As a huge Marvel fan I really enjoy what Netflix is doing with their Marvel series. It all started with DareDevil and was quickly followed by Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. The Punisher followed them in the second season of DareDevil. Even though DareDevil was good on his own, The Punisher stole the show that season and I was so overly excited to find out that it was getting his own show.

Last friday, the 17th, was THE day. The first season of The Punisher was released on Netflix.

Something that categorizes The Punisher in the comics has always been the violence, gore and lot's and lot's of guns. It has already been tried with several movies, and even though I think that they're not bad movies at all, it never really gave the same feeling as the comics did. So... does the series live up to the name or does it need to be Punished?

I try to minimize the amount of spoilers in this review

As I've mentioned in my other reviews, the first scenes / episode usually sets the tone. Because it needs to show the audience what they can expect and make them hungry for more. And with the beginning of The Punisher you are not being disappointed. Frank Castle's family was assassinated in a park and wants to kill every single person involved and you're presented with just that. The vigilante manhunt for those people with some of the violence you'd expect from him. After that, the shows pace goes down a bit as it's setting up the story and introducing the characters.

The Story

The series follows it's own worked out version of The Punishers origin and the characters that passes the revue. But 1 fact still remains ... Frank Castle's family was assassinated in a park. Even though they rely on the fact that you've watched DareDevil season 2, this setting gets pretty obvious pretty fast and you can view this show without having seen that season (although I can really recommend it). You'll see The Punisher hunting down those responsible for the death of his family, and afterwards (sort of) trying to pick up something of a life after only to find out that the reason for his family's death goes way deeper than he expected.

The story not only focuses on The Punisher, but you'll regularly see parts of the side-story that addresses War Veterans and what the PTSD can do with them. I found this part to be very well worked out and fitted well in the story.

Taken throughout the story, you'll see that The Punisher is not invincible (although he has a pretty fast recovery rate imo) and that the amount of violence and blood that is known with the series comes at you with all it's G(l)ory without overdoing it.

The Cast

Let's start with the most important character from the series : The Punisher. He is being portrayed by Jon Bernthal, who you might recognize as Shane from The Walking Dead. While Ray Stevenson did a good job as Frank Castle in The Punisher : Warzone , Jon Bernthal makes you forget about everybody who ever played the role. He nails every aspect of the character and his acting is really strong. I would be surprised if he won't win any prizes for his role. I also REALLY liked the skull that was painted on his Body Armor. It's not a sloppy, small painted skull like they did in Warzone.

The rest of the cast is as well cast as Jon Bernthal. Ebon Moss-Bachrach played fantastic as David Liebermann / Micro, Ben Barnes as Billy Russo, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page (yes... from DareDevil) just to name a few.

The Verdict

Even though the amount of action is not as much as you'd expect from The Punisher, the series as a whole is very solid and strong. The acting of everybody involved was really strong and the story has been worked out pretty well. For me, this has been the best Netflix Marvel series to date and I am really curious about how they will go forward with this.

You'll only remember Jon Bernthal as the anti-hero The Punisher from this day forward.

_{image sources : screenshots taken from the show on Netflix.}

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