Good luck trying to find a common thematic thread that binds 2025's best TV shows so far.
From Adolescence's tragic spotlight on youth and young manhood, to Severance's modern-day allegory on identity and free will; from The White Lotus's tension-fuelled sneer at the elite, to The Studio's savage satire of cinema's diminishing studio system. The year's biggest small screen hits could hardly be farther apart in terms of subject matter or tone.
Prime Video's latest Original series — The Bondsman — isn't about to confound that pattern (or lack thereof).
Amazon's own high concept elevator pitch for the eight-part miniseries (streaming in full on Prime Video now) asks more questions than it answers: "Murdered bounty hunter Hub Halloran is resurrected by the Devil to hunt demons that have escaped from the prison of Hell." Or, to quote showrunner Erik Oleson in his interview with us, it's "an original mash up of horror, comedy, music, family dramedy and what-the-**** ridiculousness!".
Sounding niche to the point of parody in the first instance, the involvement of Blumhouse begins to make sense of The Bondman's synopsis. The terror-tinged production company has been responsible for some of the most revered horror titles of the last 15 years, counting the Paranormal Activity, The Purge and Insidious franchises among its cinematic output.
Indeed, Blumhouse and Prime Video have been intrinsically bonded for half a decade — a relationship that kicked off with eight feature-length horror premieres under the Welcome to the Blumhouse banner, and continued with shorter form episodic projects such as Blumhouse's Compendium of Horror and the recent The Sticky.
Amazon and Blumhouse may be a heavyweight union in its own right, but it's Kevin Bacon's image and star name that tentpoles this collaboration. Also enjoying an Executive Producer credit, it's a vehicle that lives and dies by the veteran's pulling power. And although daughter Sosie Bacon may be the new horror icon of the family following her turn in 2022's Smile, her father's association with cult chillers Tremors and Hollow Man makes him an ideal fit for Halloran's laconic anti-hero.
The season opener doesn't hang around in terms of establishing the premise. A 24-hour bondsman to the small town of Landry, Georgia, Halloran shows a law-bending resourcefulness for bringing in those who breach bail. That is until some scumsville ne'er-do-wells repay him only with the lethal blade of their knives. So Halloran is dead: to begin with.
No-one is more surprised than Halloran himself when he awakens to find his bloodied body reanimated; an anomaly that is later explained as a temporary reprieve from the underworld to serve the devil as bounty hunter. "Imagine hell is a sort of prison, and sometimes inmates bust out," he's told. "This time, one of them busted out here" (The last time, it's noted, was in Pascagoula).
Thus develops a tried and tested monster-of-the-week format reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Charmed, that sees Halloran using guns, blunt objects and chainsaws to chase a string of vengeful demons back to whence they came. Meanwhile, he's seeking to win back the affection of his estranged wife Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles) and son Cade (Maxwell Jenkins), saving them from the clutches of series antagonist Lucky Callahan (Damon Herriman). And trying to work out what events may have condemned him to hell in the first place — no prizes for noticing that the demons he's trying to vanquish serve as a searing-eyed metaphor for Halloran's less-than-clean conscience.
As you'd hope from a Blumhouse production, The Bondsman doesn't hold back on the gore, and you don't have to wait long before a dusty forecourt of a crumby motel is being doused in crimson. The bloodshed, when it comes, is satisfyingly squelchy and there are grizzly flourishes of which Ari Aster or Oz Perkins might be proud.
Each between 23 and 32 minutes in duration, its episodes scurry along quickly enough to remain engaging and, frankly, prevent the viewer dwelling on the sketchily-conceived narrative. The result is that anybody coming to The Bondsman for maximum scares may be left a little underwhelmed by their relative scarcity. The monsters generally play second fiddle to Holloran's family dilemmas — you have to get through a whole lot of soul searching before you get to the spirit slaying.
Bacon's taciturn Halloran shares much more of his DNA with Valentine McKee of Tremors than he does with Ren McCormack of Footloose (although a side plot involving his wife's aspirations of Nashville-bound country music stardom allows him to showcase a musical side perhaps not seen on film since the latter). The Bondsman takes root in his laconic earthiness, and it's spiriting to see that the 66-year-old still has the gravity to bear its weight.
But it also selflessly gives the most memorable set pieces to his supporting cast — and it's for them that you'll want to see this series out to its conclusion. None more so than Jolene Purdey's (The White Lotus) Midge, the cherub-faced Mephistopheles who makes the most of her expositional role and gets some of the early episodes' best lines. Sending back demons to the devil is "the only reason he [Halloran] is standing here now and not wailing and gnashing his teeth next to the lake of fire. I don't know what else to tell you," she pacifies with the butter-wouldn't-melt delivery of a McDonald's worker explaining why the milkshake machine is still out of order.
Kitty, Halloran's loyal mother, is another highlight. Donning a Momma Bear bulletproof vest and played by legendary character actor Beth Grant (Donnie Darko), she's all parochial Southern charm — with dangs and dilly-dallies a dozen — until, that is, she needs to pull out a shotgun with purpose, or reproachfully suggest to her son that his redemptive arc might not be about killing demons, but instead becoming less of a "sh*t-heel".
Perhaps the most layered of all the show's characters is Lucky Callahan. It's a part that appears to have been written with cliché-dodging relish, making this antagonist prone to bouts of panic attacks and having him rehearse his villainous one-liners in the car before he confronts a victim. Versatile Australian Damon Herrimon (Mindhunter) certainly seems to savour such a meaty role; a richly flavored side dish to complement Bacon. The Bondsman's eight tasty morsels prove enjoyable fare.
All eight episodes of The Bondsman were released globally on Prime Video on Thursday, April 3.
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