Marvel's The Punisher: Season 2 - Review

It's worth mentioning here and now that the second season of Marvel's The Punisher isn't very good, and the following review probably won't be too encouraging for those who haven't seen the season yet. Therefore, whilst I will try to avoid spoiling too much, I will probably touch on some spoilers for the show's final season. In short though: it's really not very good. Unless you're seriously invested, or want to give it a go for completist's reasons, don't bother.

The season starts off strong, setting Frank Castle in a new direction. He's moved on from the death of his family, and with the mystery of their true murderer having been resolved in Season 1, he's starting a new life on the road. He even meets a new romantic interest, but soon becomes embroiled in a conspiracy: a mysterious group of people are hunting down a young girl called Amy, who's keeping secrets of her own. It's an intriguing set-up, but the pay-off very quickly falters as this story-line is pushed aside to make way for the return of Billy Russo - now scarred from a brutal fight with Frank last season - who starts to cause chaos for Agent Madani, and himself has a romantic interest in the form of his therapist Krista Dumont. 

Neither of these two story-lines ever interweave, despite the trailer implying so, and the season never finds a balance between them. The story of Amy's attack John Pilgrim is so convoluted that after 13 episodes I'm still not entirely sure what it was about. Pilgrim is a bland, forgettable and underdeveloped character whose motivations consistently feel askew. His back-story is teased and never fully-developed, and the real villains turn out to be...well, I don't actually know who. They're old, rich and apparently were called Anderson and Eliza Schultz, and there might have been something about their son along the way. Oh, and Pilgrim is a preacher. I'm not entirely sure how that all fits together, but I don't know how much I care. It's taken me two months to watch this season, and I'm in no rush to slog through it again just to find that I don't understand it anymore a second time round.

Amy herself as a character is set up as a good foil for Frank, but her mystery box story-line takes so long to unravel that their connections takes way too long to actually form. Her arc across the season seems to be clear-cut, but I didn't find the ending particularly satisfying. This is nothing against the actress, but the character just doesn't go anywhere by the end, and feels like a constant hindrance to Frank's gun-toting vigilantism. Frank's friend Curtis returns in this season, and his whole journey just feels entirely contrived around whatever Frank needs at any one time. They don't even share a scene with one another in the season and series' finale. Madani is so bloody miserable throughout all thirteen episodes that I just stopped caring quite early on. Again, nothing against the actress, but the writers just give Madani nothing to do, and she ends up feeling incredibly one-note. Detective Mahoney from Daredevil appears in a surprisingly large role, but he gets sod-all to actually do apart from pad-out an already overlong and convoluted narrative.

Billy Russo should presumably be the main villain of the season, but showrunner Steve Lightfoot has no idea what to do with the character. He loses his memory and spends half the season trying to work out that Frank is the Punisher. And then the two never really get a proper story between them. It's just an endless "Billy is mad that Frank gave him scars" and "Frank is mad that Billy basically murdered his family", but these ideas aren't really developed at all. It's just a constant to-and-fro with no sense of a narrative journey. Lightfoot built-up Billy Russo over two seasons of the show, and in the end he can't even give the character a satisfying ending. Frank's eventual showdown with him in Episode 13 is so brief and uninteresting that it just makes the whole season feel pointless. Why does Billy have a new love interest? Why does Billy have a gang, who just get pushed aside at the end? How are we really meant to feel for Billy throughout? Why lose his memories in the first place? What does that add to the story? The season toys with the idea of Frank accidentally killing innocent people - an event that shocks and horrifies him to his core - and then it's just resolved with a simple "oh no, don't worry Frank, Billy killed them". What does that add to Frank's character if he loses all responsibility? What does making Billy the villain do for the series?

Marvel's The Punisher has had pacing issues since its first season, but Season 2 has no idea about narrative structure, momentum or even just telling a proper story. If the series had been given a third season, you could've easily skipped these thirteen episodes in their entirety and lost nothing. Poor Jon Bernthal dedicates himself wholeheartedly to a series that has no interest in telling a proper story, and instead opts to float around potential story-lines that are so poorly developed that upon sitting down to watch Episode 13, I had no idea what the hell was actually going to be paid-off. Somehow, almost inexplicably, the finale ends the story-lines, but not in a completely satisfying way. Had the writers explored the story-lines properly, I could see the season just about lasting 13 episodes, but as it is, this story should barely last 4 or 5. I quite enjoyed the first season of The Punisher, in spite of its flaws, but this season was just poorly written. The acting was good, the action was good, but the story was lacking in almost every respect.