The Bondsman Review: Quirky, Fun and Thoroughly Bingeable

In Prime Video’s The Bondsman, murdered bounty hunter Hub Halloran finds himself chasing escaped demons and sending them back to Hell after Lucifer sends him back to Earth. Handling the sins of others, he slowly realises his own problems and what made him end up in the down under in the first place and forces him to confront himself and get a second chance at life.

The series has 8 episodes, each with a runtime of around 30 minutes.

The Bondsman Review

In Kevin Bacon’s The Bondsman, Hub returns from the dead with a task from Lucifer — to catch all of the demons lurking on Earth or risk being dragged back to Hell. Of course, the notion of this storyline is entertaining and curiosity-inducing in and of itself but the fact that his devout Christian mother Kitty is just so chill about all of this adds to the insanity of it all.

First and foremost, Beth Grant is as delightful as Kitty. She’s not only exceptionally chill as Grant’s mother but is extremely badass as well. Her faith doesn’t subtract anything from her character but rather adds a dose of amusement to an already amusing drama. In that sense, Kitty is absolutely a delight to watch. At first, you might think of her as an innocent, god-fearing grandma who wants the best for his son. However, within 3 episodes she’s burning down cars and committing crimes for her family like it’s her second nature. It’s a delightful surprise that just keeps on giving.

Let’s come to Hub — the series obviously hinges on him and his actions and takes us through a thrilling ride that has its emotional moments. He is an interesting character with a ton of flaws (I mean he went to Hell so obviously) but that makes his character trajectory all the more fantastic. Kevin Bacon is a natural at playing quirky characters and as a demonic bondsman, he is no different. He’s believable and humorous and brings out the different emotional beats extremely well.

However, I think my favourite character background was Jolene Purdy’s Midge who joined Hell hoping that it’s not a pyramid scheme. I will leave the rest of this small moment to the viewers to find but it’s hilariously unhinged and very on-point for the show. Either way, two big parts of the show are Hub’s demon hunting and his relationship with his ex-wife, or, more importantly, his ex-wife’s new husband Lucky. While hunting demons is quite a perilous job, his hate relationship with Lucky isn’t a walk in the park either. The family drama is quite interesting and makes for a dark watch — you sometimes wonder which one is the more dangerous of the two!

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That being said, the series does get a bit repetitive sometimes probably because we have seen this formatting many times before. Each episode follows Hub fighting a new demon while tackling his complicated family life and coming to terms with his dreadful past. And although it has some playful and quirky moments, it’s not particularly new at this point. I also found the demonic portions of each episode to end too quickly. I wish we could’ve spent more time understanding and seeing Hub fight the demons but alas that’s not what we always get. However, it does make up for it by a lot in the last two episodes. The Bondsman episode 8, especially, is so shocking that it makes everything else fall flat and you can’t help but gasp as Hub’s selfish choices come back to bite his butt and leave you on edge!

Final Thoughts

I think The Bondsman is a quirky, entertaining watch. Although the first few episodes tend to feel familiar sometimes, it more than makes up for it with the twist ending that leaves us on a cliffhanger. The series does a phenomenal job of pulling a bait and switch on viewers and will leave most people eager to see what’s next. All in all, this one’s one hell of an entertainer.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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