The last mile is the hardest mile, they say. After watching through three seasons of Daredevil, three of Jessica Jones, two of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and the Defenders miniseries, my greatest challenge seems to be Punisher season 2. And that's surprising because I actually really liked season 1. I'd say season one of Punisher is among the very best of Marvel television. But season two is like . . . the whole staff was lobotomised and their brains replaced with hamsters.
It's the same writing staff, mostly. Supposedly the same people who came up with the compelling story of Frank's bitter fight with former friend and marine, Billy, and the really effective tale of the intelligence expert forced into hiding, watching the wife and children who think he's dead like a stalker. These same people supposedly wrote this story about Frank with a pretty teenage sidekick who teaches him Three Card Monte, this story in which the FBI agent, Mardani, springs Frank from jail with helicopters so he can come back to New York to help her track down Billy Russo, only for her to get fed up with him living in her apartment and order him to leave the city because she's . . . annoyed.
It started out decently enough, with the locale moved to some midwestern town where Frank hooks up with a bartender. A mysterious bunch of oddly co-ed generic thugs show up trying to kill a girl hanging around the bar and Frank's forced to protect her, drawing him into a whole lot of trouble.
That was okay. But meanwhile, back in New York, Billy Russo is coming to and wearing a bizarre mask with no explanation. Later we're told it's a therapy tool and he drew designs on it to express himself or something. That's a pretty lame explanation but I guess it's something. It still doesn't explain how no-one notices him escaping the hospital wearing that thing.
And then we finally see his face, now reborn as the comic villain Jigsaw and it's . . .
Oh, come on. Frank was supposed to have messed up Billy's face so bad he had brain damage. He clearly broke his nose. These scars are the best they could do?
The episode I watched last night, the sixth episode, somehow went to new lows. Frank and the girl have found a new hideout in a motor home.
Whose motor home? Did Frank buy it? Did he steal it? Who decorated it? Where is it parked? None of these questions are answered! We don't even get an exterior shot and it seems to exist in a void. It's dreamlike. Is this a dream?
The episode begins with Frank and the girl shaking down a paedophile for information. This guy who apparently has a professional studio he exclusively rents out to paedophiles. He's like someone from a bad '50s exploitation film, like a guy who does lame made up crimes because the filmmakers or studio baulked at confronting a real issue. Ironically, I think the goal was just to get footage of the girl in a romper.
I will get through this. I will finish the Marvel Netflix shows. I've come this far. I will succeed.
The Punisher is available on Disney+.
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