 The Punisher premiered on Netflix today, and I'm coming at you with my review. Marvel's The Punisher stars John Burnthal and takes place in the same universe as the other Netflix series such as Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and The Defenders. However, there really isn't much in the way of connection between this series and those, other than a picture of Frank Castle in the newspaper while he was in prison and reporter Karen Page. Something that separates this series from the Punisher films is that in those, Frank Castle was usually once law enforcement, as well as ex-military. In the original starring Dolph Lundgren, Frank Castle was an ex New York City police officer whose family was murdered by mobsters. In the 2004 Thomas Jane film, Frank was an undercover FBI agent and former soldier who retires and then his family is slaughtered by the Saints. The 2008 Punisher war zone, which starred Ray Stevenson, revolved around Frank Castle who's been in the Punisher for about five years. It's unclear in that film if he had law enforcement experience, but what is made clear is that his family was killed by gangsters while on a picnic in the park. In Netflix's The Punisher series, it's suggested at the beginning that his family was killed by government agents in his home. But this turns out to be just a recurring nightmare of Frank's as he blames himself for their deaths. What's also suggested in the series is that his family was killed while picnicking in the park after Frank returned home from his tour of duty. Something Netflix did great during the production of the series was the way they presented soldiers who returned home with PTSD. One of which has a nightmare and it startled away and nearly kills his father which causes him to dig a fox hole and sleep outside so he doesn't make that same mistake again. PTSD in this manner is a very real thing. Years ago my former roommate suffered from PTSD and he would oftentimes be found by his wife outside digging trenches in his underwear in the rain. Throughout this series, Frank Castle is presumed dead and goes by an alias in order to keep the wrong people from tracking him down. The Netflix series presents Frank as a very tortured soul. He did things in Afghanistan that he isn't proud of including torturing a Middle Eastern police officer and then shooting him point blank. Season 1 doesn't really seem like a Punisher story though. It's not about the mob or gangsters or drug dealers or anything like that. They've made the main antagonist in this season, the CIA, which would feel better as more of a long term enemy rather than the enemy for a single season. It would have helped had they built up to the CIA being the enemy rather than pushing it hard in season 1. John Berenthal made for a great Frank Castle, but the story itself seemed extremely watered down in comparison to other Punisher stories. Overall the series was good but it just didn't really seem like a Punisher series. Throughout this season Frank is referred to as kind of boogie man, but it's not really as represented in his portrayal as it is in the movies. Berenthal plays Frank more as an ordinary man pushed to his limits rather than the force of nature that he was depicted as in Daredevil and in the later two films. As a Marvel series it follows the same narrative as the other series where introduced to the character then the supporting characters and the villains were then introduced to a twist the hero doesn't find out about until later and then were shown just how evil the villain is, the hero falls, and then the resolution. It's the same pattern over and over with all of these Netflix Marvel series. I liked the series but it was far too repetitive with the exact same storytelling as the other Marvel Netflix series. It wasn't really new as it was however a new interpretation of the Punisher which is fresh but did it really live up to all the hype? I'm not so sure. First episode was really good and brutal in a way that the Punisher should be but the following episodes Frank didn't really do anything too brutal. In the comics Frank is known for his brutality but in this series the most brutal thing he did was kill a bunch of guys and then drop them in a container of cement. This however would kind of be resolved near the ending of the season where we do get a few brutal scenes overall not very brutal at all like what the Punisher is known for. Something that kept bugging me during this series was how Frank kept his pants tucked into his boots which is very reminiscent of Berndthal's character in The Walking Dead. With military style pants it wouldn't be a big deal but with jeans it makes him look like a reject from the 90s. Okay so as I'm typing up the script for this I'm watching the series and while the final couple episodes are pretty brutal especially when Frank runs a guy's face against a broken mirror like a cheese grater this of course is the beginning of the character known as Jigsaw from the comics. In this series though Jigsaw isn't a hit man for the criminal underworld but instead was a friend of Frank's and served with him in Afghanistan and was at least partially responsible for the deaths of Frank's family. In the comics Jigsaw is Frank's arch enemy and was even the main villain in 2008's The Punisher Warzone. It's pretty decent update of the character and in Twine's their story is nicely. Would I recommend the series to fans of the comic? I can't really say I haven't really read many of the Punisher comics. I'm not sure how fans will feel about the watered down version but I would recommend it to fans of action movies and comics in general. I'll give it a 6 out of 10 stars as a Punisher story and an 8 out of 10 as an action series. I'm Shannon for Come Again TV. Take care everyone.