Jon Bernthal’s 13-Episode Action-Packed Thriller Is a Start to Finish Masterpiece

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Anyone who watches The Punisher won’t be surprised to learn there’s plenty of bloodshed, as Castle uses his military skills and seemingly unlimited weaponry to slaughter criminals. What is surprising is the deep dive the series takes into Castle’s mental state, showcasing that his war on crime is really all he has left to live for. Another tragic element is the reveal that Castle’s former friend, Billy Russo (Ben Barnes), is the architect of his suffering. Marvel Comics fans will immediately recognize Russo as Jigsaw, the Punisher’s heavily scarred archenemy, but Netflix’s take on The Punisher fleshes him out into a compelling character—which makes his betrayal sting all the more.

This tragic element is what makes The Punisher stand out. Most people wrongly see the character as a power fantasy or write him off as a mere psychopath, but this series goes the extra mile to show that Castle’s life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Years after The Punisher wrapped up its run on Netflix, Jason Aaron summed up Castle’s character perfectly in the afterword to Punisher: The King of Killers — and how the Netflix series nailed that aspect.

“At the end of the day, despite the complicated nature of the character, despite the changing times and disperate viewpoints, the story of Frank Castle is fundamentally one very simple thing: a tragedy…The long, bloody tragedy of the Punisher will never be finished.”

“At the end of the day, despite the complicated nature of the character, despite the changing times and disperate viewpoints, the story of Frank Castle is fundamentally one very simple thing: a tragedy…The long, bloody tragedy of the Punisher will never be finished.”

• You show up for the small stuff nobody is watching.
• You joke through fear rather than letting it stop you.
• You take the loss personally, every time.

• Tom Holland was introduced mid-fight in Civil War in 2016, with no origin story needed.
• No Way Home passed 1.9 billion dollars and became the biggest release of the pandemic era.
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrived in 2026, his fourth solo outing in the MCU.

• You work the problem legally first and physically second.
• You hold a line you have genuinely wanted to cross.
• You take the cases nobody else will touch.

• Charlie Cox’s 2015 series opened with a one-take hallway fight that reset the bar for
  TV action.
• Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin crossed into Hawkeye and Echo before the two reunited
  on screen.
• Daredevil: Born Again brought the pair back, and a second season followed in 2026.

• You solve it with the thing you built last night.
• You would rather be useful than liked.
• You have a contingency for the contingency.

• The 2008 film launched the entire MCU on a casting choice the studio considered a real risk.
• Much of Robert Downey Jr.’s dialogue was improvised, the closing line included.
• Announcing himself at that press conference threw out the secret-identity rulebook for a
  decade of films.

• You finish what you start, with no appetite for ceremony.
• You keep your circle small and your mission smaller.
• You accept being the villain in somebody else’s telling.

• Jon Bernthal arrived in Daredevil’s second season in 2016 and earned a two-season show
  of his own.
• The character was created in 1974 by Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru, as a
  Spider-Man antagonist.
• Bernthal returned in Born Again, with a Disney+ special following on from it.

• You go first, and loudly.
• You take the lesson, eventually.
• You are the morale of the room as much as its muscle.

• Chris Hemsworth nearly missed the part. His brother Liam got further in the process at
  first.
• Taika Waititi’s Ragnarok reinvented the character through heavy on-set improvisation.
• Hemsworth has headlined four Thor films, from 2011 through to 2022.

• You say the unpopular thing in the room where it costs you.
• You hold the plan together when it starts coming apart.
• You get back up. That is the whole trick.

• Chris Evans turned the role down more than once before finally taking it.
• The Winter Soldier recast the series as a political thriller and is still held up as its
  best.
• Anthony Mackie took over the shield and led Brave New World in 2025.

Jon Bernthal Recently Returned to the Role of The Punisher

• Image via Disney+

• Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment

• Image via Disney+

• Images via Sony Pictures Releasing

• Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

Image via Disney+

Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment

Image via Disney+

Images via Sony Pictures Releasing

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

• Image via Disney+

• Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment

• Image via Disney+

• Images via Sony Pictures Releasing

• Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

Image via Disney+

Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment

Image via Disney+

Images via Sony Pictures Releasing

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

The Punisher lasted only two seasons on Netflix before being canceled, yet many fans felt Season 2 was a step down from Season 1 because of a pair of less-than-menacing antagonists and a scattershot plot. However, it wasn’t the end of Jon Berenthal’s time playing the character. Bernthal would return as Castle in Daredevil: Born Again, reuniting with former Punisher writer Dario Scardapane in the process. The best was yet to come, as Bernthal also co-wrote and starred in The Punisher: One Last Kill, which hews closely to The Punisher Season 1 in terms of emotional heft and action.Bernthal also plays the Punisher in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and, surprisingly, is one of the best parts of the movie. A large part of that is due to the vitriolic back-and-forth between Castle andJon Bernthal’s 13-Episode Action-Packed Thriller IsTom Holland‘s titular web-slinger, but there’s also a moment that highlights Castle as being more than a lean, mean, criminal-killing machine. When he admonishes Peter Parker for choosing to stay hidden from his former girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya), Castle says, “Kid, this is a sentence.” That single line highlights how tortured of a character he is, and gives the kind of depth The Punisher was aiming for.

While The Punisher had its ups and downs, it’s arguably worth watching to see Jon Bernthal bring one of Marvel’s most complicated characters to life. The blood and violence are just the cherry on top.

The Punisher