I love a good demon-hunting show.
Whether it’s a horror series like Spawn and Ghost Rider or a comedy series like Reaper, sometimes all I want to see is some demons getting slain or trapped and sent back to hell. The new Amazon Prime series, The Bondsman, tries to bring something new to the genre, providing the necessary blood and guts while also mixing in some characterization and family drama with a bible belt aesthetic.
The series follows Hub Halloran (Kevin Bacon), a bounty hunter who, after getting murdered, comes back to life and is forced to work as a Bondsman, finding demons who escaped hell and sending them back. The series effectively balances the demon hunting with an ongoing mystery of why Hub went to hell in the first place and his family drama between his mother, Kitty (Beth Grant), ex-wife Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles), and son Cade (Maxwell Jenkins). The folksy tone gives the series a unique identity, and while the series leans a bit more toward low-key comedy than horror, the gory practical effects are wild throughout the series. The character work is also very strong, especially regarding Hub’s relationship with his mother, Kitty, and how his own emotional immaturity and lack of self-reflection gets in his way. It also helps that all the actors clearly had fun making the show. Not only did Kevin Bacon deliver a deeply committed physical performance, but many other actors, like Beth Grant and Maxwell Jenkins, were also strong standouts. Jolene Purdy, in particular, was excellent, as she cast a wide emotional range from hilarious to deeply tragic as one of hell’s minions. Overall, The Bondsman is a fun show, and I hope it gets a second season 2 so that showrunner Erik Oleson can do a bit more world-building and higher concept with his series.
The Bondsman season 1 is now playing on Amazon Prime.
