Yellowstone Star’s New Crime Drama Series From J.J. Abrams Holds 92% Rotten Tomatoes Score

The HBO Max thriller series Duster has been impressing the critics since premiering on streaming earlier this month. After two episodes, the show has been maintaining a near-perfect score with the critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently, Duster has an approval rating of 92%, labeling the show as Certified Fresh. Its audience score is also strong, sitting at 81%. The new series, a crime drama set in the early 1970s, is noted to not be without its flaws by critics. Even so, almost every critic is satisfied with the series, with many describing it as a fun throwback to the kinds of movies that are from the era.

“With a tangy 1970s look and feel, Duster shifts gears confidently between violent cliffhanger crises and knockabout humor,” TV Insider critic Matt Roush said of the show. “Strap in for the joyride.”

Crediting the show’s leads for being the strongest quality, IGN Movies critic Kambole Campbell said, “Held together by colorful ’70s stylings, Duster lives and dies on the charisma of its cast — and so it thrives whenever Josh Holloway and Keith David are at the wheel of its weekly misadventures.”

“Duster is so much more than its aesthetic flourishes, however hypnotizing they may be,” Lyvie Scott of Inverse also stated. “Duster is the kind of crime story that once felt lost to time. It’s a slow-simmering revenge thriller couched within an off-beat buddy comedy.”

Michael Clark of Epoch Times described the series as, “The musical ‘needle drops’ of early 1970s rock, soul, and folk songs are bountiful. There are also glimpses of citizens band radios, cigarette vending machines, 8-track tapes, mini Hot Wheels cars, and signs advertising $0.34 per gallon gas.”

The series was co-created by J.J. Abrams, who also co-created Lost. This made for a Lost reunion on Duster, as series star Josh Holloway starred on Lost before more recently having a recurring role on Yellowstone. LaToya Morgan also co-created the series. The two executive produce alongside Steph Green and Rachel Rusch Rich.

Along with Holloway, the show also stars Rachel Hilson, Keith David, Sydney Elisabeth, Greg Grunberg, Camille Guaty, Asivak Koostachin, Adriana Aluna Martinez, and Benjamin Charles Watson. Patrick Warburton and Adrienne Barbeau guest star.

Duster is set in 1972 in the Southwest. It tells the story of the FBI’s first Black woman agent (Hilson) looking to stop a criminal kingpin (David) with the help of a getaway driver (Holloway).

Josh Holloway Was Quick to Reunite With J.J. Abrams

Recalling getting the call to join the series, Holloway told THR, “[Abrams] called me out of the blue and immediately was like, ‘You got a minute?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I think I got a minute, J.J. Abrams!’ He launched into pitching me this show and I couldn’t even believe what I was hearing. He said, ‘You’re a wheel man for the mafia in 1972’ — and I had a hard time focusing on anything else he said after that. It was that old Jerry Maguire moment — ‘You had me at ‘hello.'”

Duster is streaming on HBO Max.