The Punisher: Season 1

(Before we start, I should say, I'm going to be showing clips here that're really, really violent and brutal. So, if you're not 15 yet, don't read this. You've been warned.) All right, so now we're onto the final comic book thing this year and the Netflix show of 2017, the Punisher: Season 1. This year has been sort of amazing for comic book entertainment. Yes, there have been some low points, but, aside from some minor bumps, this year has been fantastic with comic book entertainment. And so with this being the last of it, what did I think of the Punisher: Season 1... eh... it was pretty good, I guess. There were some things in this that I loved a lot, but there were also some kinda problems that I had. And this is gonna have spoilers, so, if you haven't seen it or finished it yet and you want to, go watch it and then read this. Okay, let's go with what I liked first. Firstly, everyone in this cast is amazing. I loved Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher in Daredevil: Season 2, and he's still fantastic here. Maybe even better. He has a lot of scenes where has to be really emotional and threatening, and he does all of it flawlessly. This is easily one of the best casting choices in all of the M.C.U. He's also just really fantastic in every scene he's in. And everyone else is also fantastic. Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Micro, Amber Rose Revah as Dinah, Jason R. Moore as Curtis, Ben Barnes as Billy/Jigsaw. They're all fantastic. I especially really like Ben Barnes and I liked how he played the main villain really well. At the start when we first see him, I thought he was pretty good at the start pretending to be a good guy. But, when it's revealed that he's the main villain, I thought he was pretty intimidating and kinda scary. So yeah, Marvel villains this year have been really great. Now, let's get into the thing that everyone wanted to see when starting this show, the action. Yeah, this action is absolutely fantastic. This is by far the most violent thing I've ever seen in my life. It does not hold back in the slightest. While kids obviously shouldn't watch this, I wouldn't even show some teenagers this. It is absolutely insane. There's blood everywhere and it does not hold back in the slightest, as I just said. When this comes to DVD, I wouldn't be surprised if it got an 18 rating. It shows everything. Getting shot in the face, being pummelled to death, punching a person in the face and smashing their skulls with even more blood coming out, neck snaps and being stabbed over and over. Everything. Watch this scene for example.

There's, of course, a ton of other adult things in this, but still, this show's action is by far the most violent I've ever seen in anything. I would say my favourite action scene is in episode 11 when Frank is killing tons of soldiers in Micro's lab with his skull vest on. Watch.

There's also tons of other realistic things in this like the character's dilemmas and their journeys. For example, they show things like P.T.S.D, realistic looking war scenes. Which is kinda weird considering this is in the same world as the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. I love the thought that when the Avengers are fighting aliens and the Guardians are fight living planets, these characters are very real world and some fight in real wars. Obviously it's not really real, but, from what they're presenting, it feels like it is and that's what it's supposed to be. And, while I didn't love all of it, the character's arcs and their situations and struggles are pretty interesting and I liked a lot of their interactions, like Frank and Micro. At first I thought Micro was going to be a pathetic villain, because, I guess, that's what he was supposed to look like. But, as it kept going, he became one of the most likeable characters in the whole show. I especially really like Curtis. He was just a really likeable person. And I liked Karen showing up too. While there was an aspect to her in this that I didn't like, that I'll talk about in a minute, I did enjoy seeing her here. And all the actual technical aspects of the show, like the cinematography, the directing, the music choices, all that. And it's pretty intense in a lot of these scenes too. And I really love the ending. Where Frank is fight Bill in the merry go-round and then Bill becomes Jigsaw when Frank scrapes and smashes his face on the mirror.

However, with that good stuff outta the way, let's talk about the negatives. Because, for me, this was far from perfect. Firstly, the biggest problem for me is that there is way too much time talking. The start of it is really slow with a really slow pace trying to set up everyone and get them from place to place. And, there is some interesting stuff with it, but, for me at least, it was pretty boring. I really just wanted to get back to Frank doing his Punisher fights. But they take too long trying to shuffle all these characters along and setting them up and all that stuff. And that can be really boring in so many scenes. Also, the villain Rawlings, while kinda cool in some cases, other times, he just seemed way too over the top to me. And he seemed kinda pointless at times. The whole police stuff with Dinah and Stein is also not very interesting and some of their actions I thought were sorta odd. The fact that this show, like almost all the other Netflix shows, is also suffering from the fact that there's 13 episodes, so it feels like there's a bunch of filler that doesn't have to be there. The Defenders managed to do it all really well and they were able to make that 8 episodes. So these episodes just sorta go by and don't have much to them sometimes. I did like how they went a little more in the locations sometimes, but, most of the time, they just hang out at either Micro's lab, the Lieberman's house or the Homeland Security place. So, I don't know, they coulda had more locations than that because when they keep going back to the exact same places, it can seem pretty bland and not very unique. And as for that thing about Karen that I wasn't a huge fan of, it's the fact that her and Frank sorta begin to fall for each other. I highly doubt they actually do because, for one thing, Frank's family's death is the reason he's doing all this, so, getting someone new wouldn't make sense for his character, but, also, I just don't really like that whole thing with them and how he thinks of her as something special. Sure, it's nice and it makes him a much more caring guy, but, the way they went about it, I thought didn't work. The same thing sorta goes with Micro's family, particularly his wife. Again, what I just said with Karen is the same with her, but I still wasn't liking their relationship like that. So, in conclusion, I really like the Punisher: Season 1. It's a bit better than Iron Fist, but, it's nowhere near as good as the Defenders this year, for me. I loved a lot of it, even if it wasn't anything really special, aside from it being the most violent thing I've ever seen Marvel do, even more than Logan from FOX. And I do recommend watching this if you're old enough to and if you're just a fan of the M.C.U. It still keeps itself really entertaining and that concludes the comic book entertainment this year. This year has had the best comic book entertainment ever with three fantastic M.C.U movies, one fantastic FOX movie, one fantastic M.C.U Netflix show, one really good DC film, one "good" DC film, one pretty good Netflix show and one average Netflix show. Hopefully next year will be better. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.