The Bondsman

A solid vehicle for the preternaturally charming Bacon, getting its goofy-gory job done with the same sort of efficiency and ramshackle energy that its hero brings to his Faustian gig.

I had a few issues with the show during the first half of the season, but as we started to delve deeper into the characters and saw more of Hub's family, I felt like the final four episodes really helped sell the show's vision to me to the point that I would love to see more of them.

There is nothing very new to see in The Bondsman. How much you enjoy it will depend on how much you enjoy Kevin Bacon (laconic, hard-bitten Kevin Bacon, not Tremors Kevin Bacon and not Footloose Kevin Bacon), how much you enjoy tales of demonic possession in a small town in southern America and how much you enjoy the sound of partly severed heads, blown-out tracheas and bloodied fingers.

There is a smattering of Appalachian lore, a barely-bothered with throughline about condemned souls and redemption, some quite good jokes and an awful lot of Bacon killing things. Something for everyone, then – if quite a lot for no one too.

“The Bondsman” starts strong, but before long, Hub’s vintage truck has run out of gas.

“The Bondsman” struggles to figure out what it even is. The obvious comparison would be something like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but the show takes a long and winding road to nowhere instead. It’s a problem inherent to the ultra-short streaming seasons. The show’s genre and its episode order are at odds.

Hideously shot through with CGI that would have looked dated two decades ago, filmed with almost no sense of atmosphere whatsoever, and ground down by dialogue that rarely sounds like it’s being said by an actual human being, The Bondsman serves no purpose other than to add a few new deep cuts to the next round of “Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon.”

Great show, great development. It's awesome to have "fun" TV again, not everything has to be Downton Abbey or Wolfhall.

Eh, it was okay. Nothing outstanding, but it was definitely better than other demon-fighting TV crap like Constantine and Helstrom. It kinda reminded me of that R.I.P.D. movie as well. Yeah, that was way, waaaay worse. For what it's worth, The Bondsman is a decent mix of supernatural thriller, action, drama and comedy. I expected it to be non-stop gore comedy, but the dramatic elements of the show were handled rather competently. The villain was interesting too, in that he tried to stop doing evil; in a way, he was kind of an anti-villain. What pissed me off, though, was the music. There were a lot of moments where they set these gruesome murders against the backdrop of silly pop or country tunes. It would've been okay once or twice, but once it started happening in every episode, it was just too much. They clearly thought this some kind of a fresh, groundbreaking, hilarious idea, like we didn't have Kingsman in 2014 or, hell, Reservoir Dogs back in 1992. The same goes for the country numbers. It's as if the creators just googled 'royalty-free country songs' and that was that. The music supervisor, or whoever else was responsible, clearly put in very little effort. All these moments could have been so much better if they had just bothered. The pacing could have been better, too. The last two episodes are easily the weakest. They really dial back on the jokes and action, leaving only the drama. While this show has benefited from the occasional infusion of drama, it just doesn't work as a full-on drama. It's as if there were an entire Breaking Bad episode in which Walt and Jesse just told jokes and riffed off each other. While it worked moderation, an entire episode of that would just be ridiculous. Even the demons in those last two episodes are lame. One is a boy who does virtually nothing and is only on screen for about fifteen seconds. The second is a chick with wings who relies on that stupid shifting effect that was really popular in horror movies about 25 years ago. Overall, I'm not surprised this was cancelled after just one season. While it is competently made, it lacks an identity of its own and probably would've worked better as a movie. The entire season is less than four hours long, so with a little trimming here and there, it could easily have been a film. The jokes are easily the weakest part of the show anyway, so remove them and make it a more serious film in the style of Keanu Reeves's Constantine, and it could have been something. As it is, though, I don't regret wasting my time on The Bondsman.

Not a bad tv series, i still enjoy this one from prime video. I'm looking forward to season 2

I am closing the book on The Bondsman two episodes in. Two was enough for me to figure this was not my style. It is very recklessly simple and campy, but not in my preferred genre. It feels more like the made up TV show you see inside of a real movie or TV show. I'm sure others could have fun with this, but it was not for me. I didn't need to sit through more demon-of-the-episode bounty huntings. Moving on!

Ever wonder what "Ash vs. Evil Dead" would look like with zero charm, humor, or nostalgic value? Want to hear an entire cast where the only person who isn't affecting a vaguely southern accent is doing something that can only be identified as a Boston accent through clunky exposition? Want to see Beth Grant finally play a character more annoying than the Sparkle Motion lady from "Donnie Darko"? Then boy, do i have a Monster-of-the-week show so formulaic it makes "the Power Rangers" look like a Christopher Nolan film. Et Tu, Bacon?