Duster Review: Thank You, J.J. Abrams, for Another Josh Holloway Show

There's a specific kind of actor who is quite simply built to be on television. I'm sure you're thinking of one right now. In a time when appearing on TV was seen as more of a stepping stone to film, or even a career downgrade, than it is today, that might have been interpreted as a slight. Now, in an era when movie stars turn to TV and often struggle to adapt to the medium, being great on television has become a superpower. Duster, the stylish new '70s-set crime drama from co-creators J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan, is here to remind us all that Josh Holloway has that superpower.

Duster casts Holloway as Jim Ellis, a slick, rakish low-level driver for the infamous mob boss Ezra "Sax" Saxton (the singular Keith David). Early in the first episode, Ellis speeds through the vast Arizona desert in his beloved cherry-red Plymouth (which the series is named after) before skidding to a halt in front of a ringing payphone that he answers with a smooth, "Where we goin'?" From there, he retrieves a mysterious bag from the drive-thru window of a Mexican fast food joint, pulls off some wild stunts when he discovers a pair of goons tailing him, and finally winds up at Sax's estate, where he finds Sax's adult failson Royce (Benjamin Charles Watson) unconscious and awaiting a heart transplant. The bag contains the heart, and Jim is forced to help with the surgery. This all happens within the first eight minutes, by the way.

Regarding the inception of Duster, Abrams has said, "All I had was the title, the vision of the phone booth, and being a fan of Josh Holloway." With all the respect in the world, that much becomes increasingly evident as the eight-episode first season of the Max series unfolds. This isn't entirely an insult. It's easy to imagine how those three ideas would be enough to pitch this show, which relishes in its period setting and operates with an "anything goes" spirit. An animated Looney Tunes-style sequence? A plot-relevant Elvis-themed bowling alley owned by a man known only as "Sunglasses"? A woman helping her girlfriend escape a Greek mafia wedding? Howard Hughes? Duster has all of that and more.

Jim's episodic adventures — like the hour where he ends up sharing a bourbon with a man who was sent to kill him — give the show a nostalgic vibe, serving as a reminder that Abrams made a name for himself creating network television in the late '90s and early 2000s. Holloway's presence adds to the throwback feel: The last time he and Abrams worked together was, of course, on Lost, which ended in 2010. And Lost fans, much like Abrams himself, have been waiting a long time to see Holloway in another role befitting his talents. In that area, Duster triumphs: It's the Josh Holloway power hour, through and through, the material he's been given clearly tailored to his specific strengths as an actor. It's whenever the series attempts to shift its focus to any of its other characters and stories that the cracks in its foundation begin to show.

7.4

Duster

at Max

Like

• The '70s aesthetics
• It's having a lot of fun
• Another J.J. Abrams-Josh Holloway collaboration is good for society

Dislike

• Nina isn't as strong a character as she should be
• The serious plots fall apart

The show's major weaknesses show up around the character of Nina, played by Rachel Hilson. Because Duster couldn't only be about Jim Ellis' adventures as a don's driver, the series also tries to say something deeper by putting its own spin on an obligatory FBI plot, showing the Bureau through the eyes of the first Black woman agent. The FBI in the early '70s, Duster frequently reminds us, is a very white boys club, forcing the ambitious and principled Nina to keep her head held high as she navigates the racism and sexism being lobbed at her each day. She does so with the help of her guileless partner, Awan (Asivak Koostachin), who, as a half-Navajo agent, is an outsider, too. But she's mostly focused on her assignment, which involves investigating Sax and his criminal empire, with the goal of bringing him to justice. Her reasons for wanting to pursue Sax are personal, which is exactly how she appeals to Jim, who's still mourning the loss and living in the shadow of his valorized brother. Maybe Sax had something to do with his brother's death. Maybe they can get to the bottom of it together, if Jim agrees to help her.

Thus begins their unlikely partnership, though Duster meanders its way toward properly entwining their stories, sending them both off on their own quests for several episodes before their professional paths actually begin to cross in the back half of the first season. It doesn't help that the series fails to allow Nina any real depth. You can often feel the writers treading lightly around giving their co-lead true vulnerability. After her third or fourth speech about how hard it is to be a Black woman and a fed, you start to wonder whether this character has anything else to her. It isn't until Nina ends up entering Sax's inner circle herself that things start to get interesting, and Hilson and Holloway are given the chance to lean fully into Nina and Jim's spiky chemistry. Duster wisely stops short of putting any firm labels on their relationship, nor does it make it sexless. The gray area is where the fun happens.

When Duster lets itself have fun, it's high-octane and highly watchable television. In one episode, Nina and Awan go undercover at a hospital, making their work feel legitimately dangerous for the first time. It's also a blast to see Holloway pal around with his daughter who doesn't know she's his daughter, plucky preteen Luna (Adriana Aluna Martinez), and even more fun to watch him and David create a lived-in rapport between Jim and Sax that frequently blurs the line between familial and professional. Problems arise when Duster attempts to set up a larger conspiracy. Watergate, for instance, ends up being pretty important to the plot, and it does get old very fast. The result is a first season that often reads like setup for a second season, which is both a help — it's nice to know Abrams and Morgan clearly have an idea of where this story is going — and a hindrance. Duster occasionally feels like it's holding back its best ideas.

It's tough not to wish for a non-streaming era version of Duster, since it so fondly evokes some of the most lovable aspects of early 2000s network TV. It's a show that could have benefitted from a 22-episode first season, a rarity in 2025. Then again, if the worst thing that can be said about Duster is that it leaves the audience wanting more, that's not exactly a bad thing. It helps that in the version of Duster that we do get, Josh Holloway is constantly dropping f-bombs. And doesn't that just feel so f---ing right?

Premieres: Thursday, May 15 on Max, followed by new episodes weekly
Who's in it: Josh Holloway, Rachel Hilson, Keith David, Greg Grunberg (obviously — this is a J.J. Abrams show), Camille Guaty, Asivak Koostachin, Adriana Aluna Martinez, Benjamin Charles Watson, Corbin Bernsen, Donal Logue
Who's behind it: J.J. Abrams (co-creator, writer, executive producer) and LaToya Morgan (co-creator, writer, executive producer)
For fans of: James "Sawyer" Ford, J.J. Abrams' television work, '70s buddy movies
How many episodes we watched: 8 of 8