Does Season 2 Improve After The First Few Episodes?

I blazed through Punisher season one in just a few days while sick. Found Bernthal to be fantastic, engrossing to watch - just gives the character such an interesting emotional/psychological dimension missing from any portrayal of the Punisher I've seen yet (see a lot of Youtube comments complaining that Bernthal is "too short" for the role, but... c'mon... I mean he's almost 6', looks the tough guy part, what else do you want?).

The rest of the cast was also really strong - Russo, Dinah, and really loved Liebermann. Really love plots involving CIA/intelligence ops that a) are morally reprehensible, b) spearheaded by rogue elements within their organizations and c) the protagonists working to unveil the plot are wanted by law enforcement more generally.

Season two so far has been very, very underwhelming. Not only does the writing seem sloppy and far more cliched, but the season has made Bernthal/Frank a lot less interesting - he's kind of a grunting animal in this season. Was perplexed that they spent an entire episode working up the Beth character and her son to just dump them without much of a mention. Found her a lot more interesting than this annoying kid Frank has been protecting. The main villain also seems kind of ridiculous - again, a very cliched "righteous" villain type.

I had to stop watching mid-way through the fourth episode. Everything that is happening is just so much less convincing than the first season, and I care so much less about all the characters.

Do things turn around in the second half?

And if not, would the Daredevil episodes with Frank be worth watching if I'm very fond of the first season of Punisher, and very disappointed by the second (so far)?