Duster Season 1 Review

Duster (2025-)
Season 1 - 8 episodes (2025)

Rent Duster on Amazon Video (paid link)
Created by: J. J. Abrams, LaToya Morgan
Starring: Josh Holloway, Rachel Hilson, Keith David, Sydney Elisabeth, Greg Grunberg, Camille Guaty
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer

Plot
Set in the 1970's Southwest, the life of a gutsy getaway driver for a growing crime syndicate goes from awful to wildly, stupidly, dangerously awful.

Verdict
This is a murky crime caper with tensions all around that help give the characters some interest. Setting in the 70s provides ample style, and more than a few welcome real world references, but it's nothing I eagerly anticipated watching every week. It does just enough to coast on the aesthetic. While the references are fun, they aren't enough as the story is so generic.
It depends.

Review
Jim Ellis's (Josh Holloway) car of choice is a Plymouth Duster. He drives for the local crime lord Saxton (Keith David). FBI agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson) hopes Jim is her way in to the Saxton operation so she can bring it down. None of the cases against Saxton ever stick. She's new, determined. Part of the impetus is that her father worked for Saxton. She proposes the deal to Jim and he refuses, but her assertion that Saxton killed his brother along with something Saxton says pushes Jim to join forces with Nina. He claims he'll help to prove Saxton didn't kill his brother. It's not a bad pilot.

Josh Holloway plays Jim Ellis

This is a show that's aesthetic first. The production values and soundtrack are great. The plot is interesting enough, though it needs more. Nina pushes Jim to get deeper so that he can provide more information. They're both walking a fine line. The FBI doesn't exactly condone Nina's operation, and Jim would be in trouble if his alliance was discovered. He finds a way to spend more time with Saxton, but he's convinced Saxton wasn't involved in his brother's death... up until he isn't.

A fun sub plot is Jim stealing Elvis's blue suede shoes. He tries to get out of one jamb by getting into another.

Josh Holloway, Rachel Hilson  play Jim Ellis, Nina Hayes

Jim's plight to move up the ladder hits a snag, but Nina is undeterred. She finds a way to go undercover and infiltrate Saxton's operation herself as a translator. If things weren't dire enough, now they're really into it. Everything is hanging by a thread, and it's just a question of when this ruse is going to fail. Jim is almost too good at escaping trouble. When a negotiation with the Russians goes sideways, he manages to save it.

This is style above all else, and it is quite cool. The story unfortunately isn't. This positions itself in the time period with plenty of references, but we know the ruse will fail. The question is what happens when it does. It's not a bad finale, but the villains give the protagonists a lot of leeway to devise a plan and way out. It's not bad, but I will forget about it and I wouldn't miss it if it were canceled.