As usual, the production is immaculate, and Bernthal -- who never disappoints -- is his usual self. You may, however, wish (I did) that his Punisher wasn't such a humorless, unmitigated jerk.
The Punisher does in fact stand on its own. And heck, comparing it to some of the other Marvel properties, it's good (sorry, Iron Fist). At a small-picture scale, there's solid acting (not mind-bending, but solid), and good production value.
As a narrative about veterans trying to find their place in the world, The Punisher has something to say. But it could have been so much shorter, and its placement in the Marvel universe feels tangential at best.
Like all good noir stories, The Punisher can be very dense at times, but in a surprising twist for a Marvel show it does all come together in a way that makes sense.
The Punisher doesn't always hit the perfect note but you have to give it chops for trying to do something a little different, and eschewing genre conventions. It's just too bloody long.