History Series / ThePunisher2017

* TheWarOnTerror: Frank was involved in the war in Afghanistan, and he's being hunted by the US's Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCityCops NYPD]]. Madani and Sam even have a conversation while walking around the reflecting pools at the 9/11 Memorial.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Easily one of the darkest entries of the MCU. Unlike ''Series/Daredevil2015'' and the rest of ''Series/TheDefenders2017'', the fantastic elements are absent here and the show is much more oriented towards espionage, action, as well as conspiracies that deal with government and corporate corruption. Basically, the series is less MCU and more like ''Series/TwentyFour''.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Easily one of the most serious entries of the MCU. Unlike ''Series/Daredevil2015'' and the rest of ''Series/TheDefenders2017'', the fantastic elements are absent here and the show is much more oriented towards espionage, action, as well as conspiracies that deal with government and corporate corruption. Basically, the series is less MCU and more like ''Series/TwentyFour''.

** David's attempts to keep Frank stabilized after he gets shot by a FriendlyFire arrow from Gunner. He tries pumping Frank with antibiotics and fluids, which won't do shit while the arrow is lodged in Frank and infested with bacteria. Also from this scene: David quite rightly sanitizes his hands before treating Frank... and proceeds to rub them dry on his pants.

* GoodVsGood: Frank may be hunting down criminals who have killed complete innocents, but because he's also a NominalHero who at this point has caused untold amounts of property damage, murdered dozens of (bad) people, and even broke out of prison, he often finds himself having to run from the cops and other law enforcement groups as well.

On February 18, 2019, it was announced the 2nd season was going to be its final one as the series was canceled alongside ''Series/JessicaJones'', effectively killing off the final original Marvel shows on Netflix.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The series opens with Frank concluding the rampage he was on throughout the course of ''Series/{{Daredevil}}'' season 2, and he's wiped out every criminal organization involved in the shoot-out that killed his family before the premiere episode's ColdOpen ends. He soon learns, however, that there were even more players behind the killing and he begins another rampage to make sure he gets everyone once and for all.

* CrapsackWorld: ''The Punisher'' gives us the titular character fighting highly corrupt military conspiracies involved in heroin trafficking and human rights violations. In the second season, gives us a corrupt company that is involved in many murders. It certainly doesn't help the fact that the series was inspired by some of Punisher's darkest comics.

''The Punisher'' is a Creator/{{Netflix}} original series, based on the Creator/MarvelComics character [[ComicBook/ThePunisher of the same name]]. It's set in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse --like most other shows produced by Creator/MarvelTelevision-- alongside ''Series/{{The Defenders|2017}}'', ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'', ''Series/{{Jessica Jones|2015}}'', ''Series/{{Luke Cage|2016}}'' and ''Series/{{Iron Fist|2017}}'', [[SpinOff spinning off]] from ''Daredevil''.

The series follows [[RetiredBadass former]] United States [[SemperFi Marine Corps]] Lieutenant Frank Castle (Creator/JonBernthal, reprising his role from ''Daredevil'') who, [[FreudianExcuse after his wife, son and daughter are murdered]] in a shoot out between rival gangs, decides to wage a [[OneManArmy one man war]] on crime.

[[DarkAndTroubledPast Haunted by memories of his past]] and [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist hunted by law enforcement]], Frank finds himself drawn back into an all new war when he learns that what happened to his family may have [[TheConspiracy more to do with his past in the Marine Corps than he thought]].

** In Episode 8 - "Cold Steel" There's a brief moment during a serious discussion where David is worried that they may have traced them by David accessing Rawllin's file. Frank assures him that is most likely that they didn't given that the recent incidents with Gunner's murder and Frank's attack on Bennett's army base went unreported. This segues into a quick mood shift that's absolute hilarity, made all the sweater by the absolutely calm and matter of fact way Frank delivers the line before continuing their serious discussion.
--->'''David Lieberman:''' Yeah. I mean...the ''Bulletin'' ran a piece about Bennett turning up stabbed to death in a motel upstate but..that's it.\\

'''Frank Castle:''' [[CrossesTheLineTwice That they know about]].

** Billy Russo’s defeat

** Karen is in the midst of mourning Matt and can't stop thinking about losing him. She keeps a photo of her with Matt and Foggy placed on a tabletop by the TV, her new apartment looks very similar in appearance to Matt's loft apartment, and she implies during a conversation with Frank about not wanting to be alone that she hasn't even spoken to Foggy much if at all since Midland Circle.

** Frank never really calls himself the Punisher, but it's still a nickname the media and authorities give him. A JustifiedTrope, since that even back in ''Daredevil'' season 2, the "Punisher" was simply the nickname given to him by the NYPD, barring the occasional times Frank has used it to deride the word. In fact, prior to episode 9, the name isn't used even once outside of a single usage by Sam.

** There is a devoutly religious, MadeOfIron DeTerminator hitman with a dying wife in the Max continuity simply called The Mennonite, who is never actually named, but an identical character in the series is called John Pilgrim.

