Marvel's The Punisher Season 2: 10 Reasons To Be Excited

These are dark times for the Marvel Netflix Universe. Following the cancellations of Iron Fist and Luke Cage (despite second seasons which were widely acknowledged improvements on the first) a bombshell was dropped with the announcement that Daredevil was also ending, shortly after its excellent third season premiered.

It's increasingly certain that all of this is due to the impending launch of Disney's own streaming service, Disney+, which will premiere this year. It seems that Netflix sees the writing on the wall, and has decided to get out of the partnership while the choice is still theirs.

The future, then, is uncertain, but there are still a couple of rays of light in the universe in the form of the third season of Jessica Jones (which will hit later this year) and the second season of The Punisher which drops on Friday 18th January.

It's perhaps a little ironic that the bright spot on the horizon right now comes in the form of the very darkest of the series that Marvel/Netflix have co-produced, but with thirteen hours of the continuing story of Frank Castle still to be watched, there's plenty to look forward to.

While 2017's The Defenders was lackluster, it was soon followed by the first season of The Punisher, which expertly delivered on the promise shown by Jon Bernthal's take on the character in his supporting role in Daredevil Season 2. The Punisher's first full season took the story we'd already seen about Bernthal's vigilante ex-marine and went deeper. We saw him fully uncover the conspiracy that led to murder of his family and destroyed his life.

While most of the Marvel/Netflix shows have been guilty of 'bloat' - stretching maybe 8-10 hours of story out to fill 13 episodes - The Punisher was one of the best paced yet as Frank fell in with Ebon Moss-Bachrach's 'Micro' - a former NSA Analyst who had to fake his own death after being targeted by the same people who betrayed Frank. The two protagonists' vastly different characters and skill sets provided a great jumping off point - as well as some much-needed humour to lighten the tone a little - as we followed their joint mission.

With the perpetrators turning out to include Castle's best friend and former Marine colleague Billy Russo (as well as top-level CIA officials), a parallel investigation by Homeland Security Agent Dinah Midani and an unflinching look at the descent of a PTSD-afflicted young soldier played by Daniel Webber there were plenty of intriguing story threads, which were all weaved together expertly by showrunner Steve Lightfoot and his team.