Kavita Rao, another character who was completely wasted in X3, who I always kind of liked from her I think one appearance in the comics? And I'm glad to see Shohreh Aghdashloo in anything, but I kind of wish she'd gotten a bigger part here than 'Agent Madani's mom'. Still better than getting stuck with Inhumans, though, I guess.
Okay so little thing: Micro (or somebody else named Micro) had technically been mentioned all the way back in Agents of SHIELD. I've been seeing people debate over whether or not it's still possible the Micro briefly mentioned there is the same one from the Punisher.
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?Why not? He is simply mentioned being a hacker.
Totally random, but what tickles my memory is the name Marion James since the actress who played her once played Marian, who also had a very similar role to the one she has now in Limitless (the TV show), but I actually loved the most as Mama Grimm.
Also Turk is slowly becoming the MICR of the Netflix verse (CR=Comic relief)
I mean, Micro isn't exactly a unique name. Doubly so in relations to computer.
Plus from what we've seen it looks like Punisher!Micro picked the name when he created an account for that FTP server. Plus considering how long he struggled with this with his wife over what to do, I sort of Doubt Micro had been for several years a hacker working for a known anti-government hacker collective.
I'd toss it as one of those weird considence like that call at the beginnning of Doctor Strange which sounds like it's about Rhodey but turns out it's about someone we've never heard before according to Word of God.
edited 21st Nov '17 1:45:18 PM by Ghilz
So Episode 5 is down for me.
God speed Gunner. Also, I like Frank acknowledging that Micro did a better job of protecting his family than Frank himself did. Though I suppose that's easy since his family is still alive.
One Strip! One Strip!I went through it a second time and I have come to the conclusion that on a narrative level, I think the biggest weakness of the show is all the time spend on an investigation to which we already know the answer and on the crazy soldier.
I am sorry, I know that I am supposed to feel sorry for him but, well, there are so many people reaching out to him, and I have trouble understanding why he keeps slapping those who actually worry about him away and follows the lead and rhetoric of those who definitely don't care. I don't think that his reasoning is well enough explained in the show, even though it spend so much time for it. I think I am supposed to take away from his story that war has broken him, but what I am actually taking away is that for some reason the military took a young man who already was full of aggressions and made him even more dangerous than he already was.
- Carson Wolf, resident Starter Villain: Torture doesn't work Frank, if you were professional you'd know that.
Ah ha, yes, take that conservatives! Even the old white dude gets it! Finally, we can start convincing people that this myth has no factual ba-
- -Frank proceeds to torture Wolf to get information he needs-
Ah haa... well it's not like Frank is supposed to be a good or logical person. The man eats beans with a knife for crying out loud.
edited 22nd Nov '17 4:44:07 AM by Soble
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!It's basically a scriptwriting Hope Spot. Wolf says torture doesn't work and you're like "could it be that they finally got on with the times?" but then Frank responds "Not if you know what you're doing" or something to that effect and you lose all hope.
There's even a similar exchange later on with Micro.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."I mean, it's television. Effective torture and similarly popular myths are never going out of style, lest we abandon the "90 percent of your brain = super mutant powers" concept.
It's also a show about a one-man army vet blasting the lid on a military conspiracy, so I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. But that scene was amusing nevertheless.
Micro is a member of Castle's presumably short rogues gallery from the comics, right?
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!Micro is one of his few allies, actually.
The problem I have with the torture always works myth is that it's really harmful. It spreads a dangerous myth.
It's also kinda lazy honestly. Game of Thrones had one fantastic scene where a woman is captured by The Spymaster and she asks if she'll be tortured. Spymaster just responds that torture provides answers, but the wrong answers. Then he proceeds to run down the situation for her, what she has to gain and what she has to lose from talking with him, and ultimately the woman ends up giving the information willingly after concluding she has much more to gain from divulging the information.
Listening to The Spymaster running through all the possibilities and probabilities to convince her it's better to cooperate is much more interesting than if he had just pulled out a pair of pliers and gone to town.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."I liked the carousel fight, but I gotta admit I kind of wish Frank had pushed Billy out a window, like he'd meant to kill him and Russo's survival was a matter of luck, rather than Frank deliberately having spared him. Plus not necessarily knowing what kind of scars he had (or possibly even that he was still alive) would work to render Jigsaw truly unrecognizable for their next meeting, if and when that happens.
Also, not to come down on the side of 'torture works', but what I liked about the Carson Wolf scene is that it's not the torture that gets Frank the information, it's letting Wolf *think* he's going to torture him, thus setting him to think he's managed to escape and now has the upper hand, because Wolf's the kind of dickhead who's just gotta gloat. Not sure who Frank's source was on that. Maybe it was just a judgment call based on their limited interaction up to that point. Still, he made sure there was only one bullet in that gun when Wolf woke up, and he made sure to fire that gun (into Wolf's leg) to make Wolf think it was loaded. It's not quite as satisfying as Karen shooting Wesley, but I'll give them points for trying.
edited 22nd Nov '17 7:42:02 AM by Unsung
I like when the comics take the approach Jigsaw is the Joker Immunity villain simply because Frank literally cannot keep him down. I hope the series does the same.
I do like Wolf's scene. Though it is rather bizarre that a veteran FBI agent quite proficient at combat (as the fight scene beforehand shows us) can't tell the weight difference between a loaded and a unloaded gun.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."Continuing with the Max Payne parallels, I imagine the second season will start off with Frank relatively well adjusted in society, until he's forced back into familiar patterns and reacts the only way he knows works. There might even be a romantic sub-plot. As I've mentioned, there are considerable differences in direction from the comics, so it might not be so out-of-character here.
And who knows, maybe the third season will have him shave his head, grow a beard and move to Brazil...for some reason.
One of the things I find unambiguously good are the action scenes, namely how the currently fashionable simplistic-yet-brutal fighting style can look out of place elsewhere in the MCU, but fits perfectly here. Then again, so would exaggerated grindhouse-style fisticuffs and finely choreographed heroic bloodshed moves... Guy's just that versatile, y'know.
edited 22nd Nov '17 6:30:26 AM by indiana404
I just can't see it as a Max Payne parallel without the Hawaiian shirt and the shiteating, Christian Slater smirk
◊.
I would watch that crossover, though.
So...we are now doing free discussion without spoiler tags about stuff from the last episodes? Fine with me, though I would have waited another week to move from "first episodes are free game" to not tagging anything anymore.
Anyway, I am not in a hurry for a second season because I just want the characters being relatively happy for a while. Plus, I first want to see Jessica Jones and Iron Fist season 2 anyway.
I just want them to at least start off happy.. ish. Not a fan of the TFA-style happy ending override where apparently everything retroactively went to the gutter the moment the credits rolled.
I also liked the war vet aspect in this season, the spectrum of how soldiers try and sometimes fail to adjust to civilian life. Maybe this can be considered the actual arc for the season. In turn, if the second one goes for the classic criminal underworld the Punisher is best known for handling, it may show a similar diversity among criminals - from people with honestly no other options, to the bonafide monsters who make even the Joker seem decent (they just don't live that long to make a proper impression).
That's pretty much how it went down in the comics. Micro and his son (no wife or daughter) were just two guys who Frank occasionally went to for help, but then Micro became a full time ally after his son was murdered.

Actually, come to think of it, her character in X-Men: The Last Stand was killed by the guy who played Karnak in Inhumans.
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?