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

1. Jon Bernthal

As stated, this show is the Frank Castle story - and that's a distinction between being a Punisher story, because it's much more about the man underneath the giant skull.

Castle delivers everything fans could want, with scenes of graphic violence and a search for revenge that sees him as an almost unstoppable force of nature, but it also dives deep into the character and shows us the many different facets of him.

He burns with a quiet intensity, and is just as capable of breaking your heart as he is being a terrifying killer (and make no mistake, when he goes full Punisher and looms over his enemies, he is a hellish presence). Bernthal gets that across as you'd expect, but he also brings a real vulnerability to the character in his smaller scenes, like the exchanges with Micro or his relationship with Karen.

It's not a softer side, as such, because even here we're reminded of how dangerous he is, but there's definitely more humanity to him. The show may rely too heavily on flashbacks, but we do get a good sense of how much Frank is haunted by the past - both the murder of his family and his own awful actions - and we get an understanding of the pain he's in and the pain he desires to cause others.

He carries the show in its weaker moments and, when the going's good, is the one leading the way.