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The short, easy-to-swallow installments of Netflix’s sex-centric venture Bonding make for a simple binge watch. The show introduces its two main characters and their relationship quick as a whip, leaving no time for viewing foreplay. The central plot plays with themes of sex positivity, kinky exploration and meaningful character arcs but, despite teasing at the surface of all three, Bonding misses the mark.
The two main characters are Pete (a quasi-autobiographical depiction of show creator Rightor Doyle, played by Brendan Scannell) and grad school student Tiff (Zoe Levin), who moonlights as dominatrix ‘Mistress May’. The pair are estranged high school best friends who reunite after the former, a struggling stand up comic, starts work for the latter as her assistant in a sex dungeon.
Clearly working off the triumph of Sex Education earlier this year, Bonding unabashedly addresses ideas of sexual empowerment, harassment and prejudices. While its aim is admirable, a blatant paucity of research yields a disappointing results from a promising premise. Much of the show’s criticisms have come from the group the show is supposedly meant to be empowering: sex workers. The characterisation of lead Tiff has been labelled as reductive and superficial. The show drops heavy hints that her stony mien stems from a past sexual assault, thought the incident is never explicitly mentioned and the viewer is left guessing. It seems like a fundamental failing on the part of a show which outwardly preaches sexual empowerment and liberation to reduce its leading female character to the stereotype of a ‘cold bitch with a troubled past’ involving men while making no effort to sizably flesh out her character. When one considers the similarly shallow attempt at engaging with BDSM culture and practices, one can’t help but feel that Bonding’s kinky visage seems to be all it has going for it. From Tiff’s ill-fitting corset to her blatant disregard for basic BDSM practices such as R.A.C.K (Risk-Aware/ Risk-Accepted Consensual Kink) and vetting clients, it would not be a reach to suggest that this show, strangely, has managed to fetishise fetishes in lieu of properly representing them.
While a lack of research and a par-for-the-course plot disappoint, Bonding partially redeems itself with some quality character moments. When Tiff goes on a date with a familiar face mid-season, a new side to her emerges as a genuinely warm connection is formed. Though the short, sweet format leaves little room for extensive character development, another nice arc is reached by the end of the season when she comes to a #MeToo-esque defence of a fellow classmate.
Bonding may be a little shallow and predictable, but it makes for light viewing for anyone on the lookout for a new watch that’s a little outside of the box.
