The Punisher The Punisher: FULL SEASON TWO Discussion Thread (BEWARE, SPOILERS GALORE!)

Would have been a much better season if they didn't have that romance with Jigsaw and his therapist. That was awful, it dragged on for far too long, and it was done better with Bullseye in Daredevil season 3.

They should have lost that story and focused more on the Pilgrim villain.

 

It was too big a part of the season, and certainly not something that contributed to the show enough for the time it took up.

 

I would have saved Jigsaw for the hypothetical season 3. His whole guerrilla militia team could have been the arc for that season, and we would have earned the therapist love story more.

 

It doesn't feel like we got either the best of Jigsaw or Pilgrim the way it was done. I did like the actor they got for Pilgrim, but he didn't get enough consistent focus. And yes, I would have liked to see more of Jigsaw's team dominating.

 

Bernthal was great. He humanizes Frank enough to make him feel like a real person who you can connect with to a certain extent. I know some people want the near emotionless grizzled Punisher from the Max run but I'm doubtful a audience could connect with that version of the character as a central protagonist. Felt a bit like Mike Baron's Punisher who wasn't a cold murderous psychopath 24/7

 

He’s excellent. Despite any complaints I have over the season, I still really enjoyed it because seeing this guy as Frank is just so good. Getting the heroes right is and always will be the most important thing, and also why on the films front the MCU is doing so well even with some middling individual entries. The heroes persist while a bad villain or story point doesn’t need to come back.

 

Still loved the show and I hope they keep Bernthal in the role pls.

My rankings:
1. Daredevil Season Three
2. Daredevil Season One
3. Jessica Jones Season One
4. Daredevil Season Two
5. The Punisher Season One
6. Luke Cage Season Two
7. Luke Cage Season One
8. The Punisher Season Two
9. The Defenders
10. Iron Fist Season Two
11. Iron Fist Season One
12. Jessica Jones Season Two

 

For those interested this is my podcast's Punisher Season 2 Spoiler Review Discussion.

Podcast Episodes — TO BE CONTINUED... (A Fanboy Podcast)

 

Definitely a steep decline from season 1. Really poor choices made here across the board.

1. Russo's face is laughably normal looking. He's still the most attractive male on the show which makes the entire plot silly. I would have been totally fine with this if they had made it a continued thread of his face becoming more and more damaged through the series, but no. He ded.
(SUPER MISSED OPPORTUNITY HERE. There was a boiling tea kettle in the other room when Madani shot him up! would have been perfect!)

2. The Russo and Pilgrim stories were so horrifically disjointed and only served to distract from each other. I mean, Daredevil S2 was guilty of this with Punisher/The Hand, but this was several times worse.

3. Completely dropped story line of Beth. Did she even survive?


These were the primary sins imo, but the season was chalk full of just conveniences, boring moments and complete WTF moments. Madani vs the psychiatrist seemed so forced and i found myself chuckling at their battle cries. I still don't think i understand what happened to the psychiatrist's father.



1. Daredevil S2 (9.5/10)
2. Daredevil S1 (9.5/10)
3. Daredevil S3 (9.5/10)
4. The Punisher S1 (9/10)
5. Jessica Jones S1 (9/10)
6. The Defenders (8.5/10)
7. Luke Cage S2 (8.0/10)
8. Luke Cage S1 (8.0/10)
9. Punisher S2 (7.5/10)
10. Iron Fist S2 (7.5/10)
11. Jessica Jones S2 (7.0/10)
12. Iron Fist S1 (6.5/10)

 

Punisher wasn't stupid. He's a tactician. He wouldn't go into a gun fight vs 8 armed veterans with a handgun and 1 clip. He definately wouldn't of run out in the middle of the street blowing his cover screaming his targets name. Then proceed to screw up royally.

If this wasn't bad enough he repeated his mistake when he goes after the Pilgrim in the hotel. That fight was ridiculously stupid.

Finally if he went to the brilliant set up of two gangs consisting of 16 bad guys, he wouldn't walk out into the open dual wielding M-16, blowing his cover by screaming and then unloading from the hip. Stupid. Frank is a Marine, he knows how to shoot.

He was the Punisher not the forgiver. He let go of 2 top mob bosses, 1 child porn producer and a mass murder (Pilgrim). Wth?

To top it off we are left with more of an Origin story when Season one pretty much accomplishes it. Season 2 just dragged on with a senseless story line. A neo nazi, alt right, Christian (talk about a contradiction) working for conservative Christian's that run a hit squad (another contradiction) who is protecting their homosexual son (really) who is completely oblivious. But is perfectly okay with being homosexual and doesn't care if folks know (which contradicts the entire story line).

Punisher get arrested again....in the hospital just 2 guards. The guy is worst then Osama Bin Laden and you only have 2 guards watching him?

The Punisher has a high pain tolerance and is a Bad a** but he isn't wolverine. No way he could handle what the show dished out on him and in reality if he were as stupid as the show made him out to be, he'd be dead.

He is able to drop multiple armed target on a single fast draw, but can't hit Pilgrim or Russo. The Punisher isn't what Netflix made him out to be in Season 2. Hoping it gets cancelled, I rather remember Frank the way he truly is.

