The Punisher: 3AM
November 17, 2017 8:45 AM - Season 1, Episode 1 - Subscribe
Former Marine Frank Castle takes the law into his own hands while struggling to come to terms with his traumatic past.
Metafilter FPP - Welcome back Frank
AV Club recap - The Punisher gets off to a promising, problematic start
*In the pre-credit sequence, Frank runs over a motorcyclist in rural Alabama, follows a last surviving cartel member and shoots him in the head from sniper distance, and chokes a man to death in a JFK airport bathroom, thus killing everyone involved in the murder of his family.
*Six months later finds him working a construction site under an assumed name, being hassled by the other workers - primarily Lance, who stomps on Frank's sandwich. New guy Donny Chavez tries to befriend Frank, telling him he was orphaned at 12 when his mom and former-Marine dad got killed by a lousy driver, but Frank just wants to be left alone to his hammering.
*Frank listens outside the room during a veteran support group, then talks to the group leader, Curtis, who encourages him to embrace his new identity and let Frank Castle The Punisher stay dead.
*Dinah Madani starts work in the NY Homeland Security office, meeting new partner Sam Stein. She was transferred out of Afghanistan to discourage her from investigating the murder of her former partner, Ahmad Zubair, in Kandahar, and her new boss warns her not to continue her investigation. Later, Dinah asks Stein to dig up whatever he can find on Colonel Schoonover and Frank Castle.
*Donny tries to ingratiate himself with the construction crew by offering to buy first round, but gets stuck with the whole tab at last call, and Lance tells Paulie that he's in trouble with a loan shark, Gnucci, and needs him to find them another job to pull off. Next day on the site, Paulie tells Lance that they can rob a high-stakes card game run by Gnucci's crew, and they invite Donny along after another of the crew is injured. Frank overhears the plotting, but does not get involved.
*Dinah and her mother, Farah, have a heart to heart over wine.
*Frank tries to read in his apartment, but has another flashback of his wife's murder and goes back to the construction site to hammer some more. Meanwhile, at the high-stakes-game robbery, Donny fumbles and drops his wallet with his ID visible to all. They race back to the construction site, where Lance decides they need to kill Donny before the Gnucci's find him and make him give up their identities. After a brief chase and a beatdown, Donny is thrown into a hole being filled with cement.
*Frank goes on a hammer murder rampage, gets the location of the Gnucci game, and leaves Donny a rope to climb and the bag of money, then goes and executes all of the Gnucci crew, who were about to go track down Donny starting at his grandmother's place.
*Someone watches surveillance footage of Frank in the alley, and identifies him via 'gait recognition' mode.
Metafilter FPP - Welcome back Frank
AV Club recap - The Punisher gets off to a promising, problematic start
*In the pre-credit sequence, Frank runs over a motorcyclist in rural Alabama, follows a last surviving cartel member and shoots him in the head from sniper distance, and chokes a man to death in a JFK airport bathroom, thus killing everyone involved in the murder of his family.
*Six months later finds him working a construction site under an assumed name, being hassled by the other workers - primarily Lance, who stomps on Frank's sandwich. New guy Donny Chavez tries to befriend Frank, telling him he was orphaned at 12 when his mom and former-Marine dad got killed by a lousy driver, but Frank just wants to be left alone to his hammering.
*Frank listens outside the room during a veteran support group, then talks to the group leader, Curtis, who encourages him to embrace his new identity and let Frank Castle The Punisher stay dead.
*Dinah Madani starts work in the NY Homeland Security office, meeting new partner Sam Stein. She was transferred out of Afghanistan to discourage her from investigating the murder of her former partner, Ahmad Zubair, in Kandahar, and her new boss warns her not to continue her investigation. Later, Dinah asks Stein to dig up whatever he can find on Colonel Schoonover and Frank Castle.
*Donny tries to ingratiate himself with the construction crew by offering to buy first round, but gets stuck with the whole tab at last call, and Lance tells Paulie that he's in trouble with a loan shark, Gnucci, and needs him to find them another job to pull off. Next day on the site, Paulie tells Lance that they can rob a high-stakes card game run by Gnucci's crew, and they invite Donny along after another of the crew is injured. Frank overhears the plotting, but does not get involved.
*Dinah and her mother, Farah, have a heart to heart over wine.
