Remember when Frank Castle was first introduced in Daredevil Season 2? He was the embodiment of the Grim Reaper... Angry, Violent, Visceral, and Exceedingly brutal. He came in like a freight train and plowed through the streets of Manhattan leaving an orgy blood, guts, and gore. He made evil, psychopathic men get down on their knees and beg for mercy while he put a bullet through their brain.

To comic book fans that's who the Punisher is. I'm not a comic reader myself, but I've heard enough about the character to know that he is THE definition of an Anti-Hero. Maybe even an Anti-Hero who's pushing the boundaries of a Tragic-Villain, but no matter what, you still root for the guy. Because everyone has that moment where you think, if I went through what he did, and I found the people who destroyed my life.. maybe I'd do the same, or at least want the same.

Well, that Frank Castle is gone in "The Punisher". I guess we can't really do the ultra angry, ultra violent Castle for all 13 episodes, but I found him to be way to watered down. They tried to make him more humanized. More sympathetic. Heck, he's even friendlier. Oddly enough though, that actually made the character slightly less interesting to me. TV is full of characters like that. Once in a rare while we get show runners with enough balls to write a main character like Walter White or Tony Soprano, who are capable of committing truly heinous act and really makes us question "Are we still rooting for the guy?"

They made a decent show that felt fairly procedural, with the standard government agencies and the main characters playing cat and mouse. There are also plenty of wonderfully choreographed shootouts and melee take downs, but none come close to the infamous "Prison Fight" or the "Diner Scene" from Daredevil.

Jon Berthal is great as always with plenty of Bro-Charisma, but I couldn't help but miss the old Frank Castle, the dehumanized Angel of Death version that we were introduced to. I guess it would be hard to create an entire "Superhero" show with someone like that but... heck why the hell not?