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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 331154" data-attributes="member: 23">The Punisher One Bad Day / My Brother’s Keeper / Flustercluck / The Dark Hearts Of Men / The Abyss / Collision Course / The WhirlwindEvery once in a while an episode comes along that in some way pulls the rug out from under the viewer or makes them change or question the way they view a series. The Dark Hearts Of Men was one such episode for me. Up until that point, the season continued to feel fairly consistent in both its strengths and weaknesses.The season’s tenth episode felt like a departure not so much in tone but in presentation. It comes across quite strongly that this is a moment of reflection - an episode that explores characters’ motivations and psychologies in a quiet, introspective way. For its first two thirds, anyway.As someone who loves character-driven drama and slow pacing, this on paper, this feels analogous with the Luke Cage episode For Pete’s Sake, which immediately became one of my all-time favourite episodes of the entire Netflix Marvel saga.Unfortunately, the episode simply didn’t work for me. Not only didn’t it wow me, I actually found myself feeling bored, restless and a little irritated as it progressed and it began to feel like a heap of self-pitiful people indulgently naval gazing and mumbling (frequently incoherently) in darkened rooms. The better parts of the episode involved the “bonding” between Madani and Krista, though it has to be said that the “twist” with Krista being heavily complicit in Russo’s murderous schemes could be seen coming from miles away (and I mean earlier in the season).I’ve realised that a lot of my problem with the John Pilgrim character has to do with the fact that it feels like he’s in a different series. Despite the stories linking up - particularly in the season’s last episodes - we’ve spent much of the time watching him operating practically in a vacuum. There’s no direct relationship with Frank, and Pilgrim ends up feeling rather peripheral and, dare I say, unnecessary. Of course, it helps that I’ve found the performance less-than-engaging. There was nothing that I found particularly interesting about his character. It was purely his situation. Which perhaps explains why his character moments didn’t really work for me. It felt a little like the writing  around him was a little patchy at times. I really didn’t buy the moment in the final episode where he handed Amy - his one bargaining chip - back to Frank without even confirming that Frank had David. It seems incredibly out of character for someone who’s seemed so ruthless and merciless up to this point.The final part of Dark Hearts… involved a sequence where Frank fought a group of men in the dark, with lights intermittently flashing punctuated by synthetic screaming stings. As I said, I’d felt irritated with the episode up to this point and this sequence did nothing to improve the situation. I appreciate that this was supposed to give the viewer a subjective sense of Frank’s disorientation but to me it felt poorly executed and too lengthy and I ended up looking away as I started to feel nauseated with the light/dark silence/noise thing. Honestly, it’s a moment where I seriously considered turning the episode off and jumping to the next. And that’s something I never do.The plan itself - Russo setting up Frank for the murder of the women so that even Frank believes he did it - is a good one. It’s a nice twist on a classic comic trope (villain discredits hero to the public), and taken to decent extremes. I just felt the episode in which it took place was a poor one.I suspect I may be in a minority there. I'd guess there will be others who think it's one of the cleverest episodes. And vive la différence. continued…</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?