Two words brought me here - Jon Bernthal. After his performance as Shane Walsh on 'The Walking Dead' I wanted to give 'The Punisher' a shot and the show also came highly recommended by friends and family.

I watched both seasons within a couple of weeks and it didn't disappoint. Jon Bernthal's performance is phenomenal. He lives and breathes the role of Frank Castle and you can feel the commitment he gives to his work. In an interview Bernthal said that he does all of his own stunts (he actually broke his hand performing a stunt when filming for season 2 and continued to fight injured) because he felt it was important for the audience/fans to have the authenticity of seeing Frank doing the fighting. He also admitted in another interview that to fully get into character he spends large amounts of times in isolation to really capture the mentality and emotional state of Frank. This is a man who brings his all to the role and it really shows. Bernthal makes 'The Punisher' what it is.

'The Punisher' is a harrowing tale of soldier turned anti-hero/vigilante, Frank Castle, who is on a mission to avenge the murder of his wife and two young children. It's a tragic and violent tale that incorporates themes of mental health (PTSD), grief, loss, morality and isolation. There is a great balance between the fight scenes and brutality where The Punisher dominates the screen, and the human moments where Frank just gets to be Frank. As a character, one can't help but fall in love with and sympathise deeply with Frank Castle, experiencing the emotional journey he goes on with him.

If I was rating this based on Jon Bernthal's acting alone, it'd be a solid 10 out of 10, no questions asked. However, the show does have some issues, which become clearer in season 2, the main one being the plots. They're too thin to be spread across 13 50 minute episodes, which causes problems with the pacing, and also leads to random sub-plots branching out incoherently which make everything feel disjointed. There's also A LOT of repetition, and most of what happened in season 2 felt like a rehash of the events in season 1 (particularly with Billy). Personally, I think season 2 suffered from having too many secondary characters (Madani, Amy, Billy, Krista, Mahoney and Pilgrim) and not giving Frank enough focus. The new addition of Amy (Giorgia Whigham) was a blatant attempt to try and appeal to the female audience (since the show is very male dominated), but it was poor decision making because Amy's presence felt forced and out of place. All she really did was get in the way of Frank's arc and her plot replaced what could have potentially been an interesting plot for Frank. In addition, despite the brilliance of Billy Russo (and Ben Barnes), the decisions regarding his arc in season 2 were poor and didn't do him any justice. In fact, after 2 seasons of build up the resolution to that plot was very underwhelming and anti-climatic.

The issue here is definitely a writing one. Although there's no denying that 'The Punisher' has some great story-telling moments, such as 'Home' (s1 e12), which is an hour of brilliant and hard-hitting television, there are a lot of poor decisions that were made in season 2.

The show suffers from a lack of vision (which I suppose is the curse of being a show which is constantly under the threat of being cancelled) and it feels like it doesn't know WHAT it's trying to do or WHERE it's trying to go. Season 1 was much more coherent and felt like it had a clear beginning, middle and end, but season 2 didn't have that same clarity. I feel like the solution to this issue (if the show returns for a third season) is to shift the focus back to Frank himself, because he's the heart of the show and what the fans watch for.

Overall, despite the issues with season 2, it would be a real shame if 'The Punisher' was to follow in the footsteps of its cousin Marvel shows and get cancelled prematurely. Bernthal has so much more to give and although season 2 was purposefully ended on a note where it could pick up another season or end there, there's definitely still more to be told. I hope the popularity of the show manages to save it from being cancelled, because I still don't think the show has reached its full potential yet.