As a filmmaker, J.J. Abrams wears his influences on his sleeve. A die-hard Twilight Zone fan, he turned an episode of his first series, Felicity, into a black-and-white riff on that show’s famous “Five Characters in Search of an Exit,” while Lost was full of Rod Serling-esque twists. Abrams’ films as a director have included a Mission: Impossible and two entries apiece in the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises. And his one wholly original movie as a director, Super 8, is an unmistakable homage to early Steven Spielberg.
Star Trek Into Darkness and The Rise of Skywalker aside, Abrams is terrific at paying tribute to his favorite pieces of pop culture. His gift for remixing is on strong display in Duster, the new period crime drama he co-created with TV veteran LaToya Morgan (Shameless, The Walking Dead) — and the first show Abrams has a creator credit on in 15 years, going back to the short-lived NBC spy show Undercovers. Set in Arizona in 1972, it leans all the way into the fashion, music, and especially the movies and shows of the period. Leading man Josh Holloway sports a glorious blond mane, leading lady Rachel Hilson has an impressive Afro, and you can practically feel the synthetic fibers of the clothes on your skin as you watch. The soundtrack is loaded with classic rock and soul, and practically every scene references the films of that era — particularly gritty crime thrillers like Charley Varrick and The Outfit — or period pieces set around the same time. (One episode features lesser-known songs from both the Reservoir Dogs and Boogie Nights soundtracks.)
This should all play like hollow mimicry — less tribute than televisual karaoke. But the affection that Abrams and Morgan have for this stuff is palpable, and the style they and collaborators like director Steph Green bring to it skillfully executed. The familiarity becomes a feature rather than a bug on the windshield of the titular Plymouth muscle car that Holloway’s master getaway driver Jim Ellis uses to outrun all his problems.
There’s an elaborate plot, in which rookie FBI agent Nina Hayes (Hilson) arrives in Phoenix determined to bring down Jim’s boss, Ezra Saxton (Keith David, still in command of the best, richest voice in the character-actor business), and that eventually involves Elvis Presley, Richard Nixon, Howard Hughes, and an assortment of rival crime families. Mostly, though, it’s an excuse to let magnetic actors be magnetic, and to show off the kinds of analog car chases and stunts Hollywood rarely uses anymore. (A character even watches the Steve McQueen movie Bullitt, featuring one of the greatest car chases in cinema history, in case we didn’t get the idea.)
Keith David as crime boss Ezra Sexton.
Ursula Coyote/Max
Holloway is at least 20 years too old for the character as written, since Jim is both a Vietnam veteran and someone relatively low on Saxton’s org chart. But his reunion with Abrams is a potent reminder of the scruffy charm he brought to con man Sawyer on Lost. It’s just a pleasure to watch him swagger around in his wide-open shirts and flared pants, always calculating the escape route from any situation. (Perhaps to lean into the age discrepancy, both David and Corbin Bernsen, as Jim’s retired crook dad, are also much older than a pair of World War II infantrymen would be in 1972.) Hilson, who played the young Beth in This Is Us flashbacks, is suitably badass as someone whose race, gender, age, and size keep forcing establishment white guys to underestimate her.
The narrative gets silly by the end of the eight-episode season, with characters making dumb choices solely to keep the plot moving. But the films and shows that inspired Duster didn’t always hold up to close scrutiny, either. And the main title sequence — a Hot Wheels-style version of this story, with toy cars tearing down the road and going through a loop — is a joy (the best opening credits of recent vintage to not involve the actors dancing), and perhaps the best example of how Duster makes its reverence for old pop culture feel just new enough to work.
Duster premieres May 15 on Max, with episodes releasing weekly. I’ve seen the whole season.
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