** Sarah is either this or a [[AdaptationNameChange differently named]] version of the 616 Micro's ex-fiancé Jan O'Reilly.

* ChekhovsSkill: in season 2, Frank teaches Amy how to disarm an attacker. She puts this to good use a few episodes later, saving her life.
* ChickMagnet: Frank has chemistry of some degree with most female characters he interacts with. With Sarah, it's a [[spoiler:slightly drunken one-sided kiss]]; with Karen, it's decidedly mutual attraction; with Madani, it's a [[WorthyOpponent mutual respect]] born of their [[{{Foil}} similar personalities]] and the [[RescueRomance suggestive circumstances]] of their first face to face meeting. He starts a brief romantic relationship with Beth Quinn in season two.

* CIAEvilFBIGood: The BigBadEnsemble are members of a CIA black ops group that committed war crimes including torture and drug smuggling, among other things. The {{Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist}}s are meanwhile from the FBI and DHS. [[spoiler:Subverted by Deputy Director Marion James, Rawlins' direct superior, who is a ReasonableAuthorityFigure that is disgusted by what Rawlins has done and gotten her to help cover up. While she goes along with his plan to discredit and kill the last people who can confirm CIA involvement in this shitshow, she does so on the condition that Rawlins will ''immediately'' resign from the CIA, or she'll turn him into Homeland Security herself, consequences be damned.]]
** The end of Season 2 sees Madani leave Homeland in favour of the CIA, with it being implied that this was a better fit for her after turning more morally grey over the course of the series. Combined with the spoilered information above, this might be taken as the CIA being not necessarily villainous but definitely [[AntiHero at the shadier end of heroism.]]

** Frank and Madani engage in a car chase of Ford Mustangs right out of ''Film/{{Bullitt}}'', with Madani driving a classic 1960s Mustang and Frank driving a cherry-red 2015 model. [[spoiler:Unfortunately Micro T-Bones Madani's Mustang, and then it explodes.]]

** The operation where Major Schoonover lost his arm (which he testified about at Frank's trial), is shown in a flashback sequence here. But now there's more context to the situation: Schoonover and Agent Orange refused to listen to Frank's warnings that the mission was a set-up. Even Russo had backed up Frank during the discussion.

* CripplingOverSpecialization: Frank is incredibly good at killing bad guys. Forming healthy relationships, or solving things peacefully... not so much.

** Russo spends a lot of money on his seriously ill mother [[spoiler: so he can berate her for being a terrible parent. While she's nearly catatonic, her reaction to him shows she's terrified.]]
** [[spoiler: Russo himself is the only member of the conspiracy Frank spares, after brutally beating and disfiguring him to the point his begging to die. The reason is whenever he wakes up, Frank has a moment where he realizes his wife and children are dead, experiencing it every day. Russo will get a chance to think of that every time he sees a mirror now.]]
** [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in Season 2, where [[spoiler:Frank learns that by sparing Russo to force him to live with his crimes, all he's done is leave him alive to cause even more trouble. Even more ironic, Frank's horrifying beatdown was so severe that Russo lost all memory of the event itself.]]
* CulturedBadass: When Frank isn’t murdering bad guys in horrible ways, Curtis is catching him up on the classics like ''Literature/MobyDick''. In flashbacks we see him name the source of an oft-quoted Tennyson poem, and recites a version of the old [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonsense_verse nonsense poem]] "Two Dead Boys".

* DarkerAndEdgier: Easily one of the most serious entries of the MCU. Unlike ''Series/Daredevil2015'' and the rest of ''Series/TheDefenders2017'', the fantastic elements are absent here and is much more oriented towards espionage, action, as well as conspiracies that deal with government and corporate corruption. Basically, the series is less MCU and more like ''Series/TwentyFour''.
* DecoyProtagonist: In season two, Frank starts a romantic relationship with Beth Quinn, starts bonding with her son and learns about her deadbeat former boyfriend. [[spoiler:She drops out of the narrative after episode two]].

* EarnYourHappyEnding: David is [[spoiler:reunited with his family, who are overjoyed that he's actually alive and starting to heal from the damage his absence caused, everyone involved with the death of Frank's family is dead (except Russo, who suffers a FateWorseThanDeath),]] and Frank Castle is [[spoiler:officially legally dead, with the CIA and Homeland Security pulling strings to give Frank a new life as Pete Castiglione, and Frank is now attending Curtis' PTSD support group meetings trying to recover.]] Something like over two hundred people had to die for all this happen.
* ElephantInTheLivingRoom: Matt Murdock's "death" in ''The Defenders'' is not so much as mentioned even once, even though it's obvious that that event is the reason why Karen is in a state of mourning on this show.[[note]]At a Punisher ACE Comic-Con panel in January 2018, Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach suggested that Matt's "death" was brought up in one of Frank's interactions with Karen, but it was cut for time[[/note]]

** Anvil employs several female mercs. Frank respects their equal-opportunity stance by mowing them down alongside their male compatriots without a moments' hesitation.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: PlayedWith. Billy Russo is spending lots of money to have his mother taken care of in a nice care facility [[spoiler:as a CruelMercy, since she was apparently a drug-addicted prostitute who abandoned him as an infant, and he wants to exert power over her now as an adult.]]

