The Punisher: One Last Kill

Frank Castle's MCU return brings the character's singular moral framework — the franchise's most uncomplicatedly brutal — into contact with a threat that requires exactly the kind of protagonist who has no interest in proportional response. Jon Bernthal's Castle is a character the MCU can only use in limited doses because his worldview, taken seriously, is in irreconcilable tension with the franchise's default heroic assumptions. The special format — neither episode nor film — suits a character who doesn't fit comfortably in any container.