The Bondsman, review: Kevin Bacon is perfectly cast in Amazon's schlocky gore-fest
If Kevin Bacon pushing over a fridge to crush a demon's head like a watermelon is your thing; if Kevin Bacon driving a chainsaw through another demon's skull like a demented Elon Musk (or Elon Musk) is your jam, then The Bondsman (Amazon Prime Video) is your TV show.
This freewheeling, hyper-violent genre mash-up tells the story of Hub Halloran (Bacon), a wizened bounty hunter who is killed, comes back to life and then recruited by the devil to hunt down demons who have escaped from hell. I mean it happens.
Given that Hub is the kind of chain-smokin', truck-drivin', country-music lovin' hillbilly who, lest we forget, is already dead, he takes to the work with relish. And much the same could be said for the show's creators Grainger David and producer Erik Oleson (Carnival Row, Marvel's Daredevil), who have a complete blast throughout. The Bondsman is a rampant gothic gore-fest, the camera lingering lovingly on every severed windpipe and gratuitous disembowelment. It is heavy guitar music and ravens on gravestones. It is neither subtle nor in any way edifying, but then it is not intended to be.
Bacon, who is looking more and more like Richard Bacon with every passing EE ad, comes with just the right level of irony for this kind of thing. The premise is daft, his character is dafter and he can barely conceal the smirk that says he knows as much. But Bacon, who lest we forget has been acting in everything from Animal House to Mystic River for nearly 50 years, can do this. And anyway, everything about The Bondsman says that if you don't like it, you can leave. It is unrepentant schlock horror played for genre fans who know what they like. It may be the first example of MAGA scripted television.
In an age when TV has become a very serious business – with billions riding on new streamer launches that themselves rely on overblown, po-faced franchises with names like The Wings of the House of Time – it is refreshing to find a series that doesn't take itself too seriously. You know as much because – massive spoiler alert – a few episodes down the line Bacon puts on a trucker cap and picks up a guitar. Everybody cut loose.
The Bondsman is also refreshingly brief, served up in rootin', tootin' half-hours that make their mark and then leave, like all the best guests. 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 is on Amazon Prime Video from Thursday 3 April
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