I don't disagree with why you found it dis-satisfying in some areas, but from an Abed-esque, metatextual standpoint, all of those areas of non-resolution and withheld exposition and avoidance of connective tissue with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe were willful, not because Jon Bernthal is opposed to them, but because his goals for ONE LAST KILL strike me as prioritizing different concerns. This also seems to be why we don't see Frank shave his beard.

Bear with me...

Frank Castle's first entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, regrettably, one of the most convoluted storylines ever lensed in this franchise. Bernthal's performance exuded care, craft, quality and skill: Frank Castle is feral, dangerous, ruthless, and yet has an impeccable morality that balances his murderous, bloodsoaked tactics to any and every threat. Despite being a softened, less sociopathic version of the comic book character (defined largely as a murder addict who has chosen acceptable targets in violent criminals), Bernthal made Frank reassuringly heroic, heartrendingly tragic, and disturbingly dangerous. His performance is compelling and viscerally immediate.

However, the story around Frank Castle in the Netflix shows has been an unfathomable mess.

Season 2 of DAREDEVIL (Netflix) establishes that Frank Castle's family was murdered in a shootout between three rival gangs in Central Park where the Kitchen Irish, Mexican Cartel, and the Dogs of Hell bikers exchanged gunfire with no regard for the civilians having a picnic. Frank savagely hunts down every gang member involved and murders them, and is brought down by Daredevil and charged with multiple murders in what District Attorney Samantha Reyes promoted into the trial of the century and Frank sentenced to life in prison despite the valiant attempts of his Marine commanding officer, Colonel Ray Schoonover, testifying in his defense. After Frank breaks out of prison, it's revealed that Colonel Schoonover and DA Reyes were running a heroin trafficking operation and engineered the three-gang conflict as a sting operation gone wrong to obscure their involvement and further used Frank's trial to distract from their crimes by involving three separate New York gangs in a massive shooting in a public location followed by national attention on a criminal trial and this story is nonsensical.

This convoluted 'conspiracy' of inexplicably covering up crimes by drawing as much attention as possible is the result of the Punisher's extremely simple storyline being stretched to breaking point to pad out the second season of DAREDEVIL, and this overextension continues unabated in the first season of THE PUNISHER.

THE PUNISHER's first season, trying to fill another 13 episodes and give Frank more reasons to be the Punisher after he's supposedly avenged his family, reveals: back in Afghanistan, Frank, Billy Russo, Colonel Schoonover, and William Rawlins were part of an off-the-books wetworks/assassination squad called Cerberus. Unknown to Frank, Cerberus was smuggling heroin back to the US inside the bodies of dead soldiers. Rawlins saw Frank as a potential loose end or whistleblower and organized a complex Central Park gang war between the Kitchen Irish, Mexican Cartel, and the Dogs of Hell bikers with Colonel Schoonover using it as cover to assassinate Frank and his family in order to silence Frank from potentially revealing a drug smuggling operation of which he knew nothing, and Billy Russo wasn't personally involved in the plan but knew it was coming and did nothing to prevent it. Because naturally, when trying to divert attention away from crimes, one wants to involve as many military assets and private contractors and criminal syndicates as possible.

It may seem hard to believe after reading all of the above, but the Punisher is in fact a very simple character: he is a Marine whose family was murdered by criminals and now he wages a high artillery war on crime. None of the additional details above are in any way germane to Frank's purpose and motives and origins. The added complexities are confused and confusing, filled with redundancies and irrelevancies, and Season 2 piles on even more with Amy Bendix's secret ledger which has nothing to do with Billy Russo and Krista Dumont's romance which barely intersects with Madani's hunt for Russo which does not connect to John Pilgrim's crisis of confidence.

For two seasons of THE PUNISHER, Jon Bernthal presented a purposeful, driven performance within a TV show that was meandering and aimless, struggling to contrive more and more reasons for Frank to be the Punisher.

ONE LAST KILL, co-written by Jon Bernthal, is a direct rejoinder to every previous PUNISHER production in which he has ever performed. The Special Presentation format of 51 minutes reduces Frank to his simplest core elements: he is a force of relentless violence in a city of sadistic predators; he is haunted by the deaths of innocents; he declares war on violent criminals.