*Frank tries to read in his apartment, but has another flashback of his wife's murder and goes back to the construction site to hammer some more. Meanwhile, at the high-stakes-game robbery, Donny fumbles and drops his wallet with his ID visible to all. They race back to the construction site, where Lance decides they need to kill Donny before the Gnucci's find him and make him give up their identities. After a brief chase and a beatdown, Donny is thrown into a hole being filled with cement.
*Frank goes on a hammer murder rampage, gets the location of the Gnucci game, and leaves Donny a rope to climb and the bag of money, then goes and executes all of the Gnucci crew, who were about to go track down Donny starting at his grandmother's place.
*Someone watches surveillance footage of Frank in the alley, and identifies him via 'gait recognition' mode.
I also really didn't need to hear that 'white people are the ones really being discriminated against' bullshit in the veteran support group.I'm a little more than halfway through and I'm beginning to wonder if anyone who wrote reviews of the show criticizing it for being MRA/RedPill/GamerGate/Alt-Right/White Male Grievance fodder watched the actual show. It has its fair share of toxic man/dadpain, sure, but I can't see anyone airbrushing the Punisher logo on their cop car because of this particular portrayal unless they're willing to ignore the depiction of cops, the FBI, the US military as an organization and about 40% of the soldiers, and CIA spooks as being way, way less than heroic.
posted by xyzzy at 11:55 AM on November 17, 2017 [6 favorites]
I one to the loo just after the thug-in-concrete dumping and when I came back, my wife said: "You've got rewind and watch this!" for the Italian poker game massacre.
"Brutality?" I asked.
"Korean-level brutality," she said.
Now that's some top brutality right there.
Considering it's a TV adaptation of a comic book knock-off of Death Wish, it's pretty good, no?
posted by Grangousier at 1:58 PM on November 17, 2017
"Brutality?" I asked.
"Korean-level brutality," she said.
Now that's some top brutality right there.
Considering it's a TV adaptation of a comic book knock-off of Death Wish, it's pretty good, no?
posted by Grangousier at 1:58 PM on November 17, 2017
I've watched ten minutes and change and am pondering this: if you're looking for someone to tangle with, is the guy who swings a sledgehammer all day a wise choice?
We'll see how it goes.
posted by mr. digits at 4:58 PM on November 17, 2017 [3 favorites]
We'll see how it goes.
posted by mr. digits at 4:58 PM on November 17, 2017 [3 favorites]
Those tiny soggy little sandwiches can't be enough fuel, let alone protein (although Frank's first sandwich looked like pretty high quality shaved turkey breast), for the kind of work these people are supposed to be doing.
Oh my,Avasarala Farah Madani (Shohreh Aghdashloo)'s voice is the awesomenest sexiest voice ever.
I liked DD/JJ/LC (Defenders was ok, spoiled by Fisty) and I think I could like this, too.
Anyone else trying to ration this, or is everyone just binging?
posted by porpoise at 6:30 PM on November 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh my,
I liked DD/JJ/LC (Defenders was ok, spoiled by Fisty) and I think I could like this, too.
Anyone else trying to ration this, or is everyone just binging?
posted by porpoise at 6:30 PM on November 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
but I can't see anyone airbrushing the Punisher logo on their cop car because of this particular portrayal unless they're willing to ignore
Haven't we seen countless examples of willing ignorance from the MRA/Neo-Nazi/uber-patriot etc types though? How many times has Springsteen had to tell politicians to stop using "Born in the U.S.A." as a rally song? I don't think making Frank's military/law enforcement enemies corrupt and unheroic would make him any less appealing to the toxic masculinity crowd, they already think they're the true Good Guys. (I do think the show is trying its best, but there's no getting around the problematic nature of Frank as a protagonist, for all the reasons mentioned in the FPP.)
posted by oh yeah! at 6:48 AM on November 18, 2017 [3 favorites]
Haven't we seen countless examples of willing ignorance from the MRA/Neo-Nazi/uber-patriot etc types though? How many times has Springsteen had to tell politicians to stop using "Born in the U.S.A." as a rally song? I don't think making Frank's military/law enforcement enemies corrupt and unheroic would make him any less appealing to the toxic masculinity crowd, they already think they're the true Good Guys. (I do think the show is trying its best, but there's no getting around the problematic nature of Frank as a protagonist, for all the reasons mentioned in the FPP.)
