Those who fell in love with “LOST” in the 2000s would have bet good money that Josh Holloway was destined to become a star. As the con man with a heart of gold, Sawyer, Holloway had that “it” that’s been making ruggedly handsome men into household names since the invention of the camera. And yet it never really happened for Holloway, which makes his return to prestige TV in a high-budget project on Max pretty exciting for those of us who “have to go back.”
Putting Holloway’s bygone-era matinee idol charms in a grindhouse-inspired show set in the early ‘70s only made this proposition all the more enticing. So does this “Duster” speed Holloway back into future star status? Not quite. It’s undeniably fun for large stretches of its eight-episode first season, and it’s not actually Holloway who ends up stealing the project. Still, it’s also one of those programs that, sorry, spins its wheels more often than it should, and one that seems almost afraid to embrace its darker influences, choosing instead to push its messages of equality instead of embedding them more subtly into the narrative. It’s never boring, but the first season feels like a warm-up, which makes both for a promising future and a somewhat disappointing present.
Holloway plays Jim, the driver for a crime syndicate in the American Southwest in 1972. Echoes of “Dark Winds” don’t do the writing on this show any favors—that show is one of the best on TV—but there’s enough room for multiple shows about criminals and crime solvers in the Southwest a few generations ago. The setting is one of the most effective elements of “Duster,” capturing the long open roads and threatening deserts in a way that’s consistently engaging. It’s always hot, always dirty, and always dangerous.
Jim works for a man named Ezra Saxton (the great Keith David, completely understanding the assignment), whose son has chronic health issues. In the premiere, Jim races to bring the kid a new heart for a life-saving transplant. It’s to set up how close Jim is to the Saxton empire, even though questions circle around how Jim’s brother, who once worked for Ezra, ended up dead. They’re questions that Jim’s dad (Corbin Bernsen) seems equally hesitant to ask. You don’t ask questions around Ezra. You may not like the answers.
Someone who has more than a few questions is the first Black FBI agent in the region, Nina (Rachel Hilson), who enters a boys club of old-fashioned G-men who don’t want anything to do with her (including a boss played by Abrams regular Greg Grunberg). Nina’s fight to be listened to her by her racist colleagues aligns her with another agent who’s an Indigenous young man, played perfectly by the incredibly likable Asivak Koostachin.
The fight for equality throughline of “Duster” gets a parallel track in Jim’s ex Izzy (Camille Guaty), who aggravates Saxton in her fight for better conditions for female truckers. Add in Jim and Izzy’s daughter Luna (Adriana Aluna Martinez), who doesn’t know that Jim is her pop, and you have a show that sometimes feels weighed down by its messaging. Of course, this is not to say that a show can’t be about more than one thing, but that the arcs about equality feel shallowly written, as if Abrams and co-creator LaToya Morgan didn’t want to make a show that’s “just about a driver.”
Of course, that’s the show that works. Whether Jim is crossing paths with a crooked cop played by the great Donal Logue or trying to literally steal Elvis Presley’s Blue Suede Shoes, the action/thriller plotting of “Duster” works as pure escapist entertainment. By the time the first season was wrapping up, I was startled at how little had truly narratively transpired since the premiere, but I was never bored while watching it, which is a victory in the era of bloated streaming TV.
It helps to have an incredibly likable cast. Holloway is effective, but the show is stolen by Hilson, who gets deeper and deeper into the Saxton underworld in an unpredictable and entertaining way. As much as we convinced ourselves that Josh Holloway would be a star after that first season of “LOST,” it’s just as easy to jump on the bandwagon for Hilson, a performer with magnetic screen presence and ace timing. She rides off with the show.
Whole season screened for review. Premieres on MAX on May 15th.