* EveryCarIsAPinto: Played pretty realistically. After Madani's car accident, it takes some time for her Mustang to explode, and the explosion is very minor. Would have been extremely dangerous if she'd still been in it, but [[spoiler:Frank]] dragged her just a few feet away, and she's fine.
* EvilWearsBlack: In season two, Billy Russo wears the same dark outfit, including a black-on-black fleece-lined jacket, black jeans and black boots, from episode two onwards.
* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: [[spoiler: Rawlins and Russo both end up receiving this at the hands of Frank. Rawlins is repeatedly stabbed and punched, has his throat slit, and gets both eyes gouged out. Russo gets stabbed in the gut with a shard of glass, has his face ground against the broken mirror, gets his arm broken, and is slammed into another mirror repeatedly.]]

* FailureGambit: Frank pulls off a rather complicated one on Carson Wolf to get information about David. [[spoiler: He invades Carson's home by coming down the chimney, and beats him up, then ties him to a dining room chair with his own necktie for some [[TortureAlwaysWorks enhanced interrogation]], with a pistol displayed prominently [[PantsPositiveSafety in his waistband]]. Carson doesn't crack, and eventually slips his bonds and steals the pistol, forcing Frank to his knees at gunpoint. Then he engages in some EvilGloating, telling Frank everything he needs to know in the process. But when he tries to execute Frank, he finds out the pistol was empty all along and Frank breaks his neck.]]

** At the start of the show, David has faked his death and gone into hiding to keep his family safe. A big part of the plot sees Frank working to help David so he can be reunited with them. [[spoiler:Then he does it again with Homeland Security's help, when they pretend to "accidentally" gun him down in order to get him away from Russo's mercenaries. Fortunately, this time they tell his family he's fine within a few minutes.]]
** Frank himself already faked his death when he blew up the Blacksmith's boat. Only a few people like Matt, Karen, and Curtis are aware that he survived. David is able to figure out Frank's alive by waiting for a cluster of bodies to drop.

** When Madani has one of these scenes, it's usually with Billy Russo who gets about as much love from the camera as she does. And then there's the start of episode 8 with his personal grooming going into MundaneMadeAwesome territory that would not look out of place in an aftershave commercial.
** Frank’s shirtless and showing off his ripped upper body a good deal of the time, whether from battle damage to his clothes or stripping to tend his wounds. Even more than Dinah, he’s often covered in blood and open wounds, so which one it’s meant to be is unclear. In Season 2 he also flashes his ass at the camera. . . [[ShotInTheAss because he's got a bullet in it]] he needs to deal with.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Frank ultimately decides that [[spoiler: Billy Russo]] doesn't deserve an easy death and [[spoiler: severely disfigures him, instead, and bashes his head in hard enough to cause permanent brain damage]].
* FBIAgent: Dinah Madani and Sam Stein are DHS agents

** Sam at one point comments to Madani that she has a lot in common with Frank: US government personnel hell bent on taking justice for themselves and the people they cared about, even if it means ignoring the proper legal channels of the law. [[spoiler:Madani even survives taking a shot to the head at the end of the season in Central Park, much like Frank did in his backstory, though she doesn't end up with permanent brain damage like him.]]

* ForegoneConclusion: Anyone familiar with [[spoiler:Billy Russo in the Punisher comics knows that he becomes Jigsaw. The only question is how.]]

** Someone mentions "putting the pieces together" to catch Billy Russo. You know, like a [[spoiler: jigsaw puzzle.]]

** When Frank is commenting about Zach's KABAR knife, he says that [[NeverBringAGunToAKnifeFight the knife is much easier to use against a man with a gun at close quarters]]. [[spoiler:This takes place minutes before Russo kills Sam in this exact way]].
** When Curtis is telling Russo why he shouldn't hire Lewis to work at Anvil, he tells Russo about Lewis nearly shooting his father, to which Russo replies, "God, I've always wanted to do that." [[DudeNotFunny He then laughs awkwardly when Curtis gives him a cold look.]] [[spoiler:We later learn that Russo's mom was a prostitute and Russo himself spent his childhood in group homes]].
** In Kandahar, Billy Russo is reading ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'', about another man whose beautiful face hides an evil core, who was also played by Ben Barnes in a live action adaptation, [[spoiler:and whose face becomes unrecognizable in the end]].
* FourLinesAllWaiting: There's roughly four different main storylines going on in the first season: Frank and David's partnership (with a subplot concerning David's family), Madani and Sam's investigation, Russo's villainy, and the decline of Lewis's santiy.

