THE PUNISHER: ONE LAST KILL is a 44 minute special that is advertised as a sequel to DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN. It’s not, really. You could easily watch this as a stand-alone and I’d argue it actually makes more sense as an entirely separate property. This is normally a good thing and will probably contribute to the health of the special in the long run but was disappointing to me as someone who wanted to know what Frank was doing during the Devil’s Reign of Wilson Fisk. Before I get into details, is it worth watching? Oh yes, I think it’s probably the best thing they’ve done with the character since Netflix’s Daredevil season Two but I suspect a lot of people will have issues with the character’s portrayal.
The premise is that Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) has successfully managed to kill the last of the people responsible for his family’s death. This loses some of its impact since it is like the third time Frank has avenged his family’s death in the MCU. However, it does trigger Frank deciding to do “One Last Kill”, which is dark enough to be tagged with a trigger warning: himself. The first twenty minutes are Frank contemplating suicide while having a hallucination-filled nervous breakdown. He backs down at the last second but comes perilously close to it.
Frank gets a distraction from his self-destruction when Ma Gnucci shows up. The widowed mafia madame proclaims that she wants to get revenge for her dead husband as well as three dead sons. Frank, uncharacteristically, lets her go and waits for the attack on his apartment building. It takes being set on fire and, perhaps more importantly, endangered innocents to get Frank to unleash his inner Punisher. From there, it’s heavy metal music and gunplay that would make Judge Dredd or John Wick proud.
There’s not much to say about One Last Kill other than it probably would have been a decent movie if they’d added twenty minutes more. As is, it feels like it’s unfinished and there’s not even a climax for the events of the story. That’s not too much of a condemnation because what we get is really good. Jon Bernthal creates a tortured man who has to make the choice between vengeance and saving innocents. There’s just one small problem: The Punisher chooses wrong. Not morally. The Punisher does what any hero would have done. But…the Punisher isn’t a hero.
I like Benthal’s Punisher as an emotionally tortured, fundamentally good man that has been broken by his grief. That’s not even an inaccurate version of the Punisher depending on the run, but I note most fans tend to prefer a stoic serial killer of criminals Frank Castle. One who is a fundamentally bad person that has lost all of his restraints and whose family would be horrified by the crusade he’s doing in their name. People expecting one of these to morph into the other are fooling themselves and the show’s interpretation reminds me more of Wolverine than the popular image of Frank.
The depiction of New York is also nonsensical as it is depicted as having descended into anarchy because Frank wiped out the local crime family. Which is not how organized crime works in the slightest. This is an area they should have incorporated Daredevil: Born Again because Wilson Fisk refusing to prosecute criminals as long as he gets his cut and focusing on the vigilantes who protect their communities would at least justify some of it.
In conclusion, The Punisher: One Last Kill is a pretty good presentation even if it’s too short and has some huge plot holes. It’s also something that has a number of painful triggers like suicide and animal cruelty (that is used to justify why a character has to die). Still, I have to recommend this work and wish Disney would just get back into the business of making movies rather than half-in, half-out like they have been.
