8 Bad Pilots Of Good TV Shows
6. The Punisher
Producer Joe Quesada asks us to think of Marvel's each of Netflix series as "13 hour movies," which is how they work best, giving us bingable, seamless stories. The extended runtime makes them feel like MCU films on steroids, with each episode ending with a cliffhanger, which practically begs you to keep watching. However, The first episode of The Punisher feels completely standalone, then followed by a compelling 12 hour Punisher movie.
The pilot, called "3 AM," follows Frank Castle trying to lay low after the events of Daredevil Season 2. He's working in construction and saves his friend's life after a heist gone wrong. However, this plot has no bearing on the rest of the series, and the various subplots which introduce the rest of the cast seem out of place.
We do not meet Micro, the second most important character of the season, in the final beats of the episode, where he he identifies footage of Frank. If the whole point of the episode was to get Frank on Micro's radar, they could have done it a lot earlier and gotten the real story rolling.