posted by oh yeah! at 6:48 AM on November 18, 2017 [3 favorites]
This is a great dramatic series, but it's mindblowing to think that it ostensibly occupies the same shared world as Thor: Ragnarok. Even small stuff - 9/11 is mentioned as pulling New Yorkers together in a crisis, rather than say...the way more brutal alien invasion like five years ago? Originally I thought it would be fun to have Netflix heroes show up as cameos in stuff like the Infinity War series, but it'd really cheapen a character like Frank.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 4:49 AM on November 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 4:49 AM on November 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
I certainly read NRA hat man as an obnoxious blowhard that everyone pretty much wanted to shut up, for what it's worth. I do have to agree with the thrust of the FPP, though, that Frank doesn't make much sense as a hero. The vet group was an interesting touch, but otherwise it seems like the show is just looking for more excuses for him to viciously murder people.
posted by tautological at 7:04 AM on November 19, 2017
posted by tautological at 7:04 AM on November 19, 2017
oh yeah!: I think if you're going to write those lines into a script you need to write a more explicit rebuttal. You can't have a white character telling black characters that there will be blood in the streets and not have any of the black characters point out that there is already blood in the streets.
QF the muvvafunkin T - eye rolling is too subtle. I wanted anyone to just say "shut up Frank, this isn't the time or place for us to remind you what white privilege is, and that Europeans are invaders." (Except then the angry white male viewers would be furious that their righteous anger was shut down so quickly, but hey, that's the fucking point.)
xyzzy: I can't see anyone airbrushing the Punisher logo on their cop car because of this particular portrayal unless they're willing to ignore the depiction of cops, the FBI, the US military as an organization and about 40% of the soldiers, and CIA spooks as being way, way less than heroic.
Anyone cop who airbrushes the Punisher logo on their car is already willing to overlook that they are not in fact judge, jury and executioner, but just the first person involved in the legal system that also includes separate judges, juries, and if found guilty of a sufficiently heinous crime, executioners.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:10 AM on November 20, 2017
QF the muvvafunkin T - eye rolling is too subtle. I wanted anyone to just say "shut up Frank, this isn't the time or place for us to remind you what white privilege is, and that Europeans are invaders." (Except then the angry white male viewers would be furious that their righteous anger was shut down so quickly, but hey, that's the fucking point.)
xyzzy: I can't see anyone airbrushing the Punisher logo on their cop car because of this particular portrayal unless they're willing to ignore the depiction of cops, the FBI, the US military as an organization and about 40% of the soldiers, and CIA spooks as being way, way less than heroic.
Anyone cop who airbrushes the Punisher logo on their car is already willing to overlook that they are not in fact judge, jury and executioner, but just the first person involved in the legal system that also includes separate judges, juries, and if found guilty of a sufficiently heinous crime, executioners.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:10 AM on November 20, 2017
For fuck's sake, Frank - help the man pick up the chairs, don't just watch him do the work.
What the hell kind of blue collar hero just watches someone else do the work and drinks coffee? It's a little small to expect from a character moment, but I think it would say a lot to this guy having some sort of genuine desire to help others underneath that confusion and desire to punish.
Edit: "Rural Alabama" is a weak ass card location. Pick literally any county in Rural Alabama that doesn't have Birmingham , though stay to the ones closer to Tennessee since that didn't look have the look of the gulf coast. Just use Wikipedia and pick one at random.
posted by absalom at 6:56 PM on November 22, 2017
What the hell kind of blue collar hero just watches someone else do the work and drinks coffee? It's a little small to expect from a character moment, but I think it would say a lot to this guy having some sort of genuine desire to help others underneath that confusion and desire to punish.
Edit: "Rural Alabama" is a weak ass card location. Pick literally any county in Rural Alabama that doesn't have Birmingham , though stay to the ones closer to Tennessee since that didn't look have the look of the gulf coast. Just use Wikipedia and pick one at random.
posted by absalom at 6:56 PM on November 22, 2017
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I really liked Bernthal's Punisher in Daredevil, though I'm leery of how well having him be the hero will work, for all the reasons brought up over in the FPP thread. I also really didn't need to hear that 'white people are the ones really being discriminated against' bullshit in the veteran support group. The AV Club recapper seems to think that they made it clear that he was spouting bullshit by everyone's eye-rolling, but, I think if you're going to write those lines into a script you need to write a more explicit rebuttal. You can't have a white character telling black characters that there will be blood in the streets and not have any of the black characters point out that there is already blood in the streets.
posted by oh yeah! at 9:07 AM on November 17, 2017 [5 favorites]