A Punisher TV Series?

[InformationGeek]

Apparently it is the works by Fox.  I'm surprised that they are trying at this, considering the fact that the 3 movies ended up sucking hard (though I find 3 amusing in an over the top sort of way), but I suppose with many other channels trying their hand at comic shows, I guess now is the best time to try.  Also, with a new series going on (which is pretty awesome, especially since I was never really a Punisher fan to being with), I guess it could boost his popularity.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/10/fox-buys-the-punisher-series-adaptation-from-ed-bernero-marvel-with-put-pilot/
http://tv.ign.com/articles/121/1210329p1.html

Hey Punisher mans, any thoughts on this?  Personally, I say if they are doing this, it should be on FX to allow for high violence and lots of grittiness.

[Pennywise]

Unless there is high bodycount on each show it will fail. Frank Castle doesn't "moonlight" as The Punisher. Frank Castle is gone, he may has well have died with his family. The Punisher is what's left, a violent, cold serial killer vigilante who slaughters criminals on a full-time basis.

The reason why the movies failed is because things get needlessly complicated by mainstream Hollywood when it comes to a simple concept. Frank was a NYPD detective Vietnam veteran whose family was killed after witnessing a mob hit in Central Park and only he survived. He kills and kills and kills, now with no feeling, the husk of what was once a good man. There's a lot of gore, blood, and bullets, but not really a complicated origin or modus operandi. It can be terribly grim or darkly comedic, a slasher film with the killer heavily armed punishing the wicked.

This stinks of a terrible screw-up in the making that will set the character back yet again as it seems everyone else can make a cool vigilante flick that goes direct to video month after month while the proto-vigilante killer most people know continues to struggle through crap.

[Mofo Rising]

I agree with Pennywise. A Fox series simply would not work. If you want to play it right, The Punisher should be very, very dark.

The Punisher, in my favorite view of the character, is a hopelessly deranged character who lives for killing. Sure, he kills criminals, but it's the killing that is important. There is no ray of light for the Punisher, no possibility for redemption.

I'm a huge fan of Ennis' version of the Punisher (both Marvel Knights and Marvel Max), and I think Jason Aaron's take on him has been some of the best comics in recent memory.

The hoops they'd have to jump through to make that character palatable for a network show, ech.

I would love to see a series put together by AMC. Judging by Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, I think they could make the subject matter as dark as it deserves. That I'd watch. Not a Fox show. It would be a retread of Punisher: War Zone. I liked that movie, but it was silly.

[Jim H]

Broadcast TV is just a bad choice for this.  I think HBO or Showtime could do a good job of it, actually, though.  His storylines are so episodic that a TV series is a pretty good fit, and they don't need to be glossy or highly produced to have action and high body counts. 

I think they should definitely have him be morally gray at best, but honestly if they had him as dark as he is in many of the comics I think it'd make a for a series that got old fast.  He's often quite one dimensional.  Compare most of the stuff with him (even though I do think some of the recent comic work is good) to something like Dexter, who is a sociopathic serial killer but considerably less one dimensional.  I actually thought the version of him in Warzone actually wasn't too bad.  Good casting choice, and he was cold but not 100% lost. 

[Mofo Rising]

Broadcast TV is just a bad choice for this.  I think HBO or Showtime could do a good job of it, actually, though.  His storylines are so episodic that a TV series is a pretty good fit, and they don't need to be glossy or highly produced to have action and high body counts. 

I think they should definitely have him be morally gray at best, but honestly if they had him as dark as he is in many of the comics I think it'd make a for a series that got old fast.  He's often quite one dimensional.  Compare most of the stuff with him (even though I do think some of the recent comic work is good) to something like Dexter, who is a sociopathic serial killer but considerably less one dimensional.  I actually thought the version of him in Warzone actually wasn't too bad.  Good casting choice, and he was cold but not 100% lost. 

Oh, I don't know. Jason Aaron's recent work on the Punisher comic is some fantastic stuff.

The reason the Punisher works on such an elemental level is his villains. There is always a villain that attempts to one-up the Punisher, but they always fail because they don't truly understand how far-gone he really is. The villains will always get more outlandish, but they will always be corrected. The Punisher has always been the Punisher. And he will reach the point when he has to correct you.