## [[spoiler:Russo refused to kill Frank himself, forcing Schoonover to do the job -- and he chose to arrange a meeting between numerous gangs during which Frank would be killed in the crossfire]].
## [[spoiler:Schoonover was unable to make the meeting because he was being investigated by the DA]].
## [[spoiler:DA Samantha Reyes had the crime families under surveillance, but decided ''not'' to follow procedure and evacuate the civilians. As a result, all of them died and Frank took a bullet to the head]].
## [[spoiler:Reyes sent the hospital a "Do Not Resuscitate" order, hoping Frank would die on the table]].

** Billy Russo has slicked back dark hair indicative of his villain status.
* GoodVsGood: Frank may be hunting down criminals who have killed complete innocents, but because he's also a NominalHero who at this point has caused untold amounts of property damage, murdered dozens of (bad) people and even broke out of prison, he often finds himself having to run from the cops and other law enforcement groups as well.

* HeroicBSOD: Frank falls into one in Season 2 when [[spoiler:Russo makes him believe he accidentally killed three innocent bystanders.]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Rawlins ''really'' shouldn't have given Frank that epinephrine shot. If he hadn't [[spoiler:Frank probably would've actually ''felt'' that shiv in the side, and likely wouldn't have had the wherewithal to break free and stab/beat Rawlins to death.]]

*** First off, Madani’s questioning about a former client of Nelson & Murdock is highly problematic, because Karen easily could have disclosed confidential information learned from her work on the Castle case. New York attorneys have a duty to protect the confidential information of former clients, and Karen worked as a legal assistant for Nelson & Murdock. The law recognizes those who work for attorneys as “privileged agents"[[note]]United States v. Kovel, 296 F.2d 918, 921-22 (2d Cir. 1961)[[/note]] so Matt and Foggy's duty to protect confidential information would apply to Karen, as she was their agent.
*** That said, back in ''Daredevil'', Karen had questioned Frank during the trial about his past, which is generally accepted for a paralegal or legal assistant to do in a case. But Karen also gave Frank advice on what she thought Frank should do for his defense, which crosses the line into Karen giving legal advice, which is only something lawyers are allowed to do.
*** What does this mean for Madani’s questioning of Karen? Well, three things: 1) Karen has a duty to not disclose confidential information about Frank Castle, unless that information specifically could be used to prevent a crime, death, or substantial bodily harm. 2) The legal advice that Karen gave to Frank is not protected, because Karen is not a lawyer and cannot give legal advice. And 3) Karen is also flirting with aiding and abetting Frank in committing crimes by providing him information after her employment at Nelson & Murdock[[note]]For example, Frank tracks down and kills Carson Wolf using information that Karen provided him[[/note]], something that is not protected by any privilege. In other words, Karen should not have agreed to sit down with Madani without bringing along Foggy to help her navigate what was confidential and what she could disclose. (Presumably the only reason Karen does not bring Foggy is because they haven't spoken to each other since losing Matt)

* HollywoodTactics: Madani and Stein’s simulated hostage rescue exercise at Anvil is quite sloppy. They evidently don’t know how to check corners, and the team enters a room, tosses a training grenade, and looks right at it when it blows. If it was meant to simulate a flash-bang, then [[EpicFail they just practiced deafening and disorienting themselves]], giving their opponents a great opportunity to shoot them. If it was standing in for a frag, [[TooDumbToLive then they learned how to commit suicide]]. Afterwards, they are only criticized for Sam accidentally shooting a hostage. At least they managed to not point their weapons at each other.

* HorrifyingHero: Frank kills first, saves victims later, which means that for a while all the victims of a crime know is that bullets are flying and bodies are dropping around them. For instance, when Frank and David raid a chop shop for vehicles while it is being robbed by thieves who are torturing the workers for information, an unlucky bound and tied up hostage spends the whole gunfight shitting in his pants with a pin-pulled grenade at his feet until Frank tells him that it's a dud.
* HowMuchMoreCanHeTake: The final fight between Castle and Pilgrim involves the two mutually taking and inflicting frankly ludicrous amounts of damage. And this is with both of them still badly injured from prior encounters. Frank eventually wins but Pilgrim is still conscious and capable of speech.

** David is separated from his family, having to pretend he's dead and only able to watch his family through cameras install in his house.

* {{Irony}}: Frank spared Billy's life because he wanted him to live with the constant reminder of his betrayals; but he beat Billy so badly he suffered traumatic brain injury and memory loss. All the awful things he did after he left the Marine Corps is lost to him, and as far as he remembers, he and Frank are close as brothers. As Curtis points out, "Everyone has to live with what Billy did, except Billy."
* ItsPersonal: Russo believes that Rawlins' decision to target Frank and his family has nothing to do with trying to cover up Operation Cerberus, but [[spoiler:purely to satisfy a murderous grudge from when Frank busted his left eye and made him experience fear for his life. Given the way Rawlins goes off the rails after Marion James makes clear his career in the CIA is over, Russo's reservations are clearly not unfounded]].

