Critic Reviews

What makes this season of “The Punisher” work so well is that it feels less like a Season 2 and more like a Season 5, a standalone story in the established adventures of Frank Castle.

In all, The Punisher is not just satisfying but surprising--an interpretation of Netflix and Marvel’s tried-and-true partnership that offers more depth and challenges to the audience than even the gritty world of “Marvel’s Jessica Jones.”

Despite its name and Bernthal’s intense performance, The Punisher is about more than just its ruthless antihero, and proves much more incisive than it may initially seem to be. ... Even when its stylized viciousness is undercut by real-world tragedy, The Punisher, like Marvel’s very best Netflix series, gives its title character a bloody good introduction.

For a show which seemed, given the timing of its launch, to be so controversial, its most controversial element is its lack of controversy. Frank Castle does some bad things, but nothing as bad as what happens in America on a regular basis. As a narrative about veterans trying to find their place in the world, The Punisher has something to say. But it could have been so much shorter, and its placement in the Marvel universe feels tangential at best.

It’s meditative but not self-flagellating; brutal but not a slog. It remains to be seen how it will stack up to the Defenders and their individual outings, but at the very least The Punisher could nab the title of first stand-alone property in all of the MCU, TV or film.

Even though there's a new villain this season, he's hardly worth mentioning; for all the similarities between the angry men, The Punisher is still defined by the central relationship between Frank and Billy Russo, and that is probably the way it should be.

Deeply melancholic, The Punisher is more of a procedural than fans might expect, though one colored by sporadic bursts of the kind of over-the-top violence not likely to spill onto an episode of Law & Order. That being said, it does feel like a tone befitting someone as inherently bleak as Frank Castle.

As usual, the production is immaculate, and Bernthal--who never disappoints--is his usual self. You may, however, wish (I did) that his Punisher wasn’t such a humorless, unmitigated jerk.

It’s a testament to the ambition of The Punisher that the show’s creator, Steve Lightfoot, does not shy away from the isolationism and inner torment that veterans live with on a daily basis. ... When the series moves away from this stuff, however, the show ranges from fascinating to bland to ridiculous.

The tropes of post-traumatic stress and recovery mesh with the topical elements of Mr. Lightfoot’s story, which are presented with more polish than nuance. ... The action picks up as the season progresses, but The Punisher never quite gets in touch with the visceral roots of its material.