Why Is The Punisher Suddenly Number One?
On Saturday, August 29, Marvel's The Punisher sat at No. 33 on CrossBinge's most-popular TV chart. By Saturday, September 5, it was No. 1. Other shows moved more places last week (13 Reasons Why climbed 68, from No. 89 to No. 21), but nothing else on any of our five charts arrived at the top, let alone a show that first aired in 2017.
We do not know why, and it is worth saying so plainly. Our charts blend what people on CrossBinge are looking at with how well a work is rated, so they record a crowd arriving and have no idea what sent it.
So here is our guess, offered as nothing more than a guess. Jon Bernthal plays Frank Castle, and at the end of July his Castle turned up in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The catalog also lists The Punisher: One Last Kill, a 51-minute film from May with Bernthal back in the role. A face like that on a big screen sends people looking for where he started, and where he started is two seasons of television on a chart that had half forgotten him. That story fits the numbers, and it is still only a story.
What they do prove is that a lot of people are about to spend a lot of hours with Frank Castle. Which raises the better question for a fan with one free week: is this the climber to follow?
One pick per chart, priced in hours
One pick from each chart, not always the one that climbed furthest. Side by side, they ask for wildly different things.
TV. Marvel's The Punisher, No. 33 to No. 1. Two seasons, a former Marine hunting the people who murdered his family, then a military conspiracy that swallows the hunt. The ask is a full week of evenings.
Film. Project Hail Mary, No. 46 to No. 24 on the movies chart. A science teacher wakes on a ship light years from home with no memory of the mission, and the mission is saving the sun. Two hours and thirty-seven minutes, one night, done. The bigger jump belonged to Watchmen, No. 85 to No. 59, two hours and forty-three minutes of Zack Snyder's alternate 1985, but it landed 35 places lower. See the sun saved first.
Games. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, No. 74 to No. 48, the biggest move on the games chart. Capcom's 2013 open world, where three AI companions called Pawns learn how to fight from the way you play, bundled with Bitterblack Isle, which is the hard part. Budget a month. The game will not pretend otherwise.
Albums. good kid, m.A.A.d city, No. 99 to No. 86. Kendrick Lamar's 2012 major-label debut, and the highest-rated thing on this list at 8.8. It tied for the biggest climb on the albums chart with The Prodigy's The Fat of the Land, also up 13. The ask is one uninterrupted listen.
Books. Punk 57, No. 22 to No. 9. Penelope Douglas's romance about two pen pals, paired by a mix-up over their names in fifth grade, who write for seven years under three rules: no social media, no phone numbers, no pictures. One weekend. One of Us Is Next moved further, No. 61 to No. 39, and Crazy Rich Asians climbed from No. 33 to No. 24 and is the pick if you would rather laugh at a palace than ache over a letter.
Which one deserves your week
The Punisher, and the chart position has nothing to do with it.
The case against it is real. Two seasons is the largest ask here short of the game, and the crowd that pushed it there may be chasing a cameo rather than the show. If that is you, be warned: this is slower and angrier than a summer blockbuster, and it does not care whether you have seen Spider-Man.
The case for it is that a week is exactly the unit it was built for. Seven evenings gets you a complete two-season arc. Nothing else here fits the week that neatly. Project Hail Mary is over in a night. The album is over in an hour. The book is over by Sunday. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen will still be going in October.
So the verdict: The Punisher gets the week. Watch Project Hail Mary on the night you need a break from it, because a science teacher and a dying sun is the exact opposite mood. Keep the album for the commute. Save the Isle for when you have a month.
And if you started the show for the cameo and were still watching at episode six, tell us. That would answer the headline better than we can.
