. This would be fine, if it still gave him a solid reason for being evil.

It doesn’t. Instead, Billy has a hodge-podge of bad things in his background: Parental abandonment, a rough time in the foster system, eight years in Afghanistan, and more. These are all supposed to mix together and somehow form a guy who’s so angry he’s willing to keep his own mother a paralyzed prisoner and so ambitious he’s willing to murder his best friend to protect his business.

Maybe just get some therapy, dude?

Some of the basic building blocks of Billy’s personality don’t feel that far off from Wilson Fisk. The difference is, however, that Daredevil’s villain served an important role as a mirror to its hero. Fisk is a monster, but a monster with a purpose and some shred of humanity.

Russo and Frank’s friendship feels genuine, yet we never see anything that implies Billy feels all that badly about his involvement in the death of his family, or particularly conflicted over his willingness to kill his BFF.

Billy also spends quite a lot of time romancing – or at least sleeping with – Agent Madani. The addition of a potential love interest is also something The Punisher seems to have borrowed from Wilson Fisk and Daredevil.

However, it’s difficult to imagine anyone rooting for Billy and Dinah the way that most found themselves invested in Fisk and Vanessa. For all that they’re apparently together, the two don’t seem to like each other much, and this relationship doesn’t really offer us much additional insight into Billy’s psyche.

Perhaps the revelation that he’s virtually holding his own mother hostage is meant to show us that Billy truly loves nothing. That at least makes a certain kind of sense, if it lacks in overall nuance. We’re frequently left having to fill in our own motivations and explanations along with way when it comes to this character.

Obviously, we’re building toward an end-game face off when Frank discovers that his (former?) BFF is in some way responsible for the deaths of his family. Punishing will have to be done.  Here’s hoping we can get to the ending we all know is coming a bit faster in the series’ back third.

Stray thoughts:

• This show is better when Karen Page is in it. In all honesty, she’s probably providing more value here than in Daredevil.
• Similarly, Karen Page should 100% be in this show more often.
• While the subplot which features one of Curtiss’ veterans support group members (Lewis) murdering another (Donald) in a rage is rather deftly handled, all things considered, it just feels like a drag on the rest of the story.
• Frank and Sarah’s scenes often feel like they don’t even belong in this show. It’s as though they’re in a Hallmark movie, where two widowed parents get together in the end. (The scene where he tries rose is straight out of a rom-com.) I don’t know if that’s intentional, but it’s interesting.

What did you think of this episode of The Punisher? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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The Punisher is now streaming on Netflix.

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