Spoilers beneath for anybody who hasn’t but streamed at the very least the primary episode of The Bondsman with an Amazon Prime subscription.
As his TV follow-up to Showtime’s heady crime drama Metropolis on a Hill, Kevin Bacon returned to his extra spooky roots for the brand new gore-speckled horror-comedy The Bondsman. An absolute hoot from begin to end and in contrast to the rest on the 2025 TV schedule so far, that is positively one of many week’s most watchable streaming debuts. However it does kick off on an especially wild and surprising observe, with Bacon’s character Hub Halloran getting his throat sliced open. The grotesque flip of occasions is not any dream sequence, both.
Not many reveals would homicide their fundamental characters earlier than audiences know who they’re watching, however The Bondsman isn’t like most reveals. Granted, the destiny is within the primary synopsis of Hub being a bounty hunter who returns from the lifeless to trace evil demons down and banish them to Hell. However it’s nonetheless a bonkers opening. So when CinemaBlend spoke with showrunner Erik Oleson, I needed to ask about beginning the whole lot off by killing off Kevin Bacon in such a gnarly method. Right here’s what he advised me:
Effectively, I needed to determine the world for the viewers within the opening sequence, and so I wrote a sequence of occasions that mainly encapsulates, not simply who Hub Halloran is – the character that Kevin is taking part in – however teaches you many totally different facets of what the present can be. You are going to snigger, you are going to be shocked. There’s going to be blood, there’s additionally going to be coronary heart.
As anybody who continues to stream the sequence is aware of, the showrunner is speaking in regards to the innate sense of household love and emotion, and never like actually items of somebody’s coronary heart. Though no one ought to be counting that risk out, both.
Erik Oleson beforehand served as a showrunner for Daredevil‘ s third and ultimate Netflix season, amongst different tasks, so he is fairly versed in crafting hyper-violent scenes the place morals are completely up within the air. However with that present and his subsequent effort, Prime Video’s Carnival Row, he led the inventive group for follow-up seasons. With The Bondsman, he was in a position to craft his personal starting, and as he advised me, he needed viewers gobsmacked proper from the bounce.
What I needed the viewers to do after they acquired to the tip of that opening sequence of the pilot was type of have a look at one another and go like, ‘What the fuck is that this present?’ And in order that’s why I needed to put it out that method.
I used to be totally conscious of what The Bondsman was about after I sat down to look at the premiere, and I used to be nonetheless bowled over by how shortly the city’s extra harmful aspect is explored. Had the remainder of the episode remained as darkish and gritty and unrelenting as that one, I most likely would not have questioned it, both. Fortunately, although, the world will get so much brighter, sillier and extra heartwarming as soon as different characters are launched, similar to Beth Grant’s Kitty, Jennifer Nettles’ Maryanne and Damon Herriman’s Fortunate.
However wouldn’t it be fairly pretty much as good with out Kevin Bacon’s optimistically world-weary power behind Hub’s efficiency? I am unable to verify or deny, however Erik Oleson had nothing however sort issues to say in regards to the actor throughout our discuss, and by extension, famous that it was run to see Bacon’s Hub going through larger-than-life conditions, both alone or along with his household. In his phrases:
It is enjoyable to type of put this character in a rare state of affairs after which have him go like, ‘Huh, okay, demon. All proper, effectively I suppose we gotta get on with it, then.’ It is simply so humorous to look at anyone take that in stride after which go DIY demon gear to go hunt them down. I imply, bringing his mama into it, like, what? What sort of present does that? It is enjoyable.
It is also the one present the place you’ll be able to watch Kevin Bacon wrap up his icky neck wound with duct tape, after which search the identical web site to get duct tape delivered to your personal home. Hopefully for much totally different causes.
All eight episodes of The Bondsman are at the moment accessible to stream on Prime Video. For my horror-comedy tastes, it is probably the greatest Amazon reveals streaming, and I can solely hope that sufficient individuals test it out to make Season 2 a actuality.