The Punisher, Season 1, Episode 9: Front Toward Enemy
So yeah, a good chunk of this episode is devoted thematically towards the discussion of gun control, and I really wish that it was... presented slightly more intelligently, I would say? The discussion between happens between Karen Page, a character we care about, having seen her through multiple previous seasons (or even if Punisher is your first Marvel Netflix show, you've seen her through this one) and Senator Stan Ori. If your reply was 'who?', that's exactly the problem with the discussion. With Karen, when she talks about the right to protect herself, it comes off as realistic because we know that she's been put in the crosshairs of the Hand or Kingpin's minions multiple times. Of course someone like her is going to feel justified -- rightfully so -- in arming herself. But the other side of the discussion isn't someone whose argument is built towards stricter gun control laws or the like. It's like talking to a strawman in an argument, where he's like "but yeah, guns kill people, so we must take them all away!" Add the somewhat unflattering hypocrisy that the show has towards how Karen defends the Punisher (sociopaths with guns are not okay! Unless if they're my good buddy, Frank Castle). It's like they knew that they're trying to set up an intelligent, meaningful conversation about guns, but somewhat falls short in adding the 'meaningful' and 'intelligent' parts of it. 
Add the bit of shoving the "irony" (very big quotation marks here, since it's very unsubtly noted by Billy Russo) that oh, Senator Stan Ori is protesting guns, but when he's threatened by Lewis he hires Anvil, and army of gun-toting mercenaries. While the show also ignores the same irony that Karen Page writes an article about how violence shouldn't be treated as a way to communicate while defending the Punisher a couple of scenes afterwards.
But... I dunno. I'm not American, and I admit I'm not that well-versed in the nuances of the gun control debate. (Personally I've always thought that allowing anyone to buy a gun is a stupid decision that causes far more school shoot-outs and casino massacres than it actually allows anyone to protect himself, but that's ignorant ol' me) But I'm pretty sure anti-gun-control people aren't asking for all people to not have guns, but to ban certain types of guns or to implement stricter psychological tests and background checks.
So yeah, the weird debate segment felt insanely unnecessary other than set-up and to have Lewis, who is in full-on psychopathic terrorist mode, call into the radio show.
Thankfully, the gun control discussion doesn't take up too much of the episode, even if the constant cutaways to that side of the story does take up a huge chunk of it, because a good chunk of it still revolves around the fact that Lewis Wilson has gone full-blown terrorist, losing any last bit of sanity or sympathy he has from the audience throughout this episode. The show and the actor does a particularly amazing job at rendering Lewis's PTSD and his breakdown... I just really wish he actually has a bit more character other than being an angry, confused ex-soldier who's driven mad by the douchebag O'Connor, who seems to do it just for shits and giggles.
And Lewis is, I guess, designed to be some sort of a foil to the Punisher? I really don't see it, but he's still a pretty interesting villain regardless. He ends up intersecting with Curtis, a character we like, who's trying to get him to stand down. He then beats the fucking tar out of Curtis, with his own prosthetic leg for added insult. While he doesn't kill Curtis, he still straps him to a bunch of bombs for Frank to find, because he's... sure that Frank will show up? I admit that I'm a little fuzzy on how his game plan goes from blowing up a police station to sending letters to Karen's newspaper to becoming a nemesis to the Punisher.
But by this point, any sympathy we have towards Lewis is replaced with our cheering for Frank to put a bullet in the dude's head (or arrest him, whatever) because, shit, he beat up Curtis! The confrontation between Frank and Lewis is definitely done very well, with the tension as Frank has to talk Lewis down as opposed to go through the arguably easier way of shoot-shoot kill-kill, which isn't feasible in a hostage situation where his friend is the hostage. We get a surprising Curtis backstory, too, telling us how it's actually Frank being soft during the Afghanistan campaign that caused a bomb to go off and claim Curtis's leg. And I've always this more... adaptable version of the Punisher. There's a stark contrast to how the Punisher behaves when he charges into battle with a devil-may-care attitude, killing and machinegunning people down without a word or a wisecrack, just a machine that punishes all them evil wrongdoers. But when there's a friend on the line, which is Curtis in here, Frank goes from being a soulless machine to begging, bargaining, cajoling, threatening and using all sorts of ways to get Lewis to give him the wire to stop Curtis from going kaboom.
And, well, the 'save friends before killing the bad guy' is what makes the Punisher so much more likable and easy to root for compared to the edgy 80's anti-heroes (which is a trope that ironically is codified by Frank Castle himself). That scene where Frank says that he's going to do anything for Curtis, who is his brother, is a very neat scene as well.
What else happens here? Madani breaks down, but gets approached by Micro at a bar, who wants to tell her everything. But they are stopped when they realize that during his escape from the policemen, Frank Castle's face is captured by a camera, and news reports are broadcasting the fact that he's alive to the world, adding a new layer of complication to the thing. We also get a fun scene with Micro and Frank in their base when they first find out about Lewis's existence and Frank tells Micro that "his name is Lewis and he drives a cab", and Micro just has this expression that goes "internet searching doesn't work that way, bro"
So yeah. I still immensely enjoyed this episode despite my complaints about how the whole gun control debate issues ended up becoming, but on the other hand, the show has such a great grip on the writing and characterization of Frank Castle that it's hard not to just sit back and enjoy the Punisher. Not because he's a hardcore video game protagonist, but because the show really explores the Punisher as a flawed human being. So yeah, despite its flaws, this is still a very good episode of the Punisher, and really ratchets up the tension for the final half of the season.
No comments:
Post a Comment