The Punisher Season 2: Another Brilliant Showing From Bernthal...
The second season of the American web television series The Punisher, which is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, revolves around Frank Castle saving a girl from being murdered, forcing him to decide if he should embrace his life as the Punisher.
The second season of the Punisher suffers the problems of most Marvel Netflix shows; A strong start, and a very slow mid season, and a strong finish. What is however different with this show is that it failed to build on the strong showing of the first season. Its first episodes represented the persona of Frank Castle, but subsequent episodes struggled to find an identity.
Speaking of the storyline, it was surprisingly very poor. The attempt to weave two villains into the narrative failed woefully for the first time, and made the show unnecessarily messy. It created a situation where the show runners struggled to determine on whom the focus of the season should lie, and ended up making the wrong choice. We will address that issue in a bit.
The plot theme element was affected by the poor storyline and it's somewhat slow storytelling technique which at some point in the show created quite an emotional quagmire but which in the long run only succeeded in bugging the show down with unnecessary details and sub plots.
The conflict would have been as brilliant as that of the first season if only the proper attention was paid to the right characters. The conflict with the Russians would have been a more incredible narrative and it was quite appalling that that conflict suffered from neglect and a lack of proper development. It felt as though the script writer sought to make relevant the one character who ought not to have been given much screen time, Krista Dumont, all in a bid to make Billy Russo stick around for a second bite at the cherry.
Now lets talk about everything bad about the show;
The attention paid to developing Krista was wrong, and totally misconceived. It didn't help the series grow, it only helped present another conflict angle or a second take on the general narrative. It lacked believability even though the show runners tried as hard as possible to make it relatable by including so many psychological and emotional aspects to the character dynamics between Krista and Billy.
Billy himself was a shell of his former self, and the attention that the show runners sought to pay to him backfired incredibly. Perhaps the attention to character development would have been better served if it was directed at John Pilgrim, whose angle presented a far more intriguing and compelling narrative than we ever got with Russo and Krista. Perhaps the series would have been better served if the the attention to details were reversed or switched.
Speaking of the storyline, it was surprisingly very poor. The attempt to weave two villains into the narrative failed woefully for the first time, and made the show unnecessarily messy. It created a situation where the show runners struggled to determine on whom the focus of the season should lie, and ended up making the wrong choice. We will address that issue in a bit.
The plot theme element was affected by the poor storyline and it's somewhat slow storytelling technique which at some point in the show created quite an emotional quagmire but which in the long run only succeeded in bugging the show down with unnecessary details and sub plots.
The conflict would have been as brilliant as that of the first season if only the proper attention was paid to the right characters. The conflict with the Russians would have been a more incredible narrative and it was quite appalling that that conflict suffered from neglect and a lack of proper development. It felt as though the script writer sought to make relevant the one character who ought not to have been given much screen time, Krista Dumont, all in a bid to make Billy Russo stick around for a second bite at the cherry.
Now lets talk about everything bad about the show;
The attention paid to developing Krista was wrong, and totally misconceived. It didn't help the series grow, it only helped present another conflict angle or a second take on the general narrative. It lacked believability even though the show runners tried as hard as possible to make it relatable by including so many psychological and emotional aspects to the character dynamics between Krista and Billy.
Billy himself was a shell of his former self, and the attention that the show runners sought to pay to him backfired incredibly. Perhaps the attention to character development would have been better served if it was directed at John Pilgrim, whose angle presented a far more intriguing and compelling narrative than we ever got with Russo and Krista. Perhaps the series would have been better served if the the attention to details were reversed or switched.
Brett Mahoney is another aspect of the show that was quite annoying. The way he kept being given screen time to be useless to himself and the NYPD was very embarrassing and we are not impressed. His nuisance on screen bellies his nuances as an actor.
Okay everything good about this show is Jon Bernthal ( Frank Castle). His portrayal of character is just Genius, his combat scenes are just oh so natural. His primal instincts on screen appeared quite original and made the audience always look forward to Frank Castle fight scenes.
Well the fights scenes are quite amazing, brilliant and immersive.
Asides that, every other thing is pretty much average. This script is bizarrely written and relied only on superior acting of the cast to carry it through. Speaking of superior acting, Jon Bernthal is a BEAST of actor, Amber Rose Revah, Ben Barnes and Josh Stewart are amazing actors and were really brilliant on screen.
Well the fights scenes are quite amazing, brilliant and immersive.
Asides that, every other thing is pretty much average. This script is bizarrely written and relied only on superior acting of the cast to carry it through. Speaking of superior acting, Jon Bernthal is a BEAST of actor, Amber Rose Revah, Ben Barnes and Josh Stewart are amazing actors and were really brilliant on screen.
In all its a good series, but not one that matched up to the incredible successes of the first season. Whereas we are inclined to agree that the second season is a good piece of watch, we must still put it out there that season 2 pales in comparison to season 1 and we feel that is a bit of a let down. Essentially we conclude that the failings of the series lay not in its lack of content, but in its wrong placement of attention to details, and development of the wrong idea or theme. Disappointing. In our view, the demise of Billy Russo effectively ends the Punisher franchise due to the refusal of the show runners to develop the character of John Pilgrim.
On a final note, it's about time for script writers to note that over emphasising on the emotional aspect of a script does not necessarily make it any more better than it should be, and in most cases than not, it ends up being worse off than usual. This is one such cases.
Regardless of the forgoing, this is still a solid watch and we definitely recommend this to all our readers and avid followers of the Marvel-Netflix collaborations. It's only not excellent when contrasted with its more illustrious first season. Please do yourself the good and see this, if for nothing, at least for Castle!
Starring:
Jon Bernthal
Ben Barnes
Amber Rose Revah
Jason R. Moore
Josh Stewart
Floriana Lima
Giorgia Whigham
Created by Steve Lightfoot
Based on Punisher by Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr., Ross Andru
Based on Punisher by Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr., Ross Andru
Producer(s) Gail Barringer
Production location(s) New York City
Cinematography: Bill Coleman, Manuel, Billeter, Petr Hlinomaz
Editor(s): William Yeh, Russell Denove, Tirsa Hackshaw
Production location(s) New York City
Cinematography: Bill Coleman, Manuel, Billeter, Petr Hlinomaz
Editor(s): William Yeh, Russell Denove, Tirsa Hackshaw
FCA's AppR: 7/10
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