Marvel's The Punisher Review: 6 Ups And 3 Downs

3. The Cast Is Excellent

As we've come to expect from these shows, the cast is largely excellent across the board. Obviously it's Jon Bernthal who leads the way, but looking beyond the titular character there's a lot of depth here.

The two best of these are Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Micro, and Amber Rose Revah as Dinah Medani. They're effectively the co-leads, and both are more than worthy of that billing. Bachrach gets to bring some comic relief to the series, but he gives the character - who could easily just be a tech sidekick cliche - a lot of depth and nails the emotional beats when it comes to his 'lost' family.

Revah's Medani, meanwhile, is the strongest person on the show outside of Frank Castle. She does a great job of conveying all of that toughness and quest for justice, even when the story she's trapped in early on is just spinning its wheels.

On the villainous front, Ben Barnes' Billy Russo is suitably smug and hateable, but with just enough shades to him that you aren't fully sure of what he'll do next, and Daniel Webber is great as the tormented Lewis Wilson, serving as an interesting character in his own right, but also an effective commentary on how some people view The Punisher.

In smaller roles, Deborah Ann Woll is once again a solid presence as Karen Page, Michael Nathanson likeable and funny as Sam Stein, while Jason R. Moore and Jamie Rey Newman get some strong work opposite Bernthal.