The Devil Punisher

I watched the 9th Precinct (Taiwanese movie about police force that battles ghosts) and I loved it. It had a good pace, funny scenes and great performance from the cast. So when Netflix recommended The Devil Punisher I was ready to jump on board feet first. This was series had a good start but it lose momentum, turning very convoluted

My main gripes are the mediocre VFX, the extremely cheesy scenes and the very convoluted /confusing scenes that could just have been edited out. If it wasn't for these factors, this series could have been good as it has a decent plot to work from. I've watched at 1.5 speed and skipping scenes as it got to be such a drag.

If you want a lighthearted/cheesy series about ghosts that's not scary, then try it? Otherwise go watch 9th Precint.

The storyline is getting worse and so predictable. Too slow and so many unnecessary parts that should be edited out. So far episode 1 is the best, this series might be much better if the production team planned 6-8 episodes instead of 20. Can't continue following.

The Devil's Punisher is more enjoyable in its earlier episodes where the plot is less convoluted and the pacing more balanced. The evolution of Anson Chen's character becomes almost laughable because of his sophomoric acting and total lack of understanding of mature nuance. He makes Austin Powers look subtle in comparison!

The second challenge is that I'm not convinced the writers knew where the plot line was heading so to move the story to some sense of conclusion in its later episodes, they resorted to instances of Deus ex machina making the end of the film appear contrived, convoluted and campy. In terms of cinematography, it looks like one of the film editors discovered colour enhancement and went wild with over-saturated scenes and colours that appeared artificial. In one of the episodes, everyone and everything is bright fuchsia.

On the whole, though, the series has its moments but is in need of much better directing, particularly for Anson Chen, as well tighter editing.

The first time I tried to look at it I turned it off but a week later I looked at the full episode. It, to me, is like a love story. I looked at the first two episodes and then ended up looking at all of the rest the following week. Now I have to wait until next week to look at it. It actually helps me to unwind on the weekends. I really like it.

This show had a really great starting premise making the first few episodes the best of the series for me. The acting on everyone's part thoughout the whole show was phenomenal making you want to watch it more. However, this show really could have been closer to the 12 to 16 episode mark (and 16 is pushing it). Each episode was over an hour long but had very little plot progression. The "is he...Isn't he the bad guy" question the WHOLE SHOW was frustrating. The ending parts were interesting plot wise but they still made it feel like it was dragging by making the hero too non chalant about the whole world ending thing and still not seeing him trying to figure out what he needed to do. I will also say that I was a little disappointed with the final battle, as i expected tit to be more explosive and it was way more low key. Again the acting was fantastic but I do not recommend this show outside of that.