‘American Rust’: Please Save Jeff Daniels From This Rust Belt Nightmare
The new Showtime series “American Rust” involves a murder mystery in a depressed Pennsylvania town packed with shady characters and drugs. Sound familiar?
Showtime
Jeff Daniels is so reliably great that he can make just about any material sing, and that fact is put to the test by American Rust, a nine-part drama destined to be unfavorably compared to Mare of Easttown. Like HBO’s limited series, Showtime’s handsome but inert saga (based on Philipp Meyer’s 2009 novel of the same name) concerns a small-town Pennsylvania cop, a puzzling homicide involving many intertwined locals, and an atmosphere of grim rural misery and despair, much of it wrought from a drug epidemic that plagues its inhabitants—including, to some extent, its protagonist. A murder mystery populated by working-class folks dealing with various traumas while hanging out in cozy dive bars, around crackling campfires, and amidst dilapidated buildings, it’s a familiar song sung in an even more familiar key—save, that is, for those few moments when its star interjects some unique personality into the proceedings.
American Rust’s title announces the show’s lofty intentions; this is a character study-via-genre-thriller that wants to be emblematic of a larger, corrupting national ailment. Alas, what’s largely on display (at least in the three episodes provided to press ahead of its Sept. 12 premiere) are a lot of clichéd characters and circumstances, drenched in the usual patina of quiet rustic gloom. Its story is set in fictional Buell, Pennsylvania, which police chief Del Harris (Daniels) explains early on is both geographically and spiritually closer to West Virginia than it is to Pittsburgh. It’s a slowly dying enclave where the air is still, the men carry guns, the women talk tough, the factory has long since closed down, and everyone knows everyone else, and thus happily gather for shotgun weddings where they carouse and fight with down-home rowdiness. Generic is the word for it.
See more of our coverage in your search results.
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.
Register below to read this article for free or subscribe
to unlock unlimited access to The Daily Beast.
Monthly
