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I've started watching what I assume is going to be the last of Netflix's Marvel series'.

So far I like it a lot, if only because there's a lot more Punisher style action that in the first season which moved a little slow at times. That said, the new characters so far are kind of weak. The new plucky girl sidekick is the wrong kind of plucky (terminally stupid), and I never enjoy a conspiracy plot that bends comprehension. I like the action though. The action works, particularly the Assault on Precinct 13 episode. There wasn't enough ass kicking in season 1 for me, and I guess the producers were like "we should have more ass kicking."

There will be Jessica Jones s3. Then it's done.

Ah. I just can't seem to get into Jessica Jones. I liked her in Defenders, but I always seem to lose interest in her solo seasons.

Ep01: Frank's recuperative powers are rather admirable ...

 LordofHats wrote:
Ah. I just can't seem to get into Jessica Jones. I liked her in Defenders, but I always seem to lose interest in her solo seasons.

I gave up on JJ season 1 - just didn't enjoy it. She was more interesting in Defenders but that series also stalled badly halfway through and ran out of ideas (and ninjas)

Enjoying Season 2 of Punisher - the first epsiode was great, I do feel that they could have ended the Priest and his killers story with epsiode 3 unless its going to have a good pay off.

Yeah. Having finished the season, the two big things I didn't like are the way the two main plotlines shuffle about taking turns for story advancement, and the resolution to both felt rather abrupt. I get the theme they were running with, the whole "we are our own demons" sort of thing. It works, but I wish the juggling of the plot lines had been more fluid.

The second is that the big conspiracy that kicks off the season becomes really cringe worthy by the end, just in the terms of how stupid the conspirators generally are in handling their mess, and in how the whole basis of it feels about 10 years too late to feel like anything more than a really flimsy reason for supposedly intelligent conniving bastards to go about a killing spree.

The action was great throughout the season though. I really like how season 1's danging threads were handled mostly. They actually succeeded in making the main villains somewhat sympathetic.

There's a couple of times where you're expecting the start of a long dialogue and Blam!

Frank definitely lets his guns do the talking in this season.

I'm up to Ep08 and I must say I'm really liking the Billy character.

Also liking sidekick Amy now.
Not really feeling the Priest arc at all, though tbh.

 War Drone wrote:
I'm up to Ep08 and I must say I'm really liking the Billy character.

Spoiler:

And his psychopathic doc GF. Can't foresee yet how she'll end ... tragically & messily, I'm thinking.

Also liking sidekick Amy now.
Not really feeling the Priest arc at all, though tbh.

I am at ep 7 - the whole

the rest is pretty good.

Well, I’ve tapped out at episode 7 of 12 and probably not looking back.

Started off strong with episodes 1-3 , but its been 1/4th Punisher and 3/4ths gak that I give zero feths about since then. No thanks.

Binged up to episode 10 yesteday. Enjoying everything but the girl. Kinda bummed that there's just 1 more season then the end, thanks to Disney's meddling. Would be cool to see HBO pick it up where Netflix left off, but that's wishful thinking.

finished it last night. Liked season 2 better than 1 overall. And the very last scene was a good "punnisher is on the job and here to stay" like a good way to end the series. Kinda felt like they did the same with Daredevil too.

 Necros wrote:
And the very last scene was a good "punnisher is on the job and here to stay" like a good way to end the series.

Agree, but I think it would have been even better without him appearing at all ... just stopping when the two gangs drew their guns, or even before then, just when everyone realises it's a trap. They should trust people more to "get" it.

I liked the reversal of Frank vs what we we see with Daredevil and other superheroes who struggle to uphold their "code". As an antihero he's struggling and crap keeps hitting the fan because he's not killing people like he should be doing. He's far more effective when he isn't getting dragged off target by friends and trying to adhere to what they think is right or moral. It's an interesting juxtaposition against the traditional code that drives every hero movie. Frank hits his stride best when he's keeping it simple and just destroying all of his problems rather than fixing them. I really like the way he brought the balls to bear by the time the season wrapped since it really locked his character into that dark place of being an antihero and doing it all his way.

While also destroying himself in the process (I know ... "obviously").

I love it when he loses his gak, starts grunting and getting all shooty.
But I also loved it this season when Amy gave him cause to pause for thought (before going off and being totally stupid ... but hey ... she's young). I know everyone hates her, but I think she was a great foil for Frank.

On edit: can't comment on DD ... haven't watched it (yet).

I was fine with Amy, it was the psychiatrist I personally didn’t like.

 AduroT wrote:
I was fine with Amy, it was the psychiatrist I personally didn’t like.

I hated her at first (the Doc), then I started warming to her when she started revealing herself, but in the end ... I went back to hating her. Damn, I'm fickle!

