Prime Video’s Bond Parody Currently Has A Better Rotten Tomatoes Score Than 23/25 Bond Movies

Prime Video‘s James Bond parody is proving to be much more than just that by outdoing the vast majority of movies in the long-running franchise on Rotten Tomatoes. This franchise is one of the most influential in history, be it the non-Ian Fleming James Bond movies or those based on the author’s original books.

In 2026, though, the franchise is entering a new era. James Bond 26‘s production is moving along slowly, with Dune director Denis Villeneuve at the helm. Naturally, this is adding fuel to the endless fire surrounding the next James Bond actor, with names like Tom Holland, Aaron Pierre, and Damson Idris being touted.

Until more details are officially confirmed, though, audiences need to find their Bond fix elsewhere. Watching the long list of James Bond movies in order is one way to do so, but finding something different that outshines all but two of them could be even better.

Thankfully, the latter has never been easier to access. In 2026, Prime Video released a six-part thriller that parodies the world of James Bond, which currently has a better Rotten Tomatoes score than 23 of the 25 movies in the iconic spy franchise.

Bait Is Currently Beating 23 Out Of James Bond’s 25 Movies On Rotten Tomatoes

The show in question is Bait. Prime Video’s Bait is an easy watch, with only six short episodes, telling the story of Riz Ahmed’s Shah Latif, a British-Pakistani actor who gets a shot at the role of James Bond, which catapults him into an existential crisis and a spy-thriller-esque conspiracy.

Thanks to its meta take on the world of James Bond, among many other hard-hitting aspects, Bait has proven to resonate with critics and fans alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds 91% audience rating, but the critic rating is where it outshines the franchise it willfully parodies. With a 96% rating, Bait is better-reviewed than all but two James Bond movies.

Only Goldfinger and From Russia with Love outrank Bait, with the former two starring the actor widely considered the greatest Bond actor of all time: Sean Connery. Dr. No, one of Connery’s other installments, falls just below Bait in the critical ratings. Evidently, Bait is a masterstroke in parodying a long-running series while providing its own themes and messaging.

Bait Highlights The Huge Challenge Bond 26 Faces

In many ways, Bait calls out the challenge that the James Bond ​​​​​​franchise is currently facing. Yes, the show tackles the spy-thriller elements of the franchise in question, but it has a lot of important things to say about racial commentary, the press, the paranoia this can all create, and how that impacts both the actors vying for the Bond role and the movies themselves.

These thematic elements prove timely, thanks to James Bond 26‘s production. The ethnicity and racial identity of the next Bond actor have been questioned by those who would rather see a white man play Bond once more. Moving away from these debates, many have simply wondered how Bond 26 can be different from the 25 movies that came before it.

James Bond 26 needs to find a way to reinvent the franchise for a new era, moving beyond the Daniel Craig movies of the last 15 years and the many others that preceded them. If it does not, Bond 26 risks becoming a parody of itself by retelling a story told 25 times before.

Bait calls this out, as well as the many other discussions surrounding the James Bond franchise of late. Thankfully, the Prime Video show does so with a big dose of heart, humor, and righteous thematic messaging. If the next James Bond movie can find a way to match this, it could become one of the few installments in the franchise to rank better than Riz Ahmed’s lauded six-part miniseries.