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Marvel’s The Punisher Season 2, Episode 2: “Fight or Flight” Review
Warning: Full spoilers for The Punisher Season 2, Episode 2 below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our review of the Season 2 premiere.
I’ll say this much for The Punisher Season 2 so far – it seems more willing to build and maintain story momentum than its predecessor. Whereas Season 1 seemed willing to go multiple episodes without a real action scene, Frank has already racked up a respectable body count in the span of two episodes. The problem we’re seeing right now, however, is that the show isn’t doing a great job of making his new foes feel like anything more than disposable cannon fodder.
Marvel’s The Punisher Season 2, Episode 6: “Nakazak” Review
Warning: Full spoilers for The Punisher Season 2, Episode 6 below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our review for Season 2, Episode 5.
Perhaps the biggest question surrounding The Punisher: Season 2 is whether we’ll see Frank Castle evolve into a character more in line with the one from the comics. In those stories, Frank is an inhuman force of nature. He punishes indiscriminately. If you’re a criminal, he kills you. If you’re a criminal who helps him, he kills you anyway. By comparison, Jon Bernthal’s Frank is much more restrained. He tends to limit his wrath to those who have specifically wronged him. But with this episode, there’s a definite sense that the real Punisher is fighting his way to the surface.
Marvel’s The Punisher Season 2, Episode 7: “One Bad Day” Review
Warning: Full spoilers for The Punisher Season 2, Episode 7 below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our review of Season 2, Episode 6.
Well, it only took them seven episodes this season to actually get Frank Castle in the Punisher costume again. I guess that’s progress. The season seems to be gaining momentum in general as it rounds the halfway mark, with Frank now firmly in the hunt for his nemesis and Billy working his way up the ranks from escaped felon to criminal mastermind.
This episode is another that plays into what is easily the new season’s strongest element – the dubious morality of Frank Castle. For the most part, every single person he’s attacked over the course of the season has deserved a little Punishing, whether it was the pedophile ringleader from Episode 6 or John Pilgrim’s hired goons. But seeing Frank resorting to “enhanced interrogation” to pry Billy’s location out of Jake shows our “hero” crossing a fundamental line. We don’t even need the distraught Agent Madani there to know Frank has become the bad guy. He’s losing himself to his mission, bringing suffering to a poor war vet who just happened to get swept up in the wrong scheme with the wrong guy. In that sequence we see Frank through a very different and not at all flattering lens. And for Curtis to stand their stoically backing up Frank speaks to how desperate he’s become.
Marvel’s The Punisher Season 2, Episode 4: “Scar Tissue” Review
Warning: Full spoilers for The Punisher Season 2, Episode 4 below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our review of Season 2, Episode 3.
The fourth episode of The Punisher Season 2 bumps up Billy Russo from supporting player to main event. Even as Frank and Agent Madani begin the long, difficult search for their shared nemesis, this episode explores Billy’s fractured state of mind and a few key tidbits of his tragic past. This episode is a great reminder that, for whatever else these Netflix Marvel shows may struggle with, they really know how to make the most of their villains.
Marvel’s The Punisher Season 2, Episode 3: “Trouble the Water” Review
Warning: Full spoilers for The Punisher Season 2, Episode 3 below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our review for Season 2, Episode 2.
Whether intentionally or not, The Punisher Season 2 seems to be going all-in on the action movie homages. Episode 2 took several cues from No Country for Old Men as it depicted Frank battling a wave of trained killers inside a seedy motel. Now Episode 3 ventures into Assault on Precinct 13 territory as Frank rallies a ragtag group of cops against an overwhelming enemy. Hey, whatever helps this season keep the action flowing hot and heavy.
Marvel’s The Punisher Season 2 Finale: “The Whirlwind” Review
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode The Punisher Season 2 Episode 13 below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our review of Season 2, Episode 12.
That’s a wrap on The Punisher Season 2. And most likely the series as a whole, for that matter. This episode wraps up everything about as well as can be expected given the rocky road the season has taken of late. Most importantly, it brings the story of Frank Castle to a satisfying conclusion.
Easily the most surprising thing about the finale is the decision to shift the plot very much back towards John Pilgrim and the Schultzes. That was always going to yield messy results. The Schultzes in particular have never been given the attention they needed this season. Even here at the end, they felt more like minor footnotes in the Season 2 narrative rather than the ultimate targets in a hard-fought war. That really worked against the final encounter between Frank and the Schultzes. Whatever sense of satisfaction in seeing two profoundly evil people given vigilante justice was fleeting, at best.
Marvel’s The Punisher Season 2, Episode 5: “One Eyed Jack” Review
Warning: Full spoilers for The Punisher Season 2, Episode 5 below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our review of Season 2, Episode 4.
Frank Castle may be back in New York now, but it’s not looking as though we can expect a Punisher/Jigsaw showdown anytime soon. Just as Frank whiled away many hours with Micro in their abandoned power plant hideout in Season 1, Frank and his new partner Amy seem content to coast on Agent Madani’s increasingly strained hospitality for as long as possible this season. The series is in danger of stalling at this point, though there’s just enough progression in the latter half of this episode to keep the momentum going.
Netflix’s IO Review: Mackie’s Post-Apocalyptic Drama
Netflix’s IO is an interesting take on post-apocalyptic survival films. Instead of dwelling on a given threat or offering broad strokes that are reflective of societal ills, it presents a more intimate story, one centered on the importance of human relationships. It isn’t always successful. The subdued pace and muted thematic elements that allowed for such nuance also reduced the film’s impact. IO never becomes boring (although there are patches that run the risk of dullness), but it’s also not as noteworthy as it could have been either.
Directed by Jonathan Helpert, IO details the exploits of scientist Sam Walden (Margaret Qualley) after a cataclysmic event sends most of Earth’s inhabitants into space. This mass exodus happens in waves, with some people leaving sooner than others. Sam opts out completely; she’s determined to find a way to save the dying planet. Time isn’t on her side though. With the final shuttle’s departure rapidly approaching, she only has a few days to make a meaningful scientific discovery or face the possibility of being left behind.
Marvel’s The Punisher Season 2, Episode 11: “The Abyss” Review
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below. If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our review of Season 2, Episode 10.
Well, that went pretty much exactly as expected. Following last week’s unsatisfying twist, with Frank Castle losing his nerve after apparently killing innocent civilians, the series proceeds to quickly walk back and reveal how it was all just a big misunderstanding. Good thing a familiar face from Frank’s past showed up just in time to salvage a disappointing story turn.
As expected, resolving rank’s crisis of conscience turned out to be as simple as doing a bit of forensic work and realizing that those women were already dead by the time Frank shot up Billy’s warehouse. It was painfully obvious from the start that this was going to be the end result. And so once again, while I realize there was both a need to find some way of striking Frank on a psychological level and a lack of available options, this particular detour just doesn’t seem to have worked out.