HBO Max Canceled <em>Duster</em> After Just One Season. It’s a Shame.

Wow. Duster deserved better. After a five-year runway to produce and air the next collaboration between Lost alums Josh Holloway and J.J. Abrams, HBO Max officially cancelled the ’70s-inspired crime drama less than a week after its season 1 finale.

The series followed getaway driver Jim Ellis (Holloway) and the FBI’s first Black female agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson), who worked together to try to stop a crime-syndicate boss (Keith David) in the Southwest. Ellis’s car of choice? The 1970 Plymouth Duster 340. “You can hear it coming down the road—your hair stands up in the back of your head when it pulls up,” Holloway told Esquire right before the finale. “It’s a beast.”

It’s a bummer to see Duster go so quickly. Not just because the season 1 finale ended on a cliff-hanger but also because audiences who did tune in to the FBI drama once a week this summer seemed to enjoy what they saw. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds a 92 percent critic score and an 82 percent audience score. But in today’s streaming wars, a series has only one season to immediately contend for viewership. Compared with The Pitt and The Penguin, HBO Max simply didn’t see as much success with Duster—despite the good reviews.

“I feel like it’s a no-brainer, because the show is amazing,” Holloway told Esquire about the potential for season 2 earlier this month. “We’re killing it in the press. But I don’t understand streaming anymore. I don’t understand how they make their decisions. Artistically, it’s a no-brainer. But financially? I don’t know. No one has contacted me about it. So I just go: You know what? That was some of the most fun TV I’ve ever filmed.”