** Frank has Carson Wolf tied to a chair and is beating him. Wolf says he has some training at Guantanamo, so he knows that intel from tortured prisoners isn't reliable as they'll eventually start telling you ''whatever'' they think you want to hear. Hell, he even comments that Frank is answering his own damn questions while beating him. What Wolf doesn't realize is that the torture part is just a FailureGambit on Frank's part, as he lets Wolf "disarm" him and [[EvilGloating then gloat]] while pointing what he thinks is a loaded gun at Frank. Frank never expected to get any info from the torture.
** After a team of Russo's men attacks him at David's lair, Frank takes out a gun and gives an [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse ultimatum]] to one of the survivors of the firefight to give him info on where Sarah and Zach are being held. The PMC reveals he doesn't know anything, as it was obviously "need to know", Frank doesn't bother any further, and just shoots the man in the head as he threatened.

** In episode 12, Rawlins' attempts to torture information out of Frank just allows Frank to send recordings of it to Dinah and David. Russo gets sickened eventually, once he realizes Rawlins is just indulging in his own sadism to get petty revenge on Frank for taking his left eye from him.
** Played straight in episode one, Lance talks when Frank beat him with a sledgehammer. Justified too, as Lance, unlike the other examples here, is not someone with the military training to resist torture.

** A defining trait of Frank is that he fights through horrific injuries. He ends both seasons a mass of bruises, cuts and holes.

* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: Season 2 sees Amy, and at one point Madani, make a number of pointed remarks about what men are supposedly like (to whit, overly aggressive, compulsively competetive and [[NeverMyFault much too good at forgiving themselves]]). Of course, given the [[RatedMForManly extreme amounts of testosterone on display,]] it's not hard to see what gave them that idea.

* ManOfWealthAndTaste: Curtis very fittingly describes Billy Russo as this, with his three piece suits and his slicked back corporate hairstyle.
* MookHorrorShow: A regular occurrence for a show about a PayEvilUntoEvil character like ComicBook/ThePunisher. Most notably when a team of Russo's men is lured by Frank to David's lair. The entire fight has various DutchAngle shots, Frank moving in and out of the shadows, Frank [[DecapitationPresentation throwing a human head grenade out for his enemies]], BloodyHorror as Frank shoots a number of targets point blank in the face with a shotgun, and so on.

** In the first episode we see some of Frank's coworkers at the construction site threatening and bullying him because the long hours he works is costing them overtime pay. They assume he's mentally challenged because he never speaks or reacts to their slights. Then they try to kill Donny. Frank kills all of them, saving Lance for last and breaking just about every bone in his body before dropping him in wet concrete.

** In "The Dark Hearts of Men" Russo [[spoiler: tricking Frank into thinking he accidentally killed innocent women]] is lifted from the MAX arc "Girls in White Dresses".
** In season 2 Frank tussles with a large Russian gangster who takes quite a beating before finally going down and who winds up with severe facial injuries, a possible reference to The Russian from the comics.

** In the final episode, Billy pointedly tells Frank to discard his knife as well as his gun.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In season 2, pretty much everyone wishes Frank had killed Billy at the carousel. [[spoiler: Billy gets Laser Targeted Amnesia, forgetting everything since leaving military service, which includes killing Frank’s family. So instead of “living with his mistakes” like Frank intended, he’s almost an entirely different character.]]

** David takes heavy cues from Edward Snowden, as an NSA analyst who was forced to go into hiding because of illegal activities he uncovered

** Lewis Wilson is a thinly veiled reincarnate of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy [=McVeigh=].

* OddCouple: David is an intellectual and egg-headed computer hacker, while Frank is a blunt, manly jarhead. They couldn't be less alike, though they're both great at what they do, and they need each other. Their similar experience with change, loss and betrayal helps them find common ground and bond.

** Subverted on occasion, such as [[spoiler: Frank stuffing an empty Glock in his waistband to encourage Carson Wolff to snag it as part of an interrogation gambit.]]

* PatrioticFervor: The series swings into the very opposite direction of the positive side of the trope (which has been embodied mostly by Captain America in the franchise) and shows the ugly sides of modern day America in a very realistic way, with government officials committing horrific war crimes and then using their connections to cover it up.

** After killing Isaac for his uniform, Lewis tries to free Isaac's pet birds rather than doom them to neglect. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything The birds ignore his helping hand, and stay in their cage]].

* PinkProductPloy: An InUniverse example: In the episode "Resupply", Frank tries hitting Turk up for guns. All Turk has to offer is a rifle painted hot pink, as a birthday present for a mobster's daughter, nicknamed "Sweet Sixteen". When he brings the gun back to the lair, he makes pretty clear he has no intention of using it.

* PowerfulPeopleAreSubs: Colonel Morty Bennett commands a base of troops by day but at night, he engages in submissive roleplay with a dominatrix.

--->'''Billy Russo:''' You know, without us, Frank Castle would have your balls wired to a car battery by now. You'd probably love that though, would you?

-->'''Frank Castle:''' [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets Gun's empty, asshole]].