There is no Byzantine Marine/CIA/DHS/Kitchen Irish/Mexican Cartel/Dogs of Hell/Anvil/Testament Industries/NYC DA/Veterans Affairs/Weapon X/Hellfire Club/Famous Original Ray’s Pizza conspiracy regarding Frank's past or present efforts to kill him. There is a troubled Frank Castle; there is a vindictive and bloodthirsty Ma Gnucci seeking revenge for Frank destroying her crime family; there are Ma Gnucci's forces bringing violent death upon Frank's apartment building. The special is straightforward and focused. Frank is a creature of violence in a land ruled by violence who has lost his capacity to do battle until war burns down his front door.

Frank is snapped out of his withdrawal from the world, acting on pure, savage instinct against those who mean him and his neighbours harm. The thugs and predators of Little Sicily ravage their victims with impunity only to find they have unleashed a monster who feeds on the suffering and agony and death of the guilty, who exists simply to plow forward through the ranks of violent criminals with gunfire and grenades. It is primal, minimalistic, and while psychologically complex, the plot is utterly devoid of needless complication. The Netflix seasons tied themselves in knots to give Frank a new reason to punish evil every 2 - 4 episodes. ONE LAST KILL dispenses with any need for conspiracy-based motivations and simply deposits Frank in a world where his violence is a necessity and war is his default.

ONE LAST KILL makes a cursory connection to BORN AGAIN, tacitly indicating that Frank's mental paralysis and hallucinations are why he failed to return to Matt and Karen. However, ONE LAST KILL is very clearly not about tying into BORN AGAIN or a Spider-Man movie. ONE LAST KILL is about shedding and dispensing all of the narrative convolutions surrounding Bernthal's Punisher and to refine him into his purest, clearest and most propulsive depiction: as a force of vengeful, bloodsoaked wrath; a demonic cry of outrage cast by the innocent against those who would harm them. The immediacy is why Frank goes straight from the deranged madness of the apartment building battle to reconnect with his family to donning his skull insignia to cleanse the streets of monsters without the special stopping to show him shave or groom himself. ONE LAST KILL does not pause to show Frank shaving; it cuts to Frank resuming his war and launches itself forward like a bullet from the Punisher's barrel.

The special deliberately eschews any ending: Little Sicily is a war zone; Ma Gnucci is still gunning for the Punisher; he is likely still wanted by police after killing corrupt officers. The special has given Frank a mission, a setting, a community, a location, an archenemy, and the understanding that any victory over criminals will leave survivors that will produce more enemies. ONE LAST KILL makes it clear that Frank's war is without end.

ONE LAST KILL is not a film or a tie-in to BORN AGAIN or BRAND NEW DAY. ONE LAST KILL is a repilot, a second beginning that demonstrates Bernthal's very specific and focused vision of the Punisher as a man engaged in an endless war. ONE LAST KILL lays the foundation for how a Punisher series would continue to function as an ongoing television show, provides Frank with a motive that is as streamlined as Bernthal's performance, and sets aside the unfathomable continuity of the Netflix years.

(Just my highly meta take on it all.)

I like that explanation.  I like the idea of a prequel, but a prequel wouldn't offer any explanation as to where Frank was during Born Again season 2.  And yours covers that.

Another weird continuity thing.  As far as I can remember, Frank has been clean shaven in the four seasons of MCU television.  He's certainly clean shaven at the end of Born Again season 1.  He has a beard in One Last Kill which makes sense because, prequel or sequel to his last appearance, he's really struggling.

But why does he have the beard at the end when he's re-embraced being the Punisher?  Especially since he's clean shaven in Brand New Day.  I know he could've easily shaved in between these products and maybe he just temporarily likes the beard even if he's focused himself again.  But it would've been something to tie the projects together.

All in all, I still think it was great.  I still think it should've been a movie.

ONE LAST KILL shows that Little Sicily (and presumably other parts of New York) has become a lawless land with the NYPD completely unable to address wanton violence on civilians. This is undoubtedly the result of Fisk leaving office and creating a massive power vacuum with all the AVTF officers jailed.

ONE LAST KILL shows that Frank is hallucinating: he sees his wife and daughter; he sees visions of Curtis and Karen haunting him, mocking him, deriding him. As a result, when Frank walks the streets and is surrounded by civilians being assaulted and murdered, he does nothing; he isn't indifferent, he simply cannot tell what is or isn't real anymore. The beating he sustained at the free port by cops wearing his insignia has fractured his mind; his mission has been co-opted by 'fanboys' and he is unable to process it.

