REVIEW: ‘The Bondsman’ - Back From The Dead, But Not Quite Raising Hell
- Demet Koc
- Apr 2
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 7
Prime Video’s new horror dramedy The Bondsman kicks off with a concept that immediately grabbed my attention. Kevin Bacon stars as Hub Halloran, a gruff, sarcastic bounty hunter who dies and is brought back to life to hunt demons escaping from hell. On paper, it sounds like a chaotic, fun ride...
Hub’s personal life is a mess. He has an ex-wife, Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles), who’s now dating a dangerous criminal named Lucky (Damon Herriman), and the two of them share a kid stuck in the middle of it all. Adding to the chaos is Hub’s mother, Kitty (Beth Grant), a retired Bondsman who casually finds herself back in the business after a hilariously low-key conversation with Hell’s coordinator, Midge (Jolene Purdy).
The series comes from Daredevil showrunner Erik Oleson and is produced by none other than Jason Blum of Blumhouse, so naturally, I expected something that blended grit, tension, and dark humor. And at first, it seems like that’s exactly what we’re getting. The opening episodes set up a cool world, hinting at rules, rituals, and a larger demonic structure that I was excited to dig into. As someone who loves a good demon hunter story with lore, twisted rules, and morally messy characters, this seemed like it could be my new favorite show.
As the episodes go on, it starts to fall apart. The demon mythology, which should be the show’s backbone, never really takes off. The demons themselves aren’t much more than criminals with creepy masks and violent gimmicks. They don’t feel otherworldly or particularly threatening. There’s no sense of real hellish horror, no deeper explanation of how this whole demon-hunting system works, and most disappointingly, they’re barely even the focus of the episodes.
There is a larger plot involving demons in the background, and the finale does try to bring it together in a more cohesive way, but it still doesn’t go far enough. You can tell the show wants to build up something epic, it just doesn’t get there. Instead, it gets tangled up in the drama between Hub and Lucky. Their rivalry becomes the core storyline, and the actual supernatural elements feel like a side quest. Every time the show gets close to exploring something interesting, it pulls back and goes back to the same tired conflict between two men fighting over a woman and a kid.
And speaking of that, the relationship between Hub and Maryanne should be the emotional anchor of the series, but it just isn’t. The chemistry between Kevin Bacon and Jennifer Nettles is almost nonexistent. It’s not that they’re bad actors, they’re both strong in their own right, but together, there’s just nothing sparking. I wanted to care about their past, to feel something when they shared a scene. Instead, I felt mostly indifferent. And that emotional disconnect extends to the rest of the cast too. I didn’t find myself rooting for anyone, maybe with the exception of Hub’s mother, Kitty. I wasn’t invested in the stakes, even when characters were supposedly in danger.
The Bondsman has all the pieces to be something great: Kevin Bacon as a demon-hunting badass, a messed-up family dynamic, demonic crime lords, and Hell—but it never fully leans into the chaos or the horror. It plays everything a little too safe, a little too surface-level. There’s potential here, for sure, but it’s buried under a show that seems more interested in interpersonal drama than the hellish, genre-bending story it promises at the start.
Then we get hit with a huge cliffhanger, one that finally hints at the kind of stuff I’ve been craving this whole time. It teases more information about the demons, about Hell, about how any of this actually works. The lore, the structure, the deeper mythology—basically everything the show kept skimming over. And as exciting as that sounds, it’s honestly kind of frustrating. Because why wait until the very end of the season to start leaning into the most interesting part of the story? It feels like a promise that should have been explored way earlier, not dangled in front of us right before the credits roll. It leaves me intrigued, sure, but also kind of annoyed that I spent an entire season waiting for something that only shows up in the last five minutes.
It’s frustrating because I wanted to love this. I was ready for a demon-slaying adventure with heart, humor, and real stakes. Instead, I got something that looks cool on paper but ends up feeling like a bunch of missed opportunities. Maybe it’ll find its footing in a second season, if it gets one. But as it stands now, The Bondsman doesn’t deliver on the hellish fun it sets up and for a show about hunting demons, it just doesn’t have enough fire.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
About The Bondsman
Premiere Date: April 3, 2025.
Episode Count: 8
Executive Producer/Showrunner: Erik Oleson, Jason Blum, Jeremy Gold, Chris Dickie, Chris McCumber, Kevin Bacon, Paul E. Shapiro, Grainger David
Directors: Sanaa Hamri, Thor Freudenthal, Lauren Wolkstein, Catriona Mckenzie
Production: CrimeThink, Marker 96, Blumhouse Television, Amazon MGM Studios
Distribution: Prime Video
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Nettles, Damon Herriman, Beth Grant, Maxwell Jenkins, Jolene Purdy
Synopsis: Murdered bounty hunter Hub Halloran (Kevin Bacon) 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 hinderance 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.
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