To say the heroes of “Duster” are united in their antipathy for The Man may be an oversimplification, but delivering simple pleasures also just happens to be what “Duster” does best.
FBI Agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson) is a very good detective who enjoys being a very good detective. In a different time and place, the Philadelphia native and fresh graduate from Quantico may have been fast-tracked toward running her own department, but when it’s 1972 and you’re a Black woman in the United States, the biggest hurdle to any new investigation will always be the same double-whammy of in-house discrimination.
Despite her obvious capabilities, Hayes is hemmed in time and time again by her white, belittling bosses. She has to fight tooth-and-nail to get an open assignment no one else wants. Once she gets it, she has to overcome arbitrary deadlines, outwit adversarial should-be-allies, and surpass intentionally insurmountable standards. What keeps her from burning down Arizona’s bureau and everyone in it is slightly professional (she believes in justice) but mostly personal: The case she had to claw away from indifferent agents involves her father, her childhood, and the man who stole them both.
So she puts up with The Man in order to get what she wants.
Getaway driver extraordinaire Jim Ellis (Josh Holloway) is a very good wheelman who enjoys being a very good wheelman. Since he’s been legally allowed to drive, Ellis has worked for a man the FBI refers to as “the Southwest Al Capone” — real name: Ezra Saxton (Keith motherfuckin’ David) — and his experience with automobiles shines through every time he ditches a pesky tail or shares his vehicular expertise.
As a gorgeous white guy with long blonde locks, an eight-pack of abs stored under his cinder-block shoulders, and a wide smile that’s still slim enough to seem unassuming (while still hinting at his inner lawbreaker), Ellis may not look the part of someone who feels picked on. His charm is undeniable, but to his boss — and the rest of the crime world he runs with — so is his ceiling. Ellis may be the best driver in the business, but he’s still just a driver. When he roars down the highway in his red Plymouth Duster, that’s all anyone sees: the car and, maybe, the man. Ellis wants to be more, do more, and as much as he’s come to respect Saxton like a father, there’s a bit of childish resentment mixed in, too, for being treated like the second-best son.
Which he was within his own family, until a few years ago, when his brother died. The recently departed Joe was expected to follow in the footsteps of the Ellis brothers’ actual father, Wade (Corbin Bernsen), a retired crook-of-all-trades who also worked for Saxton. Originally ruled an accident, Joe’s death is what drives Jim into the waiting arms of Agent Hayes. She needs an informant to get dirt on Saxton, and when she unearths enough evidence to implicate Jim’s boss in his brother’s demise, he reluctantly agrees to help them both get to the bottom of things.
So he, too, puts up with The Man in order to get what he wants.
From there, “Duster” coasts through an amiable and efficient first season. As Ellis and Hayes hide their pseudo-partnership, their shared mission sends them down distinct paths. Ellis gets into minor tussles and side hustles with peculiar characters with names like The Blade and Sunglasses (the latter of whom is played by a pitch-perfect Patrick Warburton as an Elvis-worshipping mobster who works out of a bowling alley named Great Bowls of Fire). His anxieties manifest as an imaginary Road Runner-inspired “Looney Tunes” cartoon, yet he’s not dreaming when he ends up in the same sterile hotel room as Howard Hughes. There’s a shootout here and a bar fight there, all of which are punctuated by a speedy drive to or from the scenes of the crimes.
Ellis, in other words, is a lot of fun. His job takes him out of the office onto life’s open road, while Hayes is often stuck maneuvering a bureaucratic minefield. From the start, she’s warned about the red tape and paperwork that needs sorting to catch Saxton, and early episodes see her tracking down “missing” reports within an indecipherable filing system while bonding with her de facto partner, Awan Bitsui (Asivak Koostachin), a chatty, nerdy, half-Navajo agent who also hates The Man (and whose Superman wallet is given more attention than his backstory, in what I can only see as a shocking extension of Warner Bros. Discovery’s synergistic marketing push for James Gunn’s “Superman” movie, in theaters July 11).
It’s a testament to the chic and sharp Hilson, as well as Abrams and Morgan’s taut yet breezy scripts, that Hayes’ plot-lines don’t feel like a drag next to Ellis’ more adventurous outings. “Duster” puts fun first in crafting its homage-heavy throwback to the era’s roaring muscle-car movies and action-comedies in general. Characters watch scenes from “Bullitt” in awestruck wonder and bluntly compare Hayes’ kick-ass cop to Pam Grier. The soundtrack is built from widely recognizable classic rock songs, and the opening title sequence (with a theme written by Abrams himself) is a snazzy tone-setter clearly inspired by Hot Wheels.
“Duster” fits Max‘s recent pivot in original programming to a model I’ve been thinking of as “broadcast but better.” Like R. Scott Gemmill’s “The Pitt” before it (and, arguably, Chuck Lorre’s “Bookie” before that), “Duster” enlists a veteran TV producer (like Abrams, who launched his pre-“Star Wars” and “Trek” career with “Felicity,” “Alias,” and “Lost”) to take a fan-favorite genre (like a car-centric action show) and turn it into solid, dependable, not-overly-ambitious television. Despite its lower episode count (eight vs. “The Pitt’s” 15) and ample budget, “Duster” isn’t prestige TV — it’s not trying to reinvent the wheel; it’s aiming to entertain, and every part is streamlined to do just that, from Holloway’s ’70s-crafted charisma to his shiny red car and Hilson’s pissed-off potency to her killer wardrobe.
Not all of it works (the car chases, which tend to take place on empty streets, aren’t all that memorable) and Season 1 never kicks into fourth gear (it’s fun, but it’s not “Cassian stealing a TIE fighter” fun), but “Duster” gets so many of the little things right, it’s easy to set your quibbles aside and just enjoy the ride. Knowing your drivers want to stick it to The Man? That’s not “Duster” angling for prestige; that’s just relatable.
Grade: B
“Duster” premieres Thursday, May 15 on Max. New episodes will be released weekly through the finale on July 3.
