Marvel's The Punisher Season 2: Ranking Every Character From Worst To Best

With three out of five already cancelled, it's likely that The Punisher season 2 is the penultimate installment in the Marvel-Netflixverse - Jessica Jones season 3 follows later this year. So that also means that it's probably the last time we'll see Jon Bernthal's iteration of the gun-toting vigilante, who first debuted back in Daredevil season 2. So did it end his journey on a high?

Well, honestly, not so much. Frank Castle is a very challenging character to get right - especially in today's climate - as you need to depict him as a sympathetic protagonist to some extent but also not condone his extreme actions. Season 2 leans into the former and doesn't do enough to explore the latter. What's more, there are weaker villains this time around and some underdeveloped side characters.

These major flaws stop it from soaring, but there is some still some great material in season 2 that keeps it in the air. Not least, strong performances all-round from an exceptionally talented cast. But even the best actors can't save poorly-written characters. So let's sort out those who should be spared a visit from Frank and which are a punishment to watch.

--

- SPOILERS for the season within -

(image from American Gods)

The real big bads of The Punisher season 2, those without any redeeming features, are Anderson and Eliza Schultz. The beginning of the season sets them up as a morally-corrupt yet powerful religious couple who are willing to do whatever it takes to make their son president. And that's pretty much all the characterisation they have for the rest of the 12 episodes.

The problem with the Schultzes is that they feel so disconnected from Frank himself. Not all his enemies have to be involved in the death of his family, of course, but they never even have anything to do with Frank until the last couple of episodes of the season. No real thematic connections are drawn between them either. Instead we get some weak real-world allusions through their collusion with Russians and use of fake news to get their son in the White House.

As for David himself, at least the writers didn't go with the obvious route and actually made him a decent politician, unaware of his parents' actions. All in all, the Schultzes felt like a waste of a big bad. Still, it was fun to see Annette O'Toole play a very different role from kind old Ma Kent on Smallville.