Page 109 - Metropolis Megazine nº118
P. 109
ECHOES OF THE 70S IN A WORLD OF CORRUPTION
HBO MAX
Jim is not your typical charismatic mate, almost desperate conviction power of the environment, the ac-
antihero. He is a worn-out man, that something has to change. The cumulated tension, and the inter-
driven more by survival than any dynamic between the two is never nal complexity of the characters.
desire for redemption. His eyes reduced to the formula of “happy
reveal the fatigue of someone who encounters”: it is a forced partner- The series doesn't need speeches
has lost too much to believe in ship, uncomfortable and full of to make social critiques. It simply
change. Unlike so many similar gray areas, where trust is an unsta- shows the system from the insi-
characters in the genre, Jim has no ble currency and empathy, when it de. This subtlety is where much of
grand speeches or moments of glo- arises, is the result of shared pain. the series' strength lies: instead of
ry. His heroism, when it emerges, is pointing fingers, it exposes reali-
reluctant, almost accidental, as if it There are episodes in which the ac- ties through narrative choices and
were just another mistake in the tion seems suspended, as if the se- characters who carry the weight
moral confusion in which he lives. ries were asking the viewer to brea- of a world without easy answers.
the and absorb. For some, this may In the end, “Duster” is not just a
Nina, on the other hand, far from sound slow; for others, it is an in- story about crime or escape; it is
the image of a relentless federal vitation to contemplate a morally about survival in a setting where
agent, reveals herself to be vulne- ambiguous world. The fact is that the line between justice and moral
rable and determined, balancing “Duster” is in no hurry to resolve compromise has been blurred. And
idealism and pragmatism. Her de- conflicts or present constant twis- this ambiguity is perhaps the most
termination does not come from a ts and turns. This narrative choice accurate portrayal of the era it seeks
thirst for power, but from an inti- reveals a confidence rooted in the to evoke.
METROPOLIS MAY 2025 109