He does not contact Matt with information about the cells; he does not go to Karen's aid -- he doesn't do anything but basic survival in one of his bolthole apartments because he does not know if anything around him outside of immediate needs are real, or if he even actually escaped the free port. It's only when gasoline is poured under his door and set aflame that he finally returns to reality. He didn't help Matt or Karen in BORN AGAIN's second season because he couldn't trust anything he was seeing.

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I've seen it said that there's a chance the Punisher special either a) takes place before Daredevil Born Again Season 1 or b) takes place entirely in Frank's head.

I think both are plausible and might explain some of the incongruity with the rest of the MCU (even just the Daredevil corner of the MCU).  It would've been nice if that would've been referenced.  If it is a prequel, I'm going to have the head canon that it takes place during the Blip which is why everyone is crazy and on edge

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The Good - It's really well done.  Gets you in the mind of Frank Castle.  They also don't hold back - they didn't "Disney-fy" the character, and there's some dark material you wouldn't expect from the MCU.

The Bad - It's short.  It's 51 minutes with extended credits (no post or mid credits).  By the time you feel like it's getting going, it's over.  This could've certainly been a theatrical movie with one more act if they wanted.  I also feel like it's super small on plot.  It feels like 75% of a movie with a huge action set piece missing.

The Cinematic Universe - It's crazy.  This story does literally nothing to explain why Frank was missing in Daredevil, does nothing to follow up on what happened in Daredevil, and does nothing to set up Frank in Spider-Man.  There's no reference to Matt or the AVTF or Fisk or anything.  There's one reference to the bigger world (that I caught, maybe there's more) but this is 100% an isolated story.  Which is fine.  I don't think everything needs to be connected to the bigger universe, and I'm glad they told a story (albeit one that feels truncated) that they wanted to tell.

And honestly, I'm more upset about Daredevil avoiding MCU connections than I am the Punisher.  Frank kinda does his own thing and is on a side quest.  But for Frank to be absent from Daredevil entirely and then to show up here with no ties to anything before or after just feels odd.  I really thought they might end this with Frank thinking he went too far and promising his family that he'll tone it down.  So when he shows up in Spider-Man, he's a little more toned down.  But nope.  Not how it ends.

Which is fine.  Maybe Spider-Man explains it.  Or maybe it doesn't.  Or maybe Frank somehow isn't toned down.  It's just a little bizarre to me that you have a character who was literally just absent for the whole season (but still referenced...like "don't forget about this guy, he'll be back soon") and is about to be a part of your big summer movie, and you make no effort to connect those two things.

I get that Berthal wrote this and it's a character piece for Frank.  But you have a short runtime.  You can add ten minutes to this with fan service and it's still only one hour.  Say what Frank was doing during Born Again season 2.  Mention what happened to Fisk and/or the disbanding of the AVTF.  Wherever Frank starts Spider-Man Brand New Day, bridge that gap.

You have this cinematic universe and you have this playground, and then you don't use it.  It just feels super weird to me.  You don't need Sam Wilson to show up and beat up a gangbanger, but I just don't understand why this happens.

Also, on another note.  Jon Berthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach literally just filmed a special presentation for FX with a road trip sidequel of the Bear.  Ebon Moss-Bachrach plays the Thing and is tied in with Marvel.  Ebon Moss-Bachrach played Microchip in season one of the Netflix Punisher.  How did Ebon Moss-Bachrach not cameo in this???

Although I'll be fascinated to see if anything from Daredevil (other than Frank himself) is referenced in that movie.

Spoilers for Daredevil

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Well, season 2 wrapped up in a way where almost nothing from Daredevil would need to be addressed, unless its something in passing about what Peter did during the Safer Streets Initiative.  I gotta think, in terms of the show, that Peter was not considered a vigilante (meaning that Kingpin has a better relationship with Spider-Man than in the comics).  And I would think that Peter either didn't have any way of getting to Matt, or he was hesitant to get involved (maybe he sees Matt and Frank as dangerous).

I would be super interested in knowing what Peter did during that time, but I doubt it ever gets addressed in anything.

First off, I agree that it's a bit of a waste.  I don't want to rush Dr. Doom, and I think there was a lot of wasted opportunity with phases four to six.

