The Punisher (Netflix)

I didn’t hate it as much as Desslock, but Punisher was a solid 5/10. I agree it should been 10 episodes, or maybe even 8. Hell, it probably would have been better as an episodic where the Punisher travels from town-to-town like the A-Team.

I think the Netflix series would be categorically improved by reducing them from 13 episodes to 8 or 10.

Jesus the cuts on that fight scene. They are so fast and brief (and sped up?) that you only have impressions that SOMETHING is going on, which is I guess what you do if you’re covering up not having a good fight choreographer and/or actors not capable of pulling the scene off. I don’t think the camera held a shot for even 2 seconds. You could shoot that fight one brief take at a time, without everyone even being in the room. It’s so broken down that you can shoot each individual punch and take a nice break for lunch in-between.

It all follows very logically for me. It’s a fight. By this point in the series, we know Ward is a demon and extremely skilled and those guys coming in the room are Hydra quality thugs. I love that I can watch it multiple times and the brutality is second only to the obvious skill he shows in taking them out.

That’s the thing… it’s all the Wards! ALL OF THEM!

Dalton really carries all that off so well. Same guy, totally different people. I loved it all.

I think most shows would be categorically improved by dropping to 8-10 episodes. Netflix’s have never struck me as particularly egregious offenders in this regard.

Sure, as a general rule, that’s pretty true. Working with fewer episodes forces your plots to be tighter. But I feel like I see the specific criticism of “good, but feels like there’s too much filler in the middle” rolled out for every Netflix Marvel show, without fail (maybe the first seasons of DD and JJ were exceptions to this).

Also possible that it’s just more obvious/immediate with Netflix shows that drop all at once, compared to week-to-week television spread out over nine months.

I think the latter is probably more likely. Especially since that’s how I watch most TV - binges once the whole season is out, not as it releases.

I’ve said enough about SHIELD now I’m sure, but the way they’re breaking up seasons into pods of episodes is definitely helping to make every episode better and pushea things forward quicker and it’s satisfying. It reminds me more of comics and how they’d have arcs that lasted for a handful of issues.

Anyway, Punisher never quite matches the high points of Daredevil, but it’s also more consistently good than Daredevil or any Marvel Netflix show (and obviously better than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).

I think my highest point of disagreement with @Desslock is that Micro is in any way a good or interesting character who deserved more than 3 seconds of screen time at any point.

We may not disagree on that point as much as you think. I dislike all iterations of him in the comic and don’t particularly like the character, or his family storyline. But the actor was a high point in the show and he helped to sell the material.

I’ll admit I didn’t even find PathosNerd SadDad very compelling on screen, but then again, I mostly watched this show to watch a deranged lunatic shoot the problems out of his life, and Micro kept miserably slouching his way into the scenes in his weird bathrobes, smirking tragically and mumbling instead of solving his own shit.

I may have a real issue with that dude, hah

All I can do is lead the horse to water…

Second and most certainly final season to launch on January 18.

Why does Frank look like he’s pooping in that still?

Oh man. Are you also sad while you poop? That’s heart breaking.

Jigsaw looks pretty tame. Will be there day 1 nonetheless. Hope it is a great last hurrah, they deserved better then only 2 seasons.

Finally, an actual trailer:

— Alan

Seems like a pretty standard setup for a season. Even though there’s a 99% chance this will be announced as being cancelled a week after being put up I’ll still watch it as Bernthal is so good at playing Castle and looks like some good action scenes.