A bounty hunter for Hell is a deliciously appealing idea. Reaper, Brimstone, and personal favorite G vs E (Good vs Evil) have mined it for enjoyable—albeit brief—runs. Now Prime Video is giving it another shot with the Grainger David-created The Bondsman. Sadly, while more likely to get a season renewal than its predecessors, it is also the least interesting among them.

Things start strongly with our Bondsman, the incomparably named Hub Halloran (Kevin Bacon, in full sunbaked laconicism), paying for his overconfidence with a slit throat. However, the next morning, he awakens hidden in a wall, seemingly barely worse for the wear. Although it takes a bit, but episode’s end, the “miracle” is clear. Hub did die, but Hell has put him back on Earth under the supervision of cupcake impresario Midge (Jolene Purdy, the show’s brightest spot). His new job is shagging down escaped demons. Escaping from hell is a supposedly rare occurrence that’s suddenly happening with alarming frequency right in his neck of the woods. One wonders if something more complex might be afoot.

In addition to the whole being dead thing, Hub has to juggle his co-worker/roommate/mom Kitty (the reliably good Beth Grant), his ex-wife Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles), their teen son Cade (Maxwell Jenkins), and her new beau and former criminal Lucky (Damon Herriman, pleasingly overcranked). From a character direction, it makes sense to give Hub human supporting characters, but only Grant and Herriman get enough material to justify their presence. Nettles is good in the part except when it comes to generating heat with Bacon, be it romantic, antagonistic, or mournful. Sadly, that’s mostly how The Bondsman wants to use her. Jenkins gets it even worse, given little personality to play and even less of consequence to do.

The undercooked supporting cast hints at the show’s more significant problem. Once the demon killer starts, everything gets very regimented. The show opens with a demon murdering a person and stealing their body. Hub chases them down. Things get a little wacky. There’s some brief character stuff. Episode ends with a vague sense of foreboding. After the pilot, the only episode to break that format, episode 6 “Revelations,” proves the most successful. It reveals more about Pot O’Gold—Hell’s shell company—and how Midge became involved with them. That’s where viewers got the fun, odd details like Hell loves fax machines and pop-up ads and that Midge’s bosses appear to be holdovers from the era when hippies gave way to Disco clubbers.

Partly to blame for the box-check feeling of the plots is, save for the first and last demons of the season, none of the monsters Hub must dispatch have any personality. They barely speak, and their design—grey keyed skin and eyes like smoldering embers—isn’t especially interesting to behold. There’s a sameness to them that makes them uncompelling as antagonists. Of course, Hub should dispatch the demons, but before then, can’t he and the audience have a bit of fun? Even the show’s gore effects, which become increasingly numerous, don’t give much of a jolt. The Bondsman loves itself some jaw trauma and that’s kind of an unusual choice for signature gore. Still, it would be better if the show spent a touch less on lovingly rendering those bloodbaths and a touch more on a cool-looking monster or more thrilling action sequence now and then.

Looking back on the series I mentioned at the start of this review, you’ll see some common themes that made them a kick. Weird but nonintrusive lore that was goofy and intriguing in equal measure. A cast with great chemistry, including a deadly, fun actor bringing some version of the Devil to afterlife. Interesting ways to dispatch the escaped demons. The Bondsman has some of the lore but is largely bereft of the rest. It isn’t without the occasional moment of fun or enjoyable tension, but they’re too rare to save the show, even when Bacon cranks his considerable charisma up to eleven. There are worse visits to Hell, to be certain, but why go at all if the good times are this fleeting?

The Bondsman is bagging them on Prime Video now.

The Bondsman Trailer: