Damon Herriman, Jennifer Nettles, and Beth Grant co-star in this blend of humor, heart, and country music elevates this genre offering.
Plot: Murdered bounty hunter Hub Halloran is resurrected by the Devil to trap and send back demons that have escaped from the prison of Hell. By chasing down those demons with the help and hindrance of his estranged family, Hub learns how his own sins got his soul condemned — which pushes him to seek a second chance at life, love, and country music.
Review: There have been a lot of series over the years that have tried to combine horror and comedy. When you throw in the idea of a protagonist being enlisted to hunt down demons and send them back to Hell, you can count the 1998 FOX series Brimstone and the 2007 CW show Reaper amongst similar concepts. Even Ash vs. Evil Dead had a good balance of the genres, though it did lean more towards comedy, unlike the grim Brimstone. Striking the right amount of levity and chills can be the difference between a fun work of escapism and a waste of time. Thankfully, Prime Video’s new series The Bondsman has found just the right dynamic between being scary and heartwarming by enlisting Kevin Bacon for the lead role of Hub Halloran. With a quick eight-episode first season, The Bondsman introduces a twist on the expected genre trappings and adds to it by throwing in some country music flair to keep things lively, making it one of the more fun new shows of the year.
Without wasting a moment, The Bondsman kicks off with the titular character, Hub Halloran (Kevin Bacon), tracking down a couple of bail-jumpers using an unconventional tool to smoke them out of their motel room. Almost immediately, they get the drop on Hub and kill him, sending his soul to Hell. When he surprisingly awakens, Hub must figure out why he is not dead. That is when his caseworker, Midge (Donnie Darko‘s Jolene Purdy), explains he has been returned to Earth to hunt demons for the Devil. Hub and his mother, Kitty (Beth Grant), begin receiving faxes with which particular demonic entity they need to track down, which they do while trying to see if a loophole exists to return Hub to the living. Hub also must deal with his ex-wife’s new boyfriend, Lucky (Damon Herriman), who may have had a role in Hub’s untimely demise. While Hub’s son Cade (Maxwell Jenkins) and former spouse Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles) try to keep things diplomatic between Hub and Lucky, the threat of monsters coming to their small Georgia town becomes increasingly dangerous.
The eight episodes of The Bondsman‘s first season fly by, with each chapter clocking in at just about thirty minutes. It is unusual for a genre project to get a shorter run time, but the brisk pace keeps the story moving and wastes no time in building the mythology of the demons and their unique methods of possessing the living. The series still manages to throw in backstory for various characters while teasing the reason Hub went to Hell when he died. All of it is in service to the over-arching narrative of the series, which cleverly builds towards a final scene with viewers clamoring for a season two. It also helps that there are plenty of opportunities for laughs mixed in with the over-the-top gore teased in the trailer for the series. Some visuals, like the demonic eyes of the possessed, that only Hub can see are creepy without necessarily being scary. Sure, there is enough going on that audiences will feel jump scares occasionally, but the series is more reliant on atmosphere than trying to give viewers the creeps.
Kevin Bacon is fantastic as Hub, providing him with a raspy Southern drawl and an energy that makes him look twenty years younger than his actual age. Beth Grant and Jolene Purdy, reuniting two decades after they appeared in Donnie Darko, are fantastic. Grant is always a great addition to any project; here, she gets to be directly involved in the action. Purdy also gets a solid role here with a flashback of Midge’s involvement with the Devil. I would not be disappointed if this series took off and Midge got a bigger role as Jolene Purdy has so much presence on screen. Damon Herriman, a stalwart character actor in everything from Once Upon A Time in Hollywood to Justified and Mindhunter, puts on a Boston accent and serves as a great antagonist opposite Kevin Bacon. Jennifer Nettles, a scene-stealer in a limited role on The Righteous Gemstones, is also great here and uses her musical talents throughout the series. An accompanying album of songs for The Bondsman has been released featuring Nettles and Bacon singing and performing together, adding a depth of original songs that deepens this series even more.
Based on a story by Grainger David, Carnival Row and Daredevil season three showrunner Eric Oleson has crafted a unique story that fits right into the expanding library of Blumhouse projects that push past just being horror into more dynamic cross-genre opportunities. Oleson has smartly partnered with writers Satinder Kaur and Nina Kim as well as directors Thor Freudenthal (The Expanse), Sanaa Hamri (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power), Catriona McKenzie (The Boys), and Lauren Wolkstein (Dead Ringers) to deliver a series dripping with Southern charm and pulsating with a musical core. The series also smartly sets up a finale that will make it very hard for Amazon to pass on a second season. I love the various monsters’ looks and designs and unique abilities. Still, I even appreciate how this series uses the idea of family to bring Hub together with his estranged circle to battle the most heinous and awful entities you could imagine.
The Bondsman is escapist entertainment in the best ways possible. Kevin Bacon looks to be having more fun in this role than he has in years, with the balance of genres and tones working throughout the series. With an over-arching narrative blended with a monster-of-the-week approach to the cases Hub must take on each episode, The Bondsman wastes no time from the first to the last. Compared to other genre offerings I mentioned at the start of this review, The Bondsman never gets too focused on taking itself seriously, which allows the audience to have fun watching Kevin Bacon dispatch monsters in creative ways. Every character is enjoyable to watch, with the music good enough to get toes tapping, even for those who are not country music fans. The Bondsman could easily turn into a long-running series, and I hope it comes back for multiple seasons. I have not had as much pure fun with a horror series in a long time.
The Bondsman premieres on April 3rd on Prime Video.
