The Punisher Season 1, when you can't beat them...

The Punisher is a bit of a tricky situation, given that my original intentions with watching all the Netflix marvel shows, specifically the ones surrounding Defenders was to bridge the gap I had up until Daredevil: Born Again, which in it's own rights is a rebooted Daredevil Season 4(that is something I can say with confidence now that it is over.)

All I really needed to do was watch the three seasons of Daredevil and the defenders and all the prerequisites to the Defenders, Now, that is what I thought initially, but I have since been disabused of that notion since Daredevil: Born again episode 4 brought in the punisher and episode 9 implied some form of romantic connection between the Punisher and Karen...

So Now at least I will have to watch all the seasons of the Punisher and given that all these shows are interconnected means I also have to watch the second seasons of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.

And after Punisher season 2 the only thing remaining is Jessica Jones season 3, so might as well watch it for the sake of completion.

Now granted I am not only watching the other shows as an obligation, far from it, these shows are actually quite amazing, and I am enjoying this marathon of sorts, the point I am trying to make is, they are all pretty much required viewing if you wish to understand Daredevil Born again and god forbid going forwards a potential Defenders season 2.

And now I am actually beginning to understand why certain people complain that watching Marvel feels like doing homework, while, granted, I am still enjoying these shows... I can only imagine someone who just came to watch one of these characters/shows, what would they feel?

But regardless, enough of that, what is this show all about?

Other than the Punisher Punishing of course.

One of the many surprising things about the first few episodes for me was that, they were actually quite mellow, yes, Frank Castle still indulges in the occasional "punishing" but mostly, he has moved on and has settled down as Pete Castiglione, a construction worker who is routinely bullied by his coworkers for being "the weirdo with the big hammer".

He even goes to a form of therapy for his past in the form of meeting his old friend who has lost a leg called Curtis.

Curtis runs group therapy sessions for war veterans and survivors, now Frank himself doesn't join the group until the end of the final episode, but he does meet Curtis in his own personal regard for "therapy".

This therapy group then goes on to play a huge role in exposing Frank with how his ideology has potentially been encouraging some very dangerous behavior.

But more on that later.

Someone who also meets Curtis like Frank is Billy Russo, Franks old teammate and his best friend during his operation Cerberus days.

Billy unlike Frank has seemingly moved on from his wartime days and has opened his own private military contractor company called Anvil and as such has become a rich business man, we later learn that all of this is because he actually cut a deal with Rawlins, one of the ones in charge of Cerberus and also that Billy had a hand in the death of Frank's family.

On the Exact opposite side of the spectrum and hence alongside Frank, is a man called David Lieberman, or as he is first introduced: Micro, Micro, like Frank, is a man wronged by the government and the systems that run the country...

He was a Former NSA Analyst who was wrongfully framed as having a weapon and murdered as a cover up effort to stop him from whistleblowing on certain clandestine activities done by Frank Caste and Project Cerberus.

As such he as Micro, really is the perfect friend to Pete Castiglione the Punisher, or as he puts it...

The entire Season is dedicated to one thing, Frank going after all the people who were responsible for the death of his family, with the help of Micro, who is in it so he can see his family again, for real, because he has cameras installed everywhere to keep an eye on them.

Speaking of which, lets talk about the Lieberman family, their role in this story apart from being Micro's motivation is to play a surrogate for Frank's family.

Frank meets them by Sarah(Micro's wife) smashing her car into him, although initially he wanted to meet her to gain intel on David(Micro) after learning his true Identity through Karen's detective work.

Sarah plays the role of Frank's Surrogate wife, him a Family man without a family, her a single mother looking after a Family without her husband, it's a match made in heaven really.

The boy child, i.e. Zach Lieberman is like a mini Frank Castle, with his violent tendencies hiding a bullied child behind them.

And Leo is obviously the smart and caring Daughter.

With them being a surrogate for Frank's family, it is not long before Sarah and Frank hit it off, making things more complicated as the "dead" husband of the family is actually alive and Frank/Pete is working with him to find a way for him to come out of his fake death.

To add further complication too all of the above, the Cerberus operation involved torturing and killing one Ahmed Zubair, someone who had been sworn to safety by special Agent Dinah Madani.

Madani is the one ingredient in this complicated Salad that makes it all interesting.

I mean that's not to say the Punisher going after and killing a bunch of people wasn't interesting enough, but the presence of Madani and the way she connects to all the other people in this story is what really takes it up there.

Madani is investigating the death of Zubair out of a form of guilt, but is stopped by her superior, who just so happened to have had a hand in the death of Frank Castle's family, so obviously Frank Kills him.

Now, the superior stopping Madani from investigating is gone and Madani has a dead superior killed by the person that her investigation inevitably leads to, you would think that will lead her to being the main antagonist of the show.

But how can she do that? She got to talking with Frank Castle's best friend due to the investigation she is doing that will lead to Frank Castle, and while she got to talking with him she ended up screwing him, because he asked nicely.

Well, you would think that complicates things since Bill seems awfully dead set on defending his "dead" friend...

But you are smart, you have already read the part where Bill is the villain of the story.

So for all intents and purposes, Madani seems to be set up to be a secondary antagonist in this story.

I mean it certainly appears that way when she interrogates Karen Page and asks her about her relationship with Frank Castle.

But you see the reason her investigation will eventually lead to Frank Castle is because Frank was a part of an illegal operation lead by Rawlins and he killed Zubair as a part of it, these same people are after Frank because he defected and he is after them because they killed his Family.

So if you got all that, Madani and Frank are actually on the same side.

Cemented when she looses her partner to the Hands of Bill... not knowing the full story though, she goes to him for comfort, an him being the Heartless bastard that he is, actually comforts her.

But obviously, eventually the Truth comes to light and Bill being the heartless bastard that he is brings a young couple into the crossfire to slow down the Punisher.

Madani also tries to stop him after she saved the Punishers life but gets shot, and the Punisher Punishes the shit out of Bill...

So what do I think about the Punisher?

It is exactly what one would have wanted from a show called the Punisher, and a much needed boost that Netflix Marvel needed after whatever The Defenders and Iron Fist season 1 was.