But I guess my main response is "Thanos was barely in the movies until Infinity War." - he was in a couple of post-credits, and he was in one scene in Guardians.  This wasn't exactly Darth Vader until he finally made his move.  I think one of the strengths of the MCU was creating these heroes and their relationships to each other, and how they end up working together.

And I don't think a villain needs to be set up.  99% of all villains are introduced in the movie they're in.  It doesn't take a ton of work to set up a great villain.  The Joker in the Dark Knight is completely set up in the opening five minutes.  He's in one movie with no other set up, and he's one of the best comic book villains ever.

So did the MCU drop the ball with Kang and maybe rush Dr. Doom?  Absolutely.  But is that necessarily a problem?  I don't think so.

I also think there would be some kind of push for Daredevil to register under the Sokovia Accords, but I don't even know if that's still a thing. 

I'm not too upset about any of it, really.  One, because I think season 2 has been good enough that I'm not thinking about it.  And two, because I think this problem in the MCU extends way beyond Daredevil.  I think, since Endgame, the universe has felt fractured.  Some of it wasn't the MCU's fault (Covid and Jonathan Majors are the most to blame) but it's just weird that the universe has felt less connected as they spread things out.  The more characters they have, you'd think there'd be more crossovers, not less.

But I agree that the shows and movies don't convey this information at all.

And this is a world where people have been familiar with superheroes for 20+ years.  And outside of the events leading to Civil War, the superheroes of the world have been mostly positive.  The timeline is muddled, but superheroes saved the city of New York very recently.  Now maybe every person in this world can clearly delineate Captain America from Daredevil.  Just like people in our world can clearly delineate "Abolish ICE" from "Defund the Police." 

I think those segments would be a great way for the show to directly show that delineation, but I can also see why the show might not want to muddy the waters or cause issues for, say, Spider-Man Brand New Day.  Although I'll be fascinated to see if anything from Daredevil (other than Frank himself) is referenced in that movie.

CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who assembled the Thunderbolts/New Avengers and held a press conference heralding their new frontline position as America's premier superheroes, who had them unveiled on on the streets of New York, makes a phone call in DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN's Season 2 premiere. de Fontaine's phone call, while unheard, causes the state authorities to back off on trying to curtail and end Fisk outlawing superheroes in New York City.

The implication from de Fontaine's phone call: she is in favour of superheroes who report to her or at least exist within the chain of command within her purview as Director. She'll tolerate Captain America and a new Falcon; she can grudgingly suffer two Hawkeyes and two Hulks, but her platonic ideal of a superhero is the US Agent -- an employee, even if he now comes with the Winter Soldier and the Black Widow (2.0) and the Red Guardian and some guy named Bob.

She is not in favour of 'rogue' superheroes -- unlicensed vigilantes without sanction or oversight (municipal, state or federal) operating of their own accord -- because she can't control them and direct them to work for her specific interests of warmongering and conquest and consolidation of superweapons and superhumans.

The discrepancy between the recent Marvel movies (BRAVE NEW WORLD, THUNDERBOLTS) honouring superheroes and BORN AGAIN criminalizing them is (tacitly) explained by one phone call from an offscreen de Fontaine to give Mayor Fisk free reign to prune away vigilantes like Daredevil while ignoring White House honourees like Sam Wilson. They did address it...

But, admittedly, in a really guarded, low key, quiet way with the absence of dialogue, as de Fontaine is never heard to speak onscreen.

But I really wish this felt like the MCU.  I don't know what the timeline is, but this is a universe where Spider-Man is out there.  This is a universe where the Sentry/Void attacked not too long ago.  This is a universe that is still only a decade or two away from the Chitauri attack and less than ten years from the Snap.  I think the show needs to try and reference how people are reconciling their hatred of vigilantes in a world where Captain America fought aliens in the streets.

I wonder if having someone like Sam Wilson guest star on the show would help.  Maybe Sam even joins Fisk on the "vigilantes are bad" train because Sam wants people to fight in the light.  If not Sam, maybe Walker?  I don't know.  It would make the universe feel a lot more cohesive.  Instead, it just feels like this takes place in a different universe.  I'm sure the comics have the same problem, and I assume they also sorta ignore it.  But I would love to see the show address it.  Even if it's in a BB segment with someone saying "I love Captain America, but these vigilantes are just criminals giving superheroes a bad name"

And since they've addressed so many flaws from season one, I guess they just want to live in their own space.  I guess I'll be interested to see if anything from Daredevil makes it into Spider-Man Brand New Day.