‘Duster’ series assessment: Rachel Hilson’s sass and Josh Holloway’s laidback charm rock the retro ride

From the title sequence that includes a miniature automobile race, with the King’s well-known Blue Suede Shoes swinging jauntily from the phone wires, to the music and costumes, J. J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan’s Duster, brings 1972 Phoenix, Arizona to thrilling life.

Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson), the first Black feminine FBI agent (supposedly loosely modelled on Sylvia Elizabeth Mathis) proper out of Quantico, asks to be posted to Phoenix. She faces chauvinism with a smile, a pointy wardrobe, and a sharper thoughts. She is set to carry down Ezra Saxton (Keith David), against the law boss whose energy and affect are rising by the day.

No one at her workplace believes she will be able to do it, as others have tried and failed — with the final agent on the Saxton case dropping his thoughts and getting locked up in an asylum. Nina’s boss, Nathan Abbott (Greg Grunberg), tries to be supportive of her whilst he has to reply to his superiors, whereas the different male brokers, together with Chad Grant (Dan Tracy), are brazenly hostile.

Only Awan Bitsui (Asivak Koostachin), a Navajo, who additionally doesn’t get any respect from the different brokers, helps Nina. Even although not as keen to color exterior the strains as Nina, Awan is a loyal associate and follows Nina to the finish.

Nina feels the solely method to crack the Saxton case open is thru a mole, and she identifies Saxton’s getaway driver, Jim (Josh Holloway), for the job. We first meet Jim as he’s driving his pink 1970 Plymouth Duster like a bat out of hell. We study that he has to choose up a time-critical package deal. In the automobile is Luna (Adriana Aluna Martinez), Jim’s ex Izzy’s (Camille Guaty) daughter. Nine-year-old Luna likes to ride together with her Uncle Jim, and he obliges her each time attainable.

We study that Jim goes to take supply of a coronary heart for Saxton’s son, Royce (Benjamin Charles Watson), who has a congenital coronary heart illness. The coronary heart transplant is carried out in Saxton’s mansion, with Jim pumping the coronary heart to get it beating once more. Ezra’s daughter, Genesis (Sydney Elisabeth), is the brains and a greater than succesful inheritor — if not for her gender. After all, that is the ’70s we’re speaking about. Jim’s household, together with his father Wade (Corbin Bernsen) and brother, Joe, have been working for Saxton.

Joe died on the job, and Nina figures out a method to flip Jim with some data she has. Charlotte (Gail O’Grady), Wade’s spouse, just isn’t notably keen on Jim, and the feeling is mutual. Billy (Evan Jones), Ezra’s muscle man, is unpredictable and suspicious of everybody, together with Jim. Throw in soiled cops, together with a very nasty one, Groomes (Donal Logue), a conspiracy from the highest powers, Elvis Presley’s Blue Suede Shoes, a dialogue on Pitirim Sorokin’s six varieties of mobility, and Howard Hughes, and you’re assured one hell of a ride.

The interval element is beautiful however lived-in, from the music (Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Foxey Lady’, Presley’s ‘Teddy Bear’, Chakachas’ ‘Jungle Fever’, and extra), garments (shorts, scarves, extensive collars, and flared trousers), and film references to pleasant blasts from the previous — together with a Rolodex and Agent Bitsui’s Superman pockets. There can also be Hughes in all his eccentric glory, insisting the suitcase be dealt with with tissue, his guests wash their fingers 4 instances, whereas additionally giving Luna a style of the millionaire life-style with the 350 gallons of banana nut ice cream he has stashed and a screening of Bullitt, that final automobile chase film with the king of cool, Steve McQueen, as the eponymous San Francisco cop.

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The appearing is spot on, and it’s troublesome to attract the eyes away from Holloway’s straightforward rider and Hilson’s uncompromising politeness and charm. Duster, with its muscle automobiles and retro vibes (I nearly anticipated Amitabh Bachchan as the laconic, harmful Vijay to lock the godown door and ask Peter to attempt and take the keys from him), is a blast from the previous in 1,000,000 scrumptious methods. Can Season 2 come already?

Duster is presently streaming on Jio Hotstar

Published – July 07, 2025 05:35 pm IST