Spoilers will fax you the details.
Let’s admit one flaw from the outset. This is a guilty pleasure. Just as there’s genre films, there are genre series and this is one by the book. That being said, it has a charismatic cast, lots of action and a supernatural twist. That’s a review in one phrase to get you to try it out. The big flaw is that it’s in a streaming service, but then again what isn’t these days. Let’s hunt us some demons.
The Bondsman (2025-) is created by Grainger David. Hub Halloran (Kevin Bacon) is a bounty hunter that gets killed while on the job and comes back to life. As he tries to sort things out, he’s got his mother on his side, Kitty Halloran (Beth Grant). He also has a semi-strained relationship with his ex-wife, country singer Maryanne Dice (Jennifer Nettles) with whom he has a son, Cade (Maxwell Jenkins), that he doesn’t see as much as he should. Yeah, we’re going for the popular flawed parent trope. Still, it’s pretty obvious Hub is trying.
The main reason is, of course, that he has been recruited as Midge (Jolene Purdy), his “handler” tells him, to do what he does best (sorta) and hunt down demons for Hell. Hell apparently works on earth through a multi-level marketing scheme company called Pot O’Gold with cheesy ads and using a fax machine. There’s a lot riding on Bacon’s shoulders here, but his charisma and his penchant for getting in trouble are way too familiar not to be compared with a lot of characters out there. Going against him on the mortal front, is the new man in Maryanne’s life, Lucky Callahan (Damon Herriman). On the demon front, we’re going for the baddie of the week.
Why does it work? Well, there’s a smidge of dark humour into the whole banality of it all with enough horror elements and action to balance it out. The family drama is obviously solvable with a single conversation, but circumstances get in the way. The supernatural aspects seem to have an overarching plot that hopefully will give some juicy payback. There’s also the secret of why Hub was destined to hell which should play into the next episodes soon.
Recommended as a guilty pleasure with minimal reservations. Yes, there’s tropes and cliches abound and the premise is a bit derivative. It does shine in execution thanks to charismatic leads and some dark humour with loads of added gore and action to boot. Worth a watch and a binge for the genre loving audience for whom it might hit the spot.
That will do for now.
Never Think Impossible 