The Punisher-- Marvel/Netflix

I had no trouble following it whatsoever. I thought it was kind of clever.

 

As did I, it was a standout episode in what I felt was a great series.

 

Exactly.

 

Good for you, I guess? To me, it was a twenty minute story stretched to 50+ minutes with a confusing, pointless gimmick (leaving me with questions like "how did Frank get off the stairs when the police were literally right on him and Madani?" Multiple tellings of the same sequence of events didn't help me figure that out). I also have no idea if Frank now knows Billy is evil or not, or what Micro was doing this whole time. It all just seemed like they wanted some dumbass excuse to link Frank with the bombings to the public in the show, but they couldn't write enough plot to justify it taking a whole episode so they stretched the slightly less then half a script that they had to 50+ minutes with a bad gimmick that was implemented poorly.

Since I recognize all the names of the currently existing Pokemon, that is either the name of a Digimon from sometime after the first season or some obscure anime character.

Atleast that's what I would have said if I didn't google it. Apparently its some foreign film that I didn't bother to read the wikipedia article on. I'll just assume it has the same shitty gimmick as this episode, which is why you're bringing it up.

On a slightly different topic, are we supposed to recognize the cop Karen is telling her story to? They act like we should, and she acted like she knows him, but the only cop I remember from Daredevil was a standard officer who Foggy would bribe, not a detective.

 

... now you are just trolling....

 

Uh, yeah. It's Brett Mahoney, the same exact guy. He's been a detective on-screen now for longer than we saw him as a beat cop.

 

Rashomon is just some shitty foreign film...now I've heard it all!

 

I'm sad

 

^Like he said.

 

Or Courage Under Fire.
Or Gone Girl.
Or The Woman In Question.
Or Hero.
Or The Outrage.
Or...

 

I tend to not like any of the "most influential movies ever made". I mean, Citizen Kane wasn't terrible (it was ok, but just ok), but I'm definitely not into the kinds of movies most critics gush over. Older stuff that may be important from a technical perspective tends to be boring to watch (with a few exceptions, but none of them are foreign films about murder/rape with irritating gimmicks). I can't argue about whether Rashomon is important or not, I don't know and I don't care. I certainly won't watch it. But, it existing doesn't mean the gimmick it uses isn't terrible or that it the gimmick didn't ruin an episode of The Punisher.

At least that's my opinion. I don't care what film critic favorite Punisher may have stole a gimmick from for a shitty episode, it doesn't change the end result of there being an entire episode of The Punisher that's just an average 20 minute plot stretched to 50+ and made really confusing.

I have literally only heard of one of those movies (Gone Girl), and I wouldn't watch it unless someone was paying me.

Well, since he's barely gotten any screen time in DD, seeing him more as a Detective (which I do call BS on, we definitely see him more as the guy Foggy bribed, and that was like two scenes in season 1) would be about 10 minutes of screen time as opposed to 5.

 

Well, done and done. Jon Bernthal was amazing as always as Frank Castle.

I can see where people said that the violence got ramped up there at the end. Of course, all bets were off when he finally put the skull back on his chest. During the fight with Russo on the carousel, knowing who Billy Russo is destined to become, I saw all of the conspicuously breaking glass in the background and thought to myself, "here it comes!" Brutal.

All in all, I See The Punisher as a welcome return to form after the disappointing efforts put forth by Iron Fist and the Defenders. The 13 episodes never seem to drag, the drama was tense, the scripts smart, the characters engaging, and the performances perfect.

I give it an A. The only reason it doesn't get an A+is that it lacks a scene or moment as powerful and poignant as the graveyard scene between Frank and Matt in episode 4 of Daredevil season 2.

Now, on to The Runaways! I need to catch up on four episodes before Agents of SHIELD premieres tomorrow night. What a great time to be a Marvel fan.

 

I meant that he's been a detective for a longer span of time (from a RL perspective, since the shows started) than the amount of time he spent as a beat cop (again, from a RL perspective). He got the credit for Frank Castle's arrest in season 2 of Daredevil and got promoted to detective for it. So, yes, you should recognize him.

 

He's still barely a presence. He has minimum screen time, and has basically no character outside of being Foggy's police contact. I liked DD season 2, but its not like I paid attention to what barely appearing side character got credit for his arrest (the whole "Punisher arrested" bit was one of the weakest parts of DD Season 2 anyway). So, no, I don't think not recognizing him is all that shocking. He's a minor side character at best. He's no more noticeable then, for example, those weird siblings on Jessica Jones, who I only remember because I think the show was trying to imply they were incestuous (although this cop has more plot relevance then those weird characters, they've probably got the same amount of screen time).

 

I admit, I barely recognized him myself, and only because I'd already read that a returning detective character from another Neflix show would be in that episode. And it wasn't until afterward that I remembered he'd started out as a beat cop. But then, I'm not that great with faces, and I often forget supporting characters.

 

Well. I'm not saying that Mahoney is such a well-established presence that he should be immediately identifiable to all audience members, but he is certainly a character that has been given a definite arc and growth in the Netflix series. I recognized him immediately both here and in Jessica Jones.

And to say that accepting a gift for your mother from a childhood friend is "bribery" is Reed Richards level stretching.

 

No, it isn't, because that was obviously the intent -- that Foggy was using food to bribe Mahoney into giving him tips and favors that a police officer really shouldn't extend to an attorney. It was low-level bribery, the kind that came off as bending the rules for a good cause rather than anything criminal, but the writers certainly weren't pretending it was anything other than giving gifts as a means of extracting favors. Foggy saying it was just a harmless gift with nothing expected in return was clearly not meant to be taken as literal fact by the audience; that was just maintaining deniability.

 

Fair enough.