The Punisher: One Last Kill review: a big character in a small package

Frank Castle is not a well man. The so-called Punisher has been the one punished in recent Marvel TV shows, with a recent guest turn on Daredevil: Born Again leaving him battered, bruised, and doubting his place in the world.

The Punisher: One Last Kill picks up in the wake of Castle’s identity crisis, struggling to regain the drive to punish the criminals of New York. While surprisingly short, the new TV special is still an artful character study, reflecting Castle’s inner turmoil as much as his outer rage.

Bernthal’s Frank Castle is a one-man army

To understand where The Punisher: One Last Kill sits is made complicated by Marvel’s approach to genre television. The special takes place after the events of Daredevil: Born Again Season One, but prior to – or concurrent – with the events of Daredevil: Born Again Season Two.

To understand it fully, you’ll also need to have watched Netflix’s original Daredevil and The Punisher TV shows.

But what this special really is, beyond follow-up, is a means to reload Frank Castle prior to his upcoming big screen MCU debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It’s a reminder of who he is. With future appearances likely to curtail Castle’s assassination skills for an M-rating, One Last Kill is a final, brutal reminder of just how deadly The Punisher can be.

To allow Castle to embody his true self once more, One Last Kill opens on the anti-hero at his lowest. He’s haunted by his past deeds, and everyone he’s lost. He sees the faces of his fellow fallen soldiers, and his lost family. In whispers, they ask him to join them.

Castle now lives within a community at war, torn apart by gang warfare and conflict. One particularly ratty villain performs an act in the opening that sets the tone immediately. This is not a good place, and the people in it need a hero to save them.

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What they get instead is a man at war with himself, turning a blind eye to struggle. Castle begins the special lost in his own head, unable to see a way out. He’s in a routine, living in a ramshackle apartment, only leaving occasionally for small pleasures like coffee.

The catalyst for his rebirth arrives in John Wick-like fashion. This particular film franchise has clearly inspired the action of this adventure, in both setup and execution. Facing down a grieving mother, whose criminal family was torn apart by The Punisher, Castle is given a classic ultimatum.

Change, or die.

The art of war

From a slow-paced and introspective beginning, The Punisher: One Last Kill comes alive in this ultimatum. What follows is a 20-minute ballet of violence, again seemingly taking cues from the gun-fu of the John Wick franchise.

Armed to the teeth, Castle fights off attackers from all corners, with a quick and deadly dance of bullets and knives. In parts, the violence is perhaps unnecessarily gory – but this is in the nature of The Punisher. It’s an underscore on his persona, after years of being limited by lighter TV ratings, and being an accessory to more good-natured heroes.

It’s to the benefit of the character that this is a standalone, character-driven short, with more freedom to tell its story. The format is also, unfortunately, a detriment to character development, and the notion of meaning beyond One Last Kill being a showcase of blood and guts.

With a sub-45 minute runtime, The Punisher: One Last Kill attempts to pack in much in the way of rehabilitating Frank Castle and highlighting his skills. But the pacing and swiftness necessary in a TV special format does a disservice to an ambitious plot.

Ma Gnucci (played by Judith Light), ostensibly the primary villain of the special, gets very short thrift, and a lacklustre conclusion. She’s merely the catalyst for change, weaving into the story and swiftly back out, when her threats should feel more pertinent and horrifying.

There is plenty of satisfaction by the end, but the loose threads left dangling highlight the grinding parts of One More Kill – that this is a TV special only, and a means to set up future adventures in the wider MCU.

Understanding the special in that context allows you to appreciate the art here – the hard-hitting, grimace-worthy action, the gritty, grimy performance of Jon Bernthal, and the evolution of The Punisher as he approaches his MCU debut.

Without this context, One More Kill is a strangely truncated special that could have done with a longer, more fitting length, given more time for its biggest threats to loom.

The Punisher: One More Kill is streaming on Disney+.

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