The TV series The Bondsman with Kevin Bacon must be worth watching, right? Or has he sold his soul to the devil? Yeah, sorry, I couldn’t resist this obvious spoiler in the summary. Every description of this show gives this “fact” away, so it’s hardly a spoiler. Kevin clearly has fun playing Hub Halloran, a tough bounty hunter who runs a business with his mother in an old garage.
His job is simple: bring back criminals who have been released on bail and are trying to escape their convictions. In between, Hub tries to mend his relationship with his ex-wife and their son. You would think he has enough on his mind.
Things get a little worse when he dies. Of course, he has to go to hell because of his sins. Hub has not been a good boy, but you still hope that he will get another chance at an upgrade. That is not really in the cards, but a postponement of the journey down can be arranged. Hub is allowed to walk around up here for a while.
The series has a great foundation with Bacon, Jennifer Nettles and Beth Grant.
Apparently Hub is so good at his job that the devil orders him to retrieve some escaped demons. Hub agrees. Initially reluctantly, but that changes when he realizes that this will give him some time to come to terms with himself and his family.
The series has a solid foundation with Bacon, Jennifer Nettles and Beth Grant. Kevin is credible as a slightly disheveled rough diamond, mom Kitty adds some humorous perspective, and ex-wife Maryanne Dice does her best to keep the chemistry with Kevin alive. They all succeed.
Every now and then some tension, some humor, special effects, nice music. Actually everything is there.
It makes for a nice smooth series. Every now and then some tension, some humor, special effects, nice music. Actually, everything is there. It even reminded me a little bit of some older bangers of series. Name a Justified, a Stranger Things, Sons of Anarcy, I could smell them very far away. And yet, as far as I'm concerned, this series can't stand in their shadow.
That's why I'm giving it a seven as a final grade. Strict? Yes, I'm quite strict, but I'm also spoiled. Over the past twenty years, we've seen such good series that I've raised the bar for high grades a bit higher.
To score an eight or higher, you really have to be able to keep me glued to my chair. And although The Bondsman is certainly a fun series, there are a few too many dips in it to make it a real hit. Maybe the second season can get a higher grade. That hasn't been announced yet, but the end of the first season will kick that door wide open. The viewing figures will have to be high enough before the production company signs off on it.
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
