Anyone who watched Josh Holloway’s performance as the lovable rogue Sawyer in all six seasons of Lost would have been certain that he’d become a routine fixture on the small-screen.
It’s not that Holloway hasn’t had a successful career. He was the lead in TV series Intelligence and Colony, which were cancelled after one and three seasons respectively. He had a recurring role in Yellowstone season 3. Holloway even appeared in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol and was arguably Community’s greatest ever guest-star.
But Holloway was so captivating as the big-hearted scoundrel in Lost — going from self-centered to selfless over the show’s six season run — that it’s disappointing no other showrunner or series was able to successfully replicate what made him so appealing. Even Holloway himself recently admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that he’s been on a frustrating dry spell. That dry spell appears over with Duster, the new crime drama now streaming on Max.
Set in Arizona in 1972, Holloway portrays the hugely talented getaway driver Jim Ellis. He works for gangster Ezra Saxton (Keith David), and while he undoubtedly engages in some shady professional dealings, he is also extremely close to Izzy Reyna (Camille Guaty) and her daughter Luna (Adriana Aluna Martinez). Ellis’ life is turned upside down when Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson), the FBI’s first Black woman agent, arrives in town and reveals that Saxton might have been responsible for Jim’s brother’s death. As a result, Ellis works with Hayes to stop the crime syndicate, all while still being funny and magnetic around Saxton and his crew. Once again, Holloway is the flawed man just trying to do what’s right.
Holloway’s opening scene in Duster immediately reveals that both his character and the show will have a swagger that fits the actor’s sensibilities. Driving the pristine Plymouth Duster the show takes its name from, Ellis effortlessly speeds around with Luna, who he delicately nicknames Peanut, all while doing jobs for Saxton and then evading chasing adversaries.
Audiences will immediately get the sense that Holloway is once again playing the long haired bad-boy, who would rather make wisecracks than raise fists, but isn’t afraid to end any fight that comes his way. Sure he’s a little bit more sun-kissed and wrinkled, but his smile still packs a punch, he lands every quip and, if the opening episodes are anything to go by, he always wakes up in bed with a beautiful woman at least 10 years his junior.
It makes sense that Duster uses Holloway so well. It’s co-created and co-written by JJ Abrams, who also co-created Lost and has since admitted he wrote Duster specifically for Holloway.
It also helps that Holloway is joined in Duster by a top-notch supporting cast. Even though she’s not yet turned 30, Hilson has appeared in the likes of Nurse Jackie, The Good Wife, This Is Us, American Horror Story and Winning Time, and she goes toe-to-toe with Holloway, while offering a more serious and determined alternative to his character. Duster is at its best when the pair are sharing a screen together, which doesn’t happen nearly as often as it should in its first episodes.
Of course, David is a bona-fide national treasure who enriches every scene and show with his presence and voice, while Corbin Bernsen is pitch-perfect casting as Ellis’ father, who just wants to keep the peace between his son and his new wife, Charlotte (Gail O’Grady). They all help to elevate Holloway and his performance, which gets increasingly thrilling as Duster twists and turns its way through its eight episodes.
Duster isn’t a perfect show. It struggles to justify some of its sub-plots and episode lengths. But Holloway’s presence and contagious good vibe will be more than enough to keep viewers hooked, even when it looks like it’s going down a dead end.
Fifteen years after audiences said goodbye to Lost’s island, it’s just wonderful to see Holloway back and being used correctly, and to no longer just be wondering what his career could have been.
New episodes of Duster premiere Thursdays on Max.
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