 

Frank Castle is not a real person, just a reminder, ya'll.

 

If I remember correctly, PTSD from 'Nam, when the wife wanted a divorce he jumped from the window with his daughter, not wanting to let the wife "take" her from him.
The daughter grew up not blaming her father (maybe that's even clinically correct) but developed a serious saviour complex of her own.

 

Having recently re-watched season 1 I've got to say I'm even less impressed by this one.

The jet black catharsis of watching Frank destroy Rawlins and Russo was well earned because there was an entire season dedicated to showing just how despicable the pair were. This is nearly completely absent in season 2. I think with Punisher you need this to "justify" his own extreme tactics.

 

Bernthal is still perfect in the part and there were a lot of great small character moments for the Punisher this season, but overall... Yikes. I'm sorry, but this season just did not work for me at all. I really liked season 1 even in its slow paced and backtracking form, but this season was just a meandering, confused and unfocused mess.

And I gotta add my voice to the choir and say how frustrating it is that it took them two full seasons only to get Frank back to where he was at the end of Daredevil season 2.

Anyway, here's my current ranking:

1. Daredevil 1
2. Daredevil 2
3. Daredevil 3
4. Punisher 1
5. Jessica Jones 1
6. Luke Cage 1
7. Luke Cage 2
8. Iron Fist 2
9. The Defenders
10. Punisher 2
11. Jessica Jones 2
12. Iron Fist 1

 

Kinda surprised people are so down on this Season. I thought it was great outside of the Therapist, I don't think they gave a deep enough reason for her to fall in love with a murderer and eventually help plot a murder, the storyline was kind of hokey, not very interesting, they didn't seem to have great chemistry, nor was she that good of an actor. They could have scrapped that storyline all together and it would have been better. I thought the parents of the Senator were alittle hokey too, but not to the point that it bothered me too much. That and the horrible scene with the CSI girl fangirling over Madani, which was just weird, misplaced and not funny.

I thought Bernthal, Barnes and the Sean Penn lookalike (Pilgrim) all gave great performances. Whigham was pretty good too.

Not the greatest storylines ever but I was into for the whole 13 episodes minus a couple of the Therapists scenes. The thing I like most about these Marvel Netflix shows is how much more realistic, natural feeling that most of the conversations, dialogue, between characters is (Well, at least DD, JJ and Punisher anyway). Alot of movies and TV shows could take note of that.

 

Finally finished it...and my god it's so dull. They had a great start early on (with that Logan style story) but they completely abandon it. Most of this feels like a run of the mill network drama/thriller, but with the occasional cursing. Outside of Jon Bernthal & Giorgia Whigham, everyone is really forgettable. I can't believe it, but I had more fun with both seasons of Iron Fist than this season.

 

Daredevil Season 1 - 10/10
Daredevil Season 3 - 10/10
Daredevil Season 2 - 9/10
Luke Cage Season 2 - 9/10
The Punisher Season 1 - 9/10
Luke Cage Season 1 - 8.5/10
Iron Fist Season 2 - 8.5/10
The Defenders - 8/10
Jessica Jones Season 1 - 7.5/10
Iron Fist Season 1 - 6.5/10
The Punisher Season 2 - 5/10
Jessica Jones Season 2 - 4/10

 

Also...by far the most hilarious WTF moment in all of the netflix shows.

 

Yeah, I was thrown off by that as well, LOL!

 

almost through the season now. finally in the 12th episode.

the psychiatrist is truly a severely damaged woman. I guess there are shades of harley quinn in here, with Russo as "the joker". I wonder how influenced the writers were by this dynamic?

Thus far, Amy's backstory is still relatively murky to me and things didn't start to really make "sense" of just what she was trying to escape until the episode where Senator David is talking with his father. So, it is implied by the photo that David is bi or gay, and photographs were taken with him and a male who were intimate. So, how did Amys friends get these photographs? Were they college aged or still in high school? I"m still not clear on her proper age. Was this "blackmail" something they instigated on their own or did they work for someone? Are her parents/guardians still alive?

It looks like John Pilgrim is the personal hitman for Senator David's father, who is apparently this millionaire (billionaire?) businessman-- and despite being devout Christians they still are involved with severely dirty business behind the scenes. It looks as if Pilgrim was part of some kind of white supremacist-adjacent crime gang in his own past, but left after some vaguely described incident, met his wife, who encouraged him to be a born again Christian and they started a family.

 

This forum is probably dead but who can I ask for a gif of that final shot with Frank minus the Stan Lee tribute? lol need to change my avy.

 

Despite perfect casting in Jon Bernthal, more than anything, I think the writers and showrunners were at odds with the character they were utilizing and didn't know how to use Punisher to his full potential and dealing with a gun-toting vigilante who takes the law into his own hands and ruthlessly kills criminals.

 

Have only watched the first episode and I already really hope that Frank & Beth get a happy ending, although knowing this show im not holding out much hope

 

Perhaps more a matter of what they thought they could get away with represented in today's culture.

 

Lame.