Those that fell in love with “LOST” within the 2000s would have wager good cash that Josh Holloway was destined to change into a star. As Sawyer, the con man with a coronary heart of gold, Holloway had that “it” that’s been making ruggedly good-looking males into family names because the invention of the digital camera. And but it by no means actually occurred for Holloway, which makes his return to status TV in a high-budget undertaking on Max fairly thrilling for these of us who “have to return.”

Placing Holloway’s bygone-era matinee idol charms in a grindhouse-inspired present set within the early ‘70s solely made this proposition all of the extra engaging. So does this “Duster” velocity Holloway again into future star standing? Not fairly. It’s undeniably enjoyable for giant stretches of its eight-episode first season, and it’s not really Holloway who finally ends up stealing the undertaking. Nonetheless, it’s additionally a kind of packages that, sorry, spins its wheels extra usually than it ought to, and one which appears virtually afraid to embrace its darker influences, selecting as an alternative to push its messages of equality as an alternative of embedding them extra subtly into the narrative. It’s by no means boring, however the first season appears like a warm-up, which makes each for a promising future and a considerably disappointing current.

Holloway performs Jim, the driving force for against the law syndicate within the American Southwest in 1972. Echoes of “Darkish Winds” don’t do the writing on this present any favors—that present is likely one of the greatest on TV—however there’s sufficient room for a number of reveals about criminals and crime solvers within the Southwest a number of generations in the past. The setting is likely one of the handiest parts of “Duster,” capturing the lengthy open roads and threatening deserts in a manner that’s persistently partaking. It’s all the time sizzling, all the time soiled, and all the time harmful.

Jim works for a person named Ezra Saxton (the good Keith David, utterly understanding the task), whose son has continual well being points. Within the premiere, Jim races to carry the child a brand new coronary heart for a life-saving transplant. It’s to arrange how shut Jim is to the Saxton empire, though questions circle round how Jim’s brother, who as soon as labored for Ezra, ended up lifeless. They’re questions that Jim’s dad (Corbin Bernsen) appears equally hesitant to ask. You don’t ask questions round Ezra. You might not just like the solutions.

Somebody who has various questions is the primary Black FBI agent within the area, Nina (Rachel Hilson), who enters a boys membership of old style G-men who don’t need something to do together with her (together with a boss performed by Abrams common Greg Grunberg). Nina’s struggle to be listened to her by her racist colleagues aligns her with one other agent who’s an Indigenous younger man, performed completely by the extremely likable Asivak Koostachin.

The struggle for equality throughline of “Duster” will get a parallel monitor in Jim’s ex Izzy (Camille Guaty), who aggravates Saxton in her struggle for higher situations for feminine truckers. Add in Jim and Izzy’s daughter Luna (Adriana Aluna Martinez), who doesn’t know that Jim is her pop, and you’ve got a present that typically feels weighed down by its messaging. In fact, this isn’t to say {that a} present can’t be about multiple factor, however that the arcs about equality really feel shallowly written, as if Abrams and co-creator LaToya Morgan didn’t wish to make a present that’s “nearly a driver.”

In fact, that’s the present that works. Whether or not Jim is crossing paths with a crooked cop performed by the good Donal Logue or attempting to steal Elvis Presley’s Blue Suede Sneakers, the motion/thriller plotting of “Duster” works as pure escapist leisure. By the point the primary season was wrapping up, I used to be startled at how little had really narratively transpired because the premiere, however I used to be by no means bored whereas watching it, which is a victory within the period of bloated streaming TV.

It helps to have an extremely likable forged. Holloway is efficient, however the present is stolen by Hilson, who will get deeper and deeper into the Saxton underworld in an unpredictable and entertaining manner. As a lot as we satisfied ourselves that Josh Holloway could be a star after that first season of “LOST,” it’s simply as straightforward to leap on the bandwagon for Hilson, a performer with magnetic display screen presence and ace timing. She rides off with the present.

Complete season screened for assessment. Premieres on MAX on Could 15^th.