* RaceLift: Curtis Hoyle is white in the comics but played here by African American Jason R. Moore.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Budgetary issues can be seen especially in the Kandahar flashbacks. Notice how none of Frank's flashbacks had establishing shots of Afghanistan, and all of them were in the dark, in barracks, tents, and buildings. We didn't even see any heavy machinery, no helicopters, fighter planes, tanks. Imagine what the writers could have written had they not need to jump through hoops and be limited by the budget.

* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Discussed. Aside from Matt, Karen, and Curtis, everyone thinks Frank died in the explosion of Colonel Schoonover's boat, only for Frank to soon start leaving a new trail of destruction in this series. David says that his way of tracking Frank was to watch for a pile of bad guys to drop then plug himself in to cameras in that area.
* RetiredMonster: Subverted with John Pilgrim, who was once a psychotic white-supremacist gangster but is now a devout, Mennonite family man... who serves as a triggerman for his church's corrupt benefactors.

** [[spoiler:Lewis Wilson]] gradually over the course of season 1 descends into one of these, starting as a "something is not right with my life" pitiful veteran, then becoming a "loose-cannon risk" veteran (which causes Curtis to warn Russo not to hire him at Anvil), and straight to "the system is shit and it's best I kill everything that I think is corrupt" veteran who blows up government installations, then attempts to assassinate Karen and a senator she's interviewing on the topic of gun control.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Frank Castle has always been a controversial character -- a ShellShockedVeteran / VigilanteMan / SuperheroPackingHeat who is [[CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority openly critical of corruption in the military and law enforcement]] -- especially in TheNewTens. Netflix has not hesitated to confront ''any'' of those controversies head on.

*** Karen Page is presented as the middle ground, believing that guns aren't the problem, but the people abusing them are[[note]]Karen actually points out to Senator Ori that most of Lewis's victims were killed not with guns, but with [=IEDs=] made from common household objects you find in hardware stores[[/note]]. Thing is, Karen killed James Wesley, has a shady past and she's a gun-owner who's frequently been tangled up with the vigilantism of Matt and Frank, so even she's not wholly non-bias in this regard.

** The show delves deep into issues surrounding US veterans from the ongoing War on Terror. From PTSD to feelings of abandonment and betrayal by the country they swore to serve, not one of the former soldiers shown is without issues; ones that PrivateMilitaryContractors like Anvil are quick to take advantage of. [[spoiler:As one might expect, Russo is the DragonAscendant]].
** One element of the [[YMMV/ThePunisherMAX source material]] that caused endless criticism when it was first published was military and intelligence agencies using the War on Terror to smuggle heroin out of Afghanistan -- just as they did [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ike_Atkinson during]] UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. In the series, it's not even ''[[https://www.globalresearch.ca/drug-war-american-troops-are-protecting-afghan-opium-u-s-occupation-leads-to-all-time-high-heroin-production/5358053 questioned]]'' that the US government made millions in heroin -- the conspiracy is that the profits acted as untraceable funding for war crimes such as torture and death squads... just like in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking Vietnam]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_trafficking Nicaragua.]] Which is lampshaded during the initial Cerberus debriefing when Billy Russo says the mission sounds a lot like the Phoenix program that was conducted in Vietnam.

* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:Sam, who is killed by Billy Russo in episode 8]].
* ScareEmStraight: Frank attempts to do this to David's son Zach after learning that on top of delinquent behavior he's managed to get his hands on a Kabar and even threatens him with the knife. However, when Zach simply yells at him to end his life he immediately drops this approach and tries to be a more positive role model (which works a lot better).
* ScreamingWarrior: Frank regularly starts screaming in combat situations, such as while emptying all the rounds from a heavy machine gun into a pillar one of his pursuers is trying to hide behind. He also does the same when he starts clearing an ambush in Kandahar, screaming more and more as he relies more violent ways to kill the enemies.
* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Billy Russo, Karen Page, and Sarah Lieberman all make their first appearances in episode 2. Rawlins also makes his first onscreen appearance in episode 2, on the video Frank watches of the Zubair torture on the CD David had given him, but doesn't get a proper introduction until the third episode during the flashbacks of Frank and Russo's time in Kandahar.

--> [[spoiler:"One day, not long from now, he's gonna wake up, he's... he's gonna walk outside and the word "terrorist" is gonna be painted on his car. His mailbox is gonna be so full of hate, and death threats, he's just gonna give up. His friends, his family, they're not gonna come around! His phone's not gonna ring. He will ''know loneliness'', Lewis! He will ''suffer''! Your old man, his life, it's ruined!" ]]
* SharpDressedMan: Billy Russo loves his three-piece suits and slicked back hair.

* ShooOutTheClowns: [[spoiler:Sam, who is the first season's closest thing to comic relief, meets his end at Billy Russo's knife in episode 8]].

