The Punisher - 3AM

Aside from the opening and closing scenes, there's little punishment dealt out in the first episode of Netflix's The Punisher. Previously introducing in the Second Season of Daredevil, Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) kills off the last couple members of the criminal organization tied to the murder of his wife and children. Months later, still haunted by his missing family (which he deals with by smashing walls into rubble) and hiding under an assumed identity as a construction worker, Frank is forced into action to help a co-worker (Lucca De Oliveira) who gets in over-his-head. Once he gets out, they pull him back in.

The other half of "3AM" introduces Amber Rose Revah as Homeland Security agent Dinah Madani who has questions about Frank Castle, his apparent death, and the missions he did for the U.S. Government while part of his old unit. Not suprisingly, the agent's superiors don't want anyone digging into something that might given the U.S. Government a black eye. Frank's quick conversation with an old war buddy turned counselor (Jason R. Moore) foreshadows some dark reveals around Frank's actions as a Marine, likely tying the two plot threads together at some point.

The first episode spends an awful lot of time on a fake identity Frank is going to be forced to abandon given his brutal murder of several of his co-workers at the site. The opening action and the two sets of murders at the end (the workers followed by the mobsters) offer a few highlights, but it's hardly the extreme body count (really the only thing the character has going for him) you would expect in a Punisher-centric series. Despite the murderous outburst, Frank still hasn't gotten back to what he does best on a consistent basis which means we'll have to continue to slog through more set-up before the show gets started in earnest.