Not to get all M. Night Shyamalan here, but let’s talk about organizing units in comics. Stick with me, I promise this is going somewhere. The total “world” of Marvel Comics is the Marvel Universe, the print equivalent of the MCU. The lifeblood of Marvel is the ongoing book, a typically monthly title that chronicles a hero’s adventure ad infinitum or until sales dry up. While cinema has no exact match, the James Bond films come closest. Limited series function like the MCU’s individual franchises. The Punisher: One Last Kill, the newest “Marvel Special Presentation,” is equivalent to a comic book one-shot. A single issue telling a story too special for a random issue of an ongoing but too short for a limited series. It likely would’ve been better served as something more akin to a backup feature. Instead, the live-action equivalent of an 8-pager gets full one-shot treatment.

If you prefer your bad news in corporate speak, Punisher: One Last Kill is an all-hands conference-room meeting that could’ve been an email.

Part of this, no doubt, comes from my own personal disinterest in Punisher as a superhero. Even as a comic book enthusiast in the 90s, the height of Punisher fandom, I never collected any of the vigilante’s numerous titles. So, a fairly typical Punisher adventure in small-screen form isn’t exactly up my alley.

That said, I’ve previously found Jon Bernthal’s take on Frank Castle compelling as both a solo character and as a foil for Daredevil (Charlie Cox). I am very much looking forward to the skull-wearing vigilante’s return to the silver screen this summer in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. My reaction to The Punisher: One Last Kill cannot wholly fall at the feet of my previous apathy towards the character, then.

The biggest problem is that the Special paws at the ashes of Punisher adventures past without yielding anything new or interesting about Castle. It never feels overlong in the watching. However, immediately upon its end, it is hard to conjure up enough details to justify its 51-minute running time. Frank hallucinates in misery. Ma Gnucci (Judith Light, treating the role like a delicious ham steak) threatens Frank. Ma Gnucci accidentally pulls Punisher back from the brink by siccing an endless stream of thugs on Frank’s neighborhood. Frank embraces his “protector of the innocents” mode, thus finding a reason to stay alive.

It is loud, bloody, and Bernthal ably embodies the grunting, growling Castle pre- and post-returning to his senses. Well, nearly. There is a graveside scene that’s overegged even by the standards of Castle at his most melodramatic. If you are someone who gets the giggles at “What’s in the box?!”—and you should be—that moment lives in that area code. It is only a brief misstep, though. In general, Bernthal is his usual dialed-in self.

The action is…fine. It is well directed and captured by Reinaldo Marcus Green and his DP Robert Elswit. Unfortunately, while there is an undeniable appeal to one man v. scores of baddies, in practice, it quickly grows repetitive. The only people who feel remotely in danger are the thugs. This makes their eventual dismantling an exercise in clockwatching. It’s a realistic grind, but how many of us are turning to superhero TV/film for realism?

To invoke more comic book terminology, The Punisher: One Last Kill is basically a soft reboot. The MCU continuity remains intact, but this is a tweak to set him up for his Spidey frenemy status. Except Daredevil: Born Again season 1 already did this lift, and the Special explicitly takes place before it. There can be some dramatic juice in a flashback tale. However, the arc here is taking Frank from a near delusional depression to, well, sort of standard-issue Punisher. When an audience watched an entire series with said character already back to whole—as close as the gun-wielding vigilante gets, anyway—that journey feels perfunctory.

As a result, The Punisher: One Last Kill isn’t an insightful exploration of Castle’s psyche. Despite Bernthal’s usual soulful take on the character, the whole affair lacks a pulse. Instead, the dominant reaction is a shrug. As a 15-minute short, a backup in comic terms, this might’ve been something. As a Special, though, it’s a slog.

The Punisher: One Last Kill is currently reloading on Disney+.

The Punisher: One Last Kill Trailer: