Vitals

Josh Holloway as Jim Ellis, getaway driver and Army veteran

American Southwest, Summer 1972

Series: Duster
Episode: “Baltimore Changes Everything” (Episode 1.01)
Air Date: May 15, 2025
Director: Steph Green
Created by: J.J. Abrams & LaToya Morgan
Costume Designer: Dayna Pink

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One of the most fun new shows of 2025 is Duster, a breezy-yet-badass crime thriller that screeched onto HBO Max this spring and just wrapped its first season last week. Despite my current enthusiasm for the series, its initial announcement prompted what can only be described as deeply conflicted car-guy feelings—equal parts excited (a ’70s-set crime series starring my dream car? yes, please) and irrationally anxious (what if this makes Dusters too popular for me to afford one?)

Once I decided that this was a ridiculous basis for resentment, I locked into Duster—and I’m glad I did! Duster delivers plenty of stylish retro fun, complete with a swaggering soundtrack, Dayna Pink’s period-perfect costume design, and a rubber-burning parade of car stunts performed by both veteran stuntman Corey Eubanks and series star Josh Holloway.

Set against the dusty backdrop of the American southwest in 1972, Duster stars Holloway as a talented getaway driver who gets recruited by the FBI’s first Black woman agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson) to turn against his employer, Phoenix crime boss Ezra “Sax” Saxton (Keith David)—described by one of Nina’s new colleagues as “the Southwest Al Capone.” (The FBI didn’t actually hire its first Black woman agent until four years later, when 27-year-old Sylvia Mathis graduated from the FBI Academy in June 1976.)

As one of the few who had never seen Lost, I was unfamiliar with Holloway before the series, but he’s terrific as the ruggedly charming Jim Ellis, sharing an easy chemistry with the excellent Rachel Hilson as the two work against a characteristically cool-as-hell Keith David. And of course, we’re treated to plenty of Mopar muscle action, scratching my Vanishing Point-sized itch.

Following the first-season finale last week, let’s wrap up this summer’s Car Week with our introduction to Jim as he tears through Arizona’s desert highways with his precocious niece Luna (Adriana Aluna Martinez) in that sharp red-and-black V8-powered ’70 Duster. Continue reading →