punisher one last kill thoughts
shock of all shocks, Jon Bernthal vanity project feels like a Jon Bernthal vanity project.
Action is good, needle drops are good (as a metalhead I’m obliged to say), soundtrack is good. (Happy the new ppl they brought on for the soundtrack made this feel like the old OST. Tyler Bates’s soundtrack elevates the show SO much.)
not much else is good though. Plot is contrived, as such emotions are forced. We haven’t really seen Frank in almost a decade! (His presence in DDBA season 1 is more a foil to Matt; we don’t really see what’s going on with him.) half the time it felt like I was playing a third person shooter. The other half was gesturing at well worn emotional beats we’ve already seen from Frank.
“I’m doing the punishing now” girl. What. Acting that good cannot be wasted on such bottom of the barrel ass writing
if I were a culture writer bash my head in until I stop. I’d write a think piece about how the Punisher exemplifies the male on male gaze. Because like what the fuck has this accomplished, either for Frank’s journey or for any of the wider Netflix-adjacent MCU plotlines? I suspect this is a combo of a Bernthal vanity project and a kind of male gaze pornography. Look at this badass and how tortured he is! Look at his muscles glistening with sweat and dirt and blood! Look at him try to kill himself isn’t that soooo sad!!! Kinda leans into the worst aspects of the metatext. Certainly doesn’t help that his normal supporting cast is relegated to the role of Hallucination. Nobody’s really there to foil him.
