Bonding, the delightfully funny new Netflix series about a Dominatrix and her BDSM work is the type of program that will give apoplexy to the sanctimonious who will rush to publicly condemn a lifestyle in which they probably actually make up most of the clientele in real life.
As Tiff (Zoe Levin) is at college studying for an degree in psychology when she reunites with Pete (Brandon Scannell) her best friend from high school. To make ends meet Tiff is Mistress May a popular dominatrix who is happy to attend to her clients oddest fetishes. When she cajoles desperately broke Pete to become her assistant, she explains “Everyone thinks dom work is just about sex work. It’s really just liberation from shame”
Whilst they may be able to make their clients happy …..even though it takes a lot of persuading and a handful of money for Pete to get on board, the pair of them focus on reigniting their own relationship together as outside of this neither have anything approaching a dating life.
They are outwardly total opposites. Pete is a quiet inexperienced gay man who lacks the confidence to either pursue his dream of doing stand up comedy and/or find a boyfriend. Tiff on the other hand comes over as a fierce strong woman who even has a client who acts as a slave maid at home. However by the end of the series, both have become a little more like the other
Bonding has been created by actor Righter Doyle and is evidently loosely based the series on his early days in New York working as a dom’s assistant. Each of its brief 20 minute episodes are thoroughly entertaining and a great deal of fun, and for a series based on kinky sexual practices, it is hardly raunchy at all. Both leads put in compelling performances, although it is Scannell as Pete the naive gay man finally putting himself out in the world, who really shines through as a scene stealer.
Some of the story lines work better than others, and to be truthful (!) we have no idea how realistic it is to the world of BDSM. Bonding may be not perfect, but it is however streets ahead of most of what passes as comedy series at present, and having binged watched it all, now cannot wait to see what will happen in the next Series.