* SociopathicSoldier: A lot of members of Anvil have no problem opening fire on Homeland Security agents on Russo's order among other dirty work. A few are mentioned to have opened fire on civilians during duty and Russo likes recruiting veteran in support group (although he won't take obvious unstable person like Lewis). It's no wonder Ori is hesitant about hiring those guys as security during a speech about a shell shocked veteran turned terrorist having access to guns.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: Both the mainstream version and MAX version of Micro]] were killed by Frank Castle in the comics. He survives here.

** Season 2 borrows heavily from both the ''Kingpin'' arc of ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'' and ''ComicBook/SuicideRun'', two storyarcs from different periods in the Punisher franchise.

** While the show depicts Senator Ori as being unscrupulous, in the comics he was outright corrupt and in league with both dirty cops and an Italian crime family.

-->'''Frank''': Look, I'm flattered--\\

'''Dinah Madani''': Wow. That was sexist, racist, ''and'' demeaning of my abilities all in one sentence, sir. [[SarcasmMode Bravo]].

** The series opens with the question. Frank completes his vengeance in the first few minutes of the first episode. He's left with nothing to do but cope with his grief, and he's doing so very poorly.
** Karen asks this in regards to his seemingly never ending RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Having lost Matt, Karen doesn't want to see Frank go down the same path.

** Season 1 similarly ends with this same question, as Frank tells the support group he's finally worked up the courage to attend that for the first time in his life he's without a war to fight, and he's honestly scared he doesn't know how to live without one.

** When Madani is reading over Thomas Weems' military record, it says that he joined the Marine Corps in 1999 and later joined the Marine Corps Special Operations Command. It also says after his assignment in Iraq he was promoted to the rank of Chief Petty Officer. However Chief Petty Officer is a Navy enlisted rank. The equivalent Marine Corps rank to a Chief Petty Officer is Gunnery Sergeant.

** Similarly, Colonel Schoonover must have some extreme combat stress-related aging, otherwise he's much too old for his rank, let alone going out and leading elite troops in the field.

-->'''Frank''': “No, you didn’t kill him. You just shot him.” [Turns his gun on the guy, fires with a GoryDiscretionShot, and Amy’s eyes go wide] “I killed him. Don’t worry about it.”

* BadassBystander: Ringo. Despite just being a bouncer at a random roadside bar he holds his own against multiple trained assassins, deals out almost as much hurt on them as Frank does, and soaks a ton of damage before finally going down.

-->'''Sarah''': ''[embarrassed]'' In the past we’d just call a guy. \\

* BigBadDuumvirate: In season one, Billy Russo and William Rawlins are the main villains, [[spoiler:working together to eliminate anyone with knowledge of Operation Cerberus, an illegal CIA operation that was funded with their heroin sales. Interestingly, Rawlins' arrogance leads him to believe that ''he'' is the BigBad and Russo is TheDragon, though it's pretty clear that it's a partnership, and Russo lets Frank kill Rawlins once Rawlins lets it slip he'll no longer be able to keep up his end of their bargain.]]
* BigBadEnsemble: John Pilgrim and Billy Russo in Season 2. For the first 6 episodes, Pilgrim functions as the main threat to Frank and his associates despite working for a GreaterScopeVillain, the Schultz family. And while Russo is present throughout the whole season, he spends half of it wallowing in angst and pain and never directly fights Frank until the 7th episode where he becomes Frank's main antagonist from then on. Pilgrim returns in the 11th episode in full force and he and Russo become simultaneous threats to Frank that he must battle at the same time.

* {{Gorn}}: The most brutal series Marvel has put out so far, with Frank both dishing out and receiving some gruesome wounds. Taken UpToEleven with [[spoiler: Rawlins' death]], which is out-and-out NightmareFuel that must be seen to be believed.

* PapaWolf: While Frank initially protects Amy simply as a matter of course, his father instinct obviously kicks in after he becomes something of a ParentalSubstitute for her. Mook: “Come up here and she’s dead!” Frank: “You touch her and I will tear your apart.” ...like he did with literally everyone else on the mook’s team.

* MythologyGag: At the end of the first episode, Micro sees Frank operating and says, "Welcome back, Frank." "Welcome Back, Frank" is the title of Garth Ennis' first ''Punisher'' story.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In season 2, pretty much everyone wishes Frank had killed Billy at the carousel. [[spoiler: Billy gets LaserTargetedAmnesia, forgetting everything since leaving military service, which includes killing Frank’s family. So instead of “living with his mistakes” like Frank intended, he’s almost an entirely different character.]]
** Subverted with Madani at the end of season 2. [[spoiler: Billy is all set to abandon his villainous ways and leave town with Krista, until Madani gets into a fight with Krista and pushes her out a window. Cue Billy [[HeelFaceDoorSlam flying off the handle]], going on a final rampage and forcing Frank to have another grueling fight to the death with him, right? Turns out, not so much - Billy attacks Madani, gets gutshot for his troubles, and spends the rest of the last episode dying slowly without getting the opportunity to hurt a single person more, so that when Frank finally finds him he just effortlessly finishes him off.]]

