THE BONDSMAN
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Nettles, Beth Grant, Damon Herriman, Maxwell Jenkins, and Jolene Purdy
Creator: Grainger David
QUENTIN
Despite Kevin Bacon committing to the role as a backwoods quasi-dirtbag, The Bondsman is too scattershot to even be dumb fun. With only 30 minutes per episode, there simply isn’t enough time for the humor, character development, horror aspects, twists, and overall story to coalesce in a way that truly ropes the viewer in. The poor balance between the “demon of the week” approach and Hub’s (Bacon) second chance at life with his estranged family make it that neither one is super compelling. It also doesn’t help that it’s very similar to R.I.P.D., and anything that makes you think of that movie can’t be super great.
ROBERT
Did you like R.I.P.D.? Probably not, but imagine if they extended the narrative as a shortened season of streaming TV, spiced it up with gore and profanity, and moved Kevin Bacon out of the villain role and into the lead. Would that do anything for you? Well, it did for me because The Bondsman gives off some serious Supernatural vibes, and the cast chemistry, especially between Bacon and Beth Grant as his roped-into-demon-killing mom, are the true advantage for the show. Since the episodes are short, no time is wasted with exposition, so no need to skip this one.
