Duster Is A Slow-Burning Crime Thriller With A Wicked Sense Of Humor
J.J. Abrams strikes gold with this ‘70s pastiche.
J.J. Abrams is the master of introductions, and the opening moments of Duster, his latest TV series for Max, are no different. The poppy ‘70s thriller, co-created by writer and executive producer LaToya Morgan, opens with a pay phone ringing in the middle of the desert. Then comes a red coupe speeding down the highway — it drifts to a stop and out walks Jim Ellis (Lost heartthrob Josh Holloway) to pick up the phone and receive his next assignment. He’s a driver for the crime boss Ezra Saxton (Keith David): whatever he needs, he’s keen to provide it. This time around, Jim’s mission includes a taco restaurant, a high-speed chase across state lines, and the delivery of a human heart on ice. It’s an effective way to kick off a stylish new period thriller, but Duster is so much more than its aesthetic flourishes, however hypnotizing they may be.
Duster is the kind of crime story that once felt lost to time. It’s a slow-simmering revenge thriller couched within an off-beat buddy comedy — and it truly sings once Holloway’s cocksure getaway driver meets his match in FBI Agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson).
Duster is an effective two-hander between Holloway and Hilson, and her introduction to the fray is just as gripping, if a bit more subdued. She’s the first Black female agent the Bureau has ever promoted out of Quantico, an appointment made all the more complex by J. Edgar Hoover’s recent demise. Despite his intolerance to just about every marginalized identity, African Americans in particular, the erstwhile FBI director knew their importance in undercover operations. Now that he’s gone, his successors have no idea what to do with Nina Hayes — fortunately, she’s used to hearing words like “no” or “not yet.” She scores a position at the Phoenix field office through sheer force of will, inheriting the one investigation she had her eye on: trying to take Saxton’s crime syndicate down.
Nina has some history with the “Southwest’s Al Capone,” giving Duster the air of a revenge thriller. But her zeal for justice isn’t easy to get used to, especially for her white male-dominated office. Though she can commiserate about her Otherness with her new partner Anwan (Asivak Koostachin) — who’s part-Navajo and impossibly endearing — Nina’s reckless disregard for red tape makes her a pariah to everyone else. She wants to catch Saxton and dismantle his criminal empire as soon as possible. After just two days on the job, she connects Jim to Saxton’s day-to-day operations. Recruiting him as an informant looks like a fool’s errand, at least before Nina uncovers a potential conspiracy tying Saxton to the “accident” that claimed the life of Jim’s brother, Joey. To discover the truth, Jim agrees to become Nina’s inside man, kickstarting a chaotic (and surprisingly funny) quest for retribution.
Hilson’s simmering intensity is undercut by Duster’s many period-accurate hijinks.
With Hayes using her FBI resources to catch Saxton the old-fashioned way, and Jim investigating the crime boss on the job, Duster’s early episodes feel like a two-pronged approach to the crime thriller. Abrams and LoToya get to have their cake and eat it, straddling the straitlaced world of procedurals while exploring the underbelly of crime in the Southwest. Duster also gets into the nitty-gritty of ‘70s history wherever it can: the plight of Richard Nixon, the new feminist revolution, and even pop icons like Elvis Presley bob and weave through the narrative in clever ways. The series isn’t shy about embracing a few narrative hijinks here and there, either. Duster oscillates between pulpy, high-stakes action and playful pastiche, but it manages to maintain a perfect balance between these disparate tones.
As the series expands to include more of its ensemble, Duster takes on an increasingly wacky bent. It all ties into a conspiracy that, fittingly, goes all the way to Washington, D.C., wrangling Hayes and Jim’s disparate quests for revenge, the crumbling unions in Phoenix, and an army of crooked cops. Holloway and Hilson’s odd-couple intensity keeps this story grounded at every turn, but Duster’s jaunty, adventure-of-the-week conceit is what makes this thriller impossible to turn away from.
