Post by Otacon on Nov 5, 2011 13:52:11 GMT -5
A few weeks ago, news broke about a Punisher television series being in the works at FOX. While the reception of the past two movies was decidedly mixed, the prospect of a Frank Castle TV show is sound. After all, with a vast majority of television being cop dramas, what else is the Punisher if not a (violent, disturbed) cop working beyond the confines of the law?
And then I continued to read the description for the show. IGN TV's Eric Goldman reported: "This version of Frank Castle is not a former soldier whose entire existence is as The Punisher. Instead, he's an active New York City police detective, 'who moonlights as the vigilante Punisher seeking justice for those the system has failed.'" Obviously, Marvel fanatics will have a problem with this. That's justified. However, as usual, I'm here to play devil's advocate. While I agree that this change for Frank Castle could ultimately hurt the show's portrayal of Marvel's Punisher, we have to consider what would work best for a wide audience.
Forgetting for a moment that the show would be better suited to FX, where cursing and violence are showcased with regularity, FOX's version of Punisher needs to provide an interesting character for the FOX audience to latch onto. In his report on the news, Eric likened it to Dexter, where our lead character is serving justice to those that escape it through his regular day job. It's certainly not the family-gunned-down-and-so-he-kills-everyone vigilante we know and love, but it does make Frank's plight a bit more reasonable for network TV.
I'm not condoning watered down versions of edgier comic book characters, but the Punisher isn't exactly a likable guy. That's why I'm going to suggest something else entirely: don't focus the show on the Punisher himself. Forget digging into the mind of Frank Castle. Make him nothing more than a recurring cameo in his own show. Blasphemy? Controversial? Strange? Maybe all of the above, but if FOX takes that approach, they will be poised to avoid isolating the Marvel die-hards that will surely scoff at the very idea of a watered down network TV Punisher.
Take the latest Punisher comic book series for instance, written by the wonderful Greg Rucka with fantastic art from Marco Checchetto. If you haven't read it, Frank Castle himself is the most compelling he's been in quite some time. [Editor's Note: read the IGN Comics review of the latest issue!] Ironically, the creators accomplish this by making Frank somewhat of a ghost within his own series. There's no inner monologue (or "war journal") and the character hardly even appears on the page, let alone be given speaking lines. Rucka recreates Frank as a phantom to the underworld; he's a man of few words that is focused only on his mission, and has little desire to explain to the reader how he's going to do it. Rucka's approach suggests that not knowing what Frank is thinking makes him far more interesting, and so far, he's been right.
Creating a Punisher show around the cops and criminals dealing with Punisher's interference – not unlike the Gotham Central show I suggested way back when – is a nice little loophole for FOX to preserve the Punisher as he's meant to be: unforgiving and relentlessly ruthless in the punishment he dishes out. Perhaps even more importantly than Rucka's approach to Frank Castle is that this direction segues nicely into the depiction of violence. Unlike Marvel's MAX version of the Punisher (currently written by Jason Aaron with art by Steve Dillon), the Marvel Universe Punisher has to operate within the confines of that mainstream superhero universe. That means there's only a certain amount of bloodshed allowed.
Keeping with the horror-esque approach to Frank Castle, Rucka's series firmly plants itself in the camp of "less is more" in terms of violence. After all, as readers, anything we imagine happening off-panel is far more brutal and disturbing than anything that could be depicted. It's for this reason that gory horror flicks are most often watched for shock value where true, blood boiling horror comes from the films that connect on a thematic and emotional level. By taking that approach to violence, a TV show can imply the inherent brutality of the Punisher's character without ever actually showing it.
While there's something to be said about seeing the Punisher, well, punish people, I would argue that a television show that explores the thematic implications of the existence of a hardcore vigilante like the Punisher on the detectives and underbelly of New York City is far more interesting. Think of it in terms of The Walking Dead. The show has got zombies, but that's not what the show is really about. The human drama and inner turmoil of the group caused by the zombies is the heart of the show, and a Punisher TV show could, and should, take a similar approach.
What would you like to see from a Punisher television show? Would you prefer he remain a central, but slightly watered down, character? Or would you rather see him as an ominous presence a la Rucka and Checchetto's comic? Is there another option? Sound off in the comments below or let me know on Twitter.
