3 AM

Giving The Punisher a try... and hoping it gets better - and deserves all these high ratings.

Bernthal is reasonably compelling, and I WANT to like this series, based on The Accountant and other work. Howerever, so far (first three episodes), it's just incredibly shallow and overwrought in the 'acting' and writing. Rip-off of West Wing/ Aaron Sorkin dialogue in one group therapy scene shows me how vacuous the writing is, and how inexperienced. Disappointing.

Yeah right, it's a comic book, but except for those who swim only in the most shallow puddles, The Punisher (so far) is grade school drivel. NOTHING is unexpected, other than the occasional profoundly stupid mistake by our antihero.

No insight whatsoever informs the writing (production, creativity, etc) of the series. It's supposed to be about military special ops/ espionage, etc, but this crap is all little boys' fantasy. So, it depends on faux irony & pathos, and simplistic action and VERY bad stage fighting, rather than interesting storylines.

Maybe it gets better, but I suspect that Netflix and producers are rewarded enough by all the viewer reviews, so there's no incentive to make a more intelligent action series. Too bad.