{"id":666118,"date":"2026-05-13T06:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T06:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/666118\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T06:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T06:42:11","slug":"punisher-one-last-kill-review-jon-bernthal-in-violent-marvel-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/666118\/","title":{"rendered":"Punisher One Last Kill Review: Jon Bernthal in Violent Marvel Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cPunisher: One Last Kill<\/a>\u201d is anything but.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo put it plainly, Jon Bernthal<\/a>\u2018s anti-hero Punisher does a lot of killing in his Marvel Special Presentation. A whole lot. But layered into the over-the-top violence is a powerful character study of a PTSD-addled veteran who has lost nearly everything. Bernthal\u2019s vengeance-fueled performance as Frank Castle has been a highlight in the MCU since he debuted a decade ago, but this time he\u2019s pushed to his breaking point in a tense 48-minute special.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo recount Bernthal\u2019s entire MCU journey almost requires its own TV special, but here goes. He started as the Punisher in Season 2 of Netflix\u2019s \u201cDaredevil\u201d TV show, which was part of a mini, pre-Disney+ Marvel universe that followed \u201cstreet-level\u201d heroes like Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. Like the comics, Bernthal\u2019s Punisher was a loose-cannon, gun-toting vigilante overflowing with grief from the shocking murders of his wife and children. He crossed paths with Charlie Cox\u2019s Daredevil and clashed immediately over the hero\u2019s no-killing rule.<\/p>\n

\n\tBernthal followed up his scene-stealing turn on \u201cDaredevil\u201d with his own standalone \u201cPunisher\u201d series on Netflix, which ran for two seasons. It expanded Castle\u2019s world and explored who he is outside of his homicidal rampage (Answer: a lost, tortured soul). Once Marvel\u2019s Netflix shows were canceled, they moved to Disney+ in 2022 \u2014 putting the M-rated \u201cPunisher\u201d and family-friendly shows like \u201cBluey\u201d on the same platform. The Netflix heroes made their full MCU return with last year\u2019s \u201cDaredevil: Born Again\u201d continuation, which brought Bernthal\u2019s Punisher back into the fold with a guest appearance and some brutal fight scenes.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the six-year break between shows, Castle became even more reclusive and unstable. Now, \u201cOne Last Kill\u201d shows what made him put his skull-painted armor back on and reload his never-ending cache of guns. The TV special opens with Bernthal working out in a room mostly empty except for a wall of newspaper clippings taped together in true conspiracy-theorist fashion. Outside, New York City is in mayhem. Gang members attack innocent bystanders, set police cars ablaze and even throw a puppy into traffic (Haven\u2019t they seen \u201cJohn Wick\u201d?). <\/p>\n

\n\tThe chaos is a perfect representation of Castle\u2019s mind. The years of trauma catch up to him, and he begins seeing hallucinations of his murdered family and Marine comrades. Bernthal snaps and unleashes Castle\u2019s anguish in a powerful scene at his family\u2019s gravesite. It\u2019s a hauntingly moving scene that most action blockbusters, no matter how tortured their macho protagonists are, wouldn\u2019t dare show \u2014 much less a Marvel movie that normally punctuates shootouts with punchlines.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom there, the violence lets loose like a firehose. Judith Light plays Ma Gnucci, the wheelchair-bound matriarch of a crumbling crime family, who sets out on her own revenge quest against Castle after a flashback shows he killed her son. The city\u2019s criminals descend on Castle, and he must spring into action and use everything at his disposal to protect himself. Bernthal survives a gasoline immolation, dynamite explosion and rooftop plummet, not to mention countless gunshots and stab wounds. The fight scenes are non-stop and take him up and around his apartment building to the mobbed streets below. Bernthal turns into a one-man army whose hardship somehow protects him from the pain, giving him the resolve to push through any attacker.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite his blood-soaked mission, Castle isn\u2019t all guns and testosterone. He still looks out for the innocent, and there\u2019s a touching moment between him and a young girl he saved, plus he gets revenge on the puppy-killer. \u201cOne Last Kill\u201d isn\u2019t a happy ending for him, but rather a fitting interlude for Marvel\u2019s brutal anti-hero. (It still remains to be seen how the M-rated Punisher will fit into this summer\u2019s very PG-13 \u201cSpider-Man: Brand New Day\u201d). Marvel tiptoed into adult content with the already-established \u201cDeadpool & Wolverine,\u201d but there aren\u2019t any *NSYNC needle-drops or quippy one-liners to lessen the intensity of Punisher\u2019s psyche and savagery. But thanks to Bernthal finally letting loose, \u201cOne Last Kill\u201d cements his Punisher as one of Marvel\u2019s most singular performances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cPunisher: One Last Kill\u201d is anything but. To put it plainly, Jon Bernthal\u2018s anti-hero Punisher does a lot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,177178,245746],"class_list":["post-666118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-jon-bernthal","tag-punisher-one-last-kill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}