The television special introduces us to a Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) living in an apartment complex in Little Sicily, New York, dealing with the nightmares of his past from wars abroad and at home when the ramifications of some of those past actions come roaring back in the form of Ma Gnucci (Judith Light) to threaten his current world and make Frank face that his life still has a purpose.
Reinaldo Marcus Green directs this special coming off the heels of some biographical dramas like King Richard and Bob Marley: One Love, and a recent crime drama miniseries, We Own This City, which he worked on previously with Bernthal, seems like the perfect fit to encapsulate the violent anti-hero Punisher and his war on criminals.
The short length of a Marvel Special Presentation creates the opportunity to tell a very straight-to-the-point story, mostly showcased through one long action set piece based in that very apartment complex. Reminiscent of films like The Raid or Dredd, the audience is treated to the Punisher reawakening in the wake of an overwhelming force of enemies. Wave after wave come at Frank, sent by Ma Gnucci, who is seeking revenge for his takedown of the Gnucci Crime Family.
Jon Bernthal continues to shine in the role. The fourth actor to take on the mantle of The Punisher, the advantages of portraying him in a TV series have given the character’s trauma and despair real weight, something the other film-only actors did not have the opportunity to do. He knows this interpretation of the character so well, now a decade into it, and it affords Bernthal to make the most of the little moments in this special that doesn’t have the time to let things breathe. Judith Light brings a new type of character into the crosshairs of the Punisher, a fallen matriarch with her family in tatters seeking revenge.
The simple set design of the apartment complex keeps the fighting in tight spaces and verticality, giving an almost endless feel to the chaos as Frank fights from one room to the next seeking to deliver pain to the invading villains. Losing track of the body count seems by design, as the viewer, like Frank, doesn’t get much of a chance to stop and breathe once it gets going.
Is there a sense of redundancy to the special if you’ve been a fan of Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle portrayal of the last decade? Yes, that can certainly be argued. But with his MCU debut about to take place with the upcoming Spider-Man film, there are worse things than a character refresher for everyone wanting to know what kind of Punisher they could be in store for come July.
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