Review: The Punisher (Netflix, 2017)
They have tried to bring the Punisher to the big screen three times and failed. The first time was with Dolph Lundgren, then Thomas Jane took over the role and finally Ray Stevenson gave it a go, but none of those incarnations succeeded.
When Netflix brought Daredevil (another character that didn’t quite succeed at the box office, but did better than the Punisher.) We finally got a character we could relate too. Jon Bernthal’s version of the character brings justice to the role. This is probably the most violent TV series based on a Marvel character that we’ve seen. After the mediocre Ironfist and the uneven Defenders series, this is a welcome return to form. I thoroughly enjoyed what the writers are doing on this show. It is clearly the comic book character and the origin respects the source material, but yet it has it’s own unique feel that hasn’t been done before. I love this show.
In the first episode our hero is clearly shell shocked and trying to deal with the loss of his family, indeed, his whole world. Castle is working at a construction site under the pseudonym of Pete Castiglione. He’s trying to sort out everything and make sense of what his life has become. He doesn’t interact with his fellow employees and takes his lunch break alone. He just wants to do his job and go home, this doesn’t sit well with several of the construction workers and tension rises. Several of the construction workers rob a loan shark related to the Gnucci crime family because one of the workers is in debt to said loan shark and needs the money. The robbery goes wrong and Castle finds himself embroiled in the crime. It is a violent show and not for the squeamish, but it’s definitely worth the 8 bucks or so that it takes to get Netflix. As soon as I’m finished this review I’m going to watch the next episode! I’m not going to review each episode suffice to say I’m confident enough in Netflix to bring us yet another great season of a Marvel based character. **** (8.8 rating)
Creator – Steve Lightfoot (from characters created by Gerry Conway John Romita, Sr. and Ross Andru)
Composer – Tyler Bates
Production company – Marvel Television, ABC Studios, Bohemian Risk
Distributor – Netflix
Cast:
Frank Castle/the Punisher – Jon Bernthal
Ebon Moss-Bachrach – David Lieberman / Micro
Ben Barnes – Billy Russo
Amber Rose Revah – Dinah Madani
Daniel Webber – Lewis Wilson
Paul Schulze – William Rawlins
About the Author
Kevin Given Kevin Given has studied with "Longridge Writers Group" and "Writer's Boot Camp" a speech/communications major from the University of Maine Presque-Isle/Orono sites. He has created the "Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter" franchise which includes 2 novels and 8 comic books. They can be found on amazon, Indyplanet and Kindle. For a limited time you can get digital copies of "Karl Vincent: Vampire hunter" #1 and "Files of Karl Vincent" #1 for free on Indyplanet. Kevin is producing the third novel in the series "Dracula Rising" (working title) and developing "Foul Blood" into comic book form.