Perhaps it's also worth noting that this giant Punisher: War Zone light-up poster display is still sitting around the IGN office:
Source:http://comics.ign.com/articles/121/1211688p1.html
And then I continued to read the description for the show. IGN TV's Eric Goldman reported: "This version of Frank Castle is not a former soldier whose entire existence is as The Punisher. Instead, he's an active New York City police detective, 'who moonlights as the vigilante Punisher seeking justice for those the system has failed.'" Obviously, Marvel fanatics will have a problem with this. That's justified. However, as usual, I'm here to play devil's advocate. While I agree that this change for Frank Castle could ultimately hurt the show's portrayal of Marvel's Punisher, we have to consider what would work best for a wide audience.
Forgetting for a moment that the show would be better suited to FX, where cursing and violence are showcased with regularity, FOX's version of Punisher needs to provide an interesting character for the FOX audience to latch onto. In his report on the news, Eric likened it to Dexter, where our lead character is serving justice to those that escape it through his regular day job. It's certainly not the family-gunned-down-and-so-he-kills-everyone vigilante we know and love, but it does make Frank's plight a bit more reasonable for network TV.
I'm not condoning watered down versions of edgier comic book characters, but the Punisher isn't exactly a likable guy. That's why I'm going to suggest something else entirely: don't focus the show on the Punisher himself. Forget digging into the mind of Frank Castle. Make him nothing more than a recurring cameo in his own show. Blasphemy? Controversial? Strange? Maybe all of the above, but if FOX takes that approach, they will be poised to avoid isolating the Marvel die-hards that will surely scoff at the very idea of a watered down network TV Punisher.
Take the latest Punisher comic book series for instance, written by the wonderful Greg Rucka with fantastic art from Marco Checchetto. If you haven't read it, Frank Castle himself is the most compelling he's been in quite some time. [Editor's Note: read the IGN Comics review of the latest issue!] Ironically, the creators accomplish this by making Frank somewhat of a ghost within his own series. There's no inner monologue (or "war journal") and the character hardly even appears on the page, let alone be given speaking lines. Rucka recreates Frank as a phantom to the underworld; he's a man of few words that is focused only on his mission, and has little desire to explain to the reader how he's going to do it. Rucka's approach suggests that not knowing what Frank is thinking makes him far more interesting, and so far, he's been right.
Creating a Punisher show around the cops and criminals dealing with Punisher's interference – not unlike the Gotham Central show I suggested way back when – is a nice little loophole for FOX to preserve the Punisher as he's meant to be: unforgiving and relentlessly ruthless in the punishment he dishes out. Perhaps even more importantly than Rucka's approach to Frank Castle is that this direction segues nicely into the depiction of violence. Unlike Marvel's MAX version of the Punisher (currently written by Jason Aaron with art by Steve Dillon), the Marvel Universe Punisher has to operate within the confines of that mainstream superhero universe. That means there's only a certain amount of bloodshed allowed.
Keeping with the horror-esque approach to Frank Castle, Rucka's series firmly plants itself in the camp of "less is more" in terms of violence. After all, as readers, anything we imagine happening off-panel is far more brutal and disturbing than anything that could be depicted. It's for this reason that gory horror flicks are most often watched for shock value where true, blood boiling horror comes from the films that connect on a thematic and emotional level. By taking that approach to violence, a TV show can imply the inherent brutality of the Punisher's character without ever actually showing it.
While there's something to be said about seeing the Punisher, well, punish people, I would argue that a television show that explores the thematic implications of the existence of a hardcore vigilante like the Punisher on the detectives and underbelly of New York City is far more interesting. Think of it in terms of The Walking Dead. The show has got zombies, but that's not what the show is really about. The human drama and inner turmoil of the group caused by the zombies is the heart of the show, and a Punisher TV show could, and should, take a similar approach.
What would you like to see from a Punisher television show? Would you prefer he remain a central, but slightly watered down, character? Or would you rather see him as an ominous presence a la Rucka and Checchetto's comic? Is there another option? Sound off in the comments below or let me know on Twitter.
Perhaps it's also worth noting that this giant Punisher: War Zone light-up poster display is still sitting around the IGN office:
Source:http://comics.ign.com/articles/121/1211688p1.html