HBO just dropped a trailer for its new show Duster, and if you’ve been craving a good, old-fashioned crime procedural with some flair, it could be right up your street. Starting on 15 May, in a couple of months’ time, it promises shootouts, car chases and undercover action, all with real panache.
It’s also got an impressive cast, as the trailer reveals, including Josh Holloway, Rachel Hilson, and Keith David – the sort of names that might not be enough to sell a major blockbuster movie, but who have all done superb TV work before. Really, though, the style of the trailer speaks for itself.
In case the soundtrack and sepia filter didn’t tip you off, the show will be set in the 1970s, in the Southwest, a time that’s pretty ripe for both nostalgia and regret when you look back at how policing worked. Duster will follow Hilson as the FBI’s first-ever black woman agent, as she tries to bring down what she sees as a major crime syndicate led by Keith David’s character.
To do that, she’ll try to snare Josh Holloway as Jim, a loyal and extremely proven driver for the criminals – and he looks every inch the cliché of a seventies man, all long hair and aviators. What follows will clearly be a bit of a cat-and-mouse game. Before the trailer’s up, we get to hear Hollaway informing his superiors that she’s on his tail, so it’s clear that he’s not going to immediately roll over and turn informant.
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Most of the best crime dramas do involve a bit of back-and-forth when it comes to loyalties, after all, and the dynamic between cops and informants is always a fertile one for storytelling. Whether we can expect betrayals will be a key question as Duster unfolds, and it’s one that has worked nicely for more famous dramas like The Departed down the years.
In fact, this show looks mighty reminiscent of a much more recent show from HBO – the second season of True Detective, which our tech editor Mike Lowe recently defended. If you enjoyed its sunbaked, scary atmosphere, then Duster could well be perfect for you when it arrives in May.
