The revenge is a very powerful and extremely ancient storytelling engine that most often drives a story toward success. It also happens on the small screen, when it becomes the driving force of TV series that use it as a complex and methodical architecture, building an intricate plot that aims not only to restore the wrong done, but to offer an exemplary punishment. Every move is well studied, time is a precious ally of the avenger in question and is a valuable element in the television framework which, unlike films, has no issues of time (or at least until platforms decide to slow it down). If you’re looking for TV series that transform revenge into a form of art, with protagonists who devote their lives to weighing their moves by analyzing every vulnerability of their opponent following the philosophy of “the dish best served cold,” then here are three TV series where punishment is slow and painful.
From Private Justice to Redemption: TV Series Where Revenge Does Not Forgive
Revenge
From the very choice of the title it’s clear that Revenge had nothing else in mind when it took shape on the page. The revenge in this case unfolds within a setting of luxury, among the beautiful vistas of the Hamptons, and it begins with Emily Thorne, whose real name is Amanda Clarke. Emily dangerously draws near the Grayson family to destroy it. Her objective is to make them pay for having ruined her father, David, who was arrested unjustly and eventually died in prison. Years later, now an adult, Amanda has crafted a meticulous plan to undermine the Grayson family from inside. Attending charity galas and striking at the heart of Victoria’s son, Daniel, Emily Thorne navigates a landscape of unconfessed secrets and conspiracies, acting like a surgeon in an operating room: every move is precise, calibrated, and instead of pursuing traditional violence she exploits the greed and hypocrisies of the upper bourgeoisie, taking advantage of their bad habits and delivering a form of self-sabotage to them. One by one, her enemies fall off the board. Spanning four seasons, from 2011 to 2015, Revenge is freely inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s novel The Count of Monte Cristo, and the cast included Emily VanCamp, Madeleine Stowe, Gabriel Mann, Nick Wechsler and Joshua Bowman. A small curiosity: despite manipulating him in the TV series, in real life Emily VanCamp married Josh Bowman. The series is available for streaming on Disney+.
The Punisher
In this case too the title is explanatory. The Punisher actually began as a spin-off of Daredevil within the realm of superhero cinema and offers a dark and violent version of Frank Castle, a character played here by Jon Bernthal, who later appeared in Daredevil: Rebirth, in the special episode The Punisher: One Last Kill and finally in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, officially debuting in cinema within the DCU. First appearing in Daredevil, Frank Castle then obtained his own TV series aptly titled The Punisher, which at the time streamed on Netflix for Marvel Television in 2017. It lasted two seasons, until 2019, and today is available for streaming on Disney+. In this case revenge is the engine that drives Frank forward. A highly decorated former Marine, his life shatters when his family is brutally slaughtered. Frank is the sole survivor and, once the conspiracy against him is uncovered, he dons the skull emblem that becomes his brand for exacting vengeance. The revenge is physical, unstoppable, with no half measures for a character who does not seek redemption and embarks on a dangerous path, with no return, where he needs physical suffering to purge the world of rot. His dirty methods do not please either Daredevil or Spider-Man, but, over time, Frank has attempted to recalibrate himself without giving up his core beliefs.
The Glory
Distributed for streaming on Netflix in 2022 with a single season split into two parts, The Glory is a South Korean story that became a global phenomenon, delving into the most psychological aspect of revenge. The protagonist is Moon Dong-eun, portrayed by Song Hye-kyo, who during adolescence was the victim of bullying at the hands of her schoolmates, never punished for the crimes committed against her. Enduring both physical and psychological torments, once an adult Moon Dong-eun clings to that trauma and turns her entire life into a desperate race for revenge. She spends twenty years of her life planning an exemplary punishment for all of them in minute detail, insinuating herself into their lives in a subtle way, proposing a strategic revenge that exploits the inner flaws of each, their weaknesses, and all those secrets that become deadly traps for them. The protagonist never dirtys her hands with violence directly, but orchestrates a revenge made of chain-reactions that slowly dismantle the lives of those youths who forever corrupted hers.
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