It's like Disney was so keen on making sure that the edge of the original show wasn't lost that they completely neglected all the other things that made that original show what it was. Where's the internal struggle and intricate character building? Where are the grounded, memorable fight scenes? Where's the gritty, bold cinematography that almost felt like it was influenced by European arthouse films? It's not like I'm against trying out a new vision for a character like this, but the end result here comes across as a simplified product that tries to make the Netflix show palatable for a Disney audience. For every good choice that it makes (e.g. framing Kingpin as a Trump type politician), there's about a dozen I find inexcusable (e.g. why are we sidelining established great characters in favour of these uninteresting new ones? Why is the dialogue so on the nose? What's up with these weird music video montages?). Even during its worst moment it's always Cox and D'Onofrio that shine through and keep this thing watchable, however as a whole I find this season chaotic, messy and incomplete. You can literally feel the awkward stitching of different creative visions during some episodes. Maybe my feelings on this are somewhat heightened because I hold the original show in extremely high regard (I think that's likely the case for a lot of people), but honestly I have no desire to watch more of this if they continue down the same path. 3/10

A decent season that is considerably better than most of the other mediocre shows Marvel has been putting out. Still, it never gets better than 'decent' and it certainlt doesn't come close to the heights that the Netflix series reached.

While the plot and character development left much to be desired for, if for no other reason, I truly appreciated the monologue provided by the Punisher to all the fascist clowns in cop uniforms using his emblem as some kind of self-righteous symbol. Not that this Disney+ production will open their eyes to the misalignment of their values with their heroes, but I appreciated it being called out none the less. If it wasn’t clear before, Disney of all production companies has made it clear that The Punisher laughs at your thin blue line. May this, among many of their choices lately, keep Walt spinning in his grave like a wonkily whacked piñata. All that said, Cox and D’Onofrio bring it as always, but the tension and allegory of the show overall were mostly flat. Loved seeing Hamish (even if it’s a near photocopy of his Mayor of Kingston role) and I hope he’s developed in the second half as another Echo-like antihero. Though perhaps he is too deep into the Kingpin’s (read Drumpf’s) shadow to be redeemed. Watch it for that Cox wit and charm if nothing else (and dat ass!). The bank episode alone is probably worth any other meh moments!

It’s interesting how people use the reshoots to justify this series’ flaws, as if the new showrunners were handed a mess and salvaged what they could. Honestly, I thought the reshoots were terrible, to say the least—especially the finale. Shoving in a bunch of characters from the original Netflix run without context doesn’t automatically make the series good. Sure, the mid-season episodes were mediocre at best, but at least they were coherent. There was structure, some character-driven moments, self-contained subplots, and a procedural vibe that actually worked. Then all of that gets tossed out just to cram in cheap fan service and over-the-top action sequences that made me laugh more than anything. If that’s the tone they’re aiming for in season two, we’re in trouble.