** After killing Isaac for his uniform, Lewis tries to free Isaac's pet birds rather than doom them to neglect. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything The birds ignore his helping hand, and stay in their cage]]. Which goes to state of mind on Lewis's part: it's the middle of fall in New York, freezing cold, and they're ''tropical'' birds.

** The chase scene between Madani and Frank after the arms deal has echoes to the memorable chase in ''Film/{{Bullitt}}'', right down to the main sounds during the chase being the engine noise of two extremely powerful muscle cars, and both are in Mustangs. It's even lampshaded when Rafi accuses Madani of "going all Creator/SteveMcQueenActor."

** Also, ''Lewis'' Wilson and his story arc is likely a reference to Music/TomWaits' ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fju9o8BVJ8 Hell Broke Luce]]'' ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhPqY0mO5Qg played]] when Frank [[DropTheHammer drops the sledgehammer]] on Lance and his buddies in defense of Donny), which was written about [[http://carnegieendowment.org/2007/08/06/american-suicide-what-war-did-to-jeffrey-lucey-pub-19476 Jeffrey Lucey]], a veteran of the Second Iraq War who returned suffering severe PTSD; repeated hallucinations, violent episodes, bizarre behavior, and he ultimately committed suicide. [[spoiler:Lewis [[AteHisGun sticks his pistol in his mouth]] and nearly blows his brains out before deciding to become a domestic terrorist instead]].

* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: Both the mainstream version and MAX version of Micro]] were killed by Frank Castle in the comics. [[spoiler: He]] survives here.

* SupermanStaysOutOfGotham: ''The Punisher'' goes to great lengths to isolate itself from the rest of the Netflix shows. The only references made to earlier shows outside of references to the Punisher events of ''Daredevil'' season 2 are a single reference to Wilson Fisk during Madani's first interaction with Karen, and Ellison holding a newspaper headlined "Chaos Under The Streets" in his first appearance.
** The primary reason for this is that ''The Defenders'' didn't involve Frank or affect him in anyway. Therefore, his show didn't deal with anything about the fallout of ''The Defenders''. This despite the fact that Karen Page is a recurring character in both shows, and in Karen's scenes in ''The Punisher'', it is pretty clear that she's mourning Matt. In fact, Matt is the huge unspoken {{elephant in the room}} that is never discussed whenever Karen is onscreen. It's not brought up so that ''The Punisher'' is a bit more self contained, and also because hearing about Matt's "death" wouldn't have affected Frank and his quest for revenge, it would've only affected his interactions with Karen. Matt's "death" even places the ''Punisher'' as happening during the time between ''The Defenders'' and ''Daredevil'' season 3 where Matt is presumed dead, because if Matt ''were'' still around, he would have gotten involved when Lewis publicly threatened Karen on the radio.
** In addition to this, there are ton of logistical and story issues that need to be coordinated when one show shares characters with another. Character arcs need to be considered, and if possible, Marvel prefers that a character not do something completely out of character or have a major revelation about their own story/character on a show other than that chracter's home show, to avoid confusing viewers and to make sure each show is as standalone as possible. This is the case for Karen since ''Daredevil'' is her home show. How she is processing Matt's "death" is something that is reserved for ''Daredevil'' season 3, where such a detail is relevant to the immediate plot. The same can be said about how her investment in Frank's case in ''Daredevil'' was because she was trying to work through her guilt over killing James Wesley.
** ''The Punisher'' actually creates a retroactive case of this in ''Daredevil'' season 2. Despite the fact that Curtis and Russo were both in New York City at the time of Frank's trial, for some reason, Matt, Karen and Foggy never called upon either of them to testify as character witnesses, instead only calling Colonel Schoonover as a witness.

** Frank eats simple, joyless sandwiches every day at his demolition job. When his sandwich gets stepped on, Donny tries to befriend him by offering half of his mother's famous sandwich. Frank rebuffs Donny's friendship, but ultimately does stand up for him.
** The strength of Frank's friendship with David can be tracked by their food preparation. At first, David does not even bother to let Frank know about the sandwich ingredients in the fridge, letting him eat [=StarKist=] Pouches while making subs for himself. In later episodes, Frank can be seen eating a nice pasta dish made for him by David, and even actually cooks a meal for his new buddy.

* HollywoodHealing: Frank's able to recover from injuries pretty fast, sometimes faster than Matt does in ''Daredevil''. Best seen when he's back on his feet less than a day after enduring a near-fatal torture session from Rawlins.
** On the other hand, he was treated by very skilled and experienced physician with considerable supplies. Claire is just a night nurse and rarely has the materials needed to treat him.

* UnresolvedSexualTension: Frank has some sexual tension with both Karen and Madani, but none of them consider the other to be an actual prospective partner.

** Season 2 borrows heavily from both ''The Slavers'' and ''ComicBook/SuicideRun'', two storyarcs from different periods in the Punisher franchise.

On February 18, 2019, it was announced the 2nd season was going to be it's final one as the series was canceled alongside ''Series/JessicaJones'', effectively killing off the final original Marvel shows on Netflix.