Episode 1 to 3 where quite good. It reminded me of about 6 other action movies where bad guys attack small time police station and things go wrong. To bad. they basically ran through their entire female stunt team in one go though. Russo was fairly enjoyable in this season. Pilgrim was a bit more stale and Madani sometime annoying, but overall, better then season one despite a drop in episode 4-5-6. I got to say, poor Turk. Of all the character in the Marvel Netlix Univers, I think he's the one who consistently eat the most gak per minutes on screen.

Overall I was pretty disappointed with how disjointed and fillery a lot of the episodes were, I felt they could have cut the plot with Pilgrim and the new girl (who I found super annoying) altogether and just have Frank be forced back to NY due to the Russo's escape. It definitely felt too drawn out and IMO far weaker than the first season. If this and JJ season 3 are the swan songs of the Netflix series for good, they're ending out on a whimper, rather than a bang IMO.

I really enjoyed it all. The girl sucked ass at lieing and could have learned to stop faster. But the plots of billy and the preacher were great imo.

Punisher stories are at their best when they give you big windows into his villains. Frank himself is so single minded and relentless that once hes on mission its less about him and more about how cool the extremes he goes to are. So to get any character and story in there you need to build up these people.

I would like to think that in a s3 the preacher would get hired to kill frank again and frank would just kill him quickly with something excessive and it just never comes up again. Thats how punisher villains go. I also wish we got a chance to see baracuda. Oh well. Maybe in 2 years.

Am I the only one who cringed at the Stan Lee omage at the very end? Two groups of gangster bicker, the Punisher enters and guns everyone down screeming like a maniac, fade to black, ''In loving memory of Stan Lee''. That makes the man seem very unhinged.

 Grimskul wrote:
Overall I was pretty disappointed with how disjointed and fillery a lot of the episodes were, I felt they could have cut the plot with Pilgrim and the new girl (who I found super annoying) altogether and just have Frank be forced back to NY due to the Russo's escape. It definitely felt too drawn out and IMO far weaker than the first season. If this and JJ season 3 are the swan songs of the Netflix series for good, they're ending out on a whimper, rather than a bang IMO.

Strongly disagree. Amy might have been annoying at times, but she's vital for the journey Frank goes on through the series. A big part of what "frees" him to become The Punisher, fully, is that he was finally able to save one of "his girls". And the first season was just as guilty of "filler"(ie, dialogue, ie, pretty much the main distinct quality the Netflix MCU stuff has compared to other supeyhero TV), but had far less actual action in it. Doing all 13 - or even all 10 if the folk who want that for some reason got their way - episodes as just the Frank & Billy Show would have been painfully dull.

Then again, I've never been particularly fussed about all the chest-thumping military-bro stuff where guys trying desperately to murder each other constantly bleat and growl about brotherhood.

I thought Billy's actor was good ... I actually was feeling bad / sad for him at the very end despite all the crap he pulled .. but at the same time was happy to see him get what he deserved.

curious to see where it might have gone if there was a 3rd season.. maybe frank vs fisk? Fisk was probably my favorite out of the whole NFMCU

I don’t think Fisk would stand much of a chance the way they’ve gone with the story so far. He only really gets to work because Matt won’t just kill him, while Frank wouldn’t have that issue.

 AduroT wrote:
I don’t think Fisk would stand much of a chance the way they’ve gone with the story so far. He only really gets to work because Matt won’t just kill him, while Frank wouldn’t have that issue.

Yeah, and Frank has no qualms just sniping the guy which would make it a damn short season. I feel like Frank would have to take his crusade on crime somewhere else, like a crime syndicate muscling in on New York now that Fisk has been neutralized again, leading him to take the fight to them outside of New York.

Have frank end up in the bayou on a fan boat with a SAW fighting baracuda.

Everybody wins

Just finished watching it. The management of the two story lines did feel a bit clunky, but at the same time only having the Billy story would have been a bit shallow.

Maybe would have been nice if the two story lines were actually linked rather than feeling like one was just a distraction from the other.

It’s shame we won’t see a third season, though Frank is hardly a deep character and even when they had the opportunity to delve a bit deeper they didn’t really put much effort in to it, so a third season might have felt tired unless the writers could pick up their game.

I could honestly see both story lines getting fleshed out into full seasons in their own right, but obviously there wasn't time for that. I think the Billy sub-plot was the stronger of the two plots until the end. That ending was kind of anti-climatic imo.

 Lance845 wrote:
Have frank end up in the bayou on a fan boat with a SAW fighting baracuda.

Everybody wins

Danger zone!

I must say, the girl grew on me a bit.

Three episodes in right now, already liking it so much more than the first season.

The bar fight already felt like it had more action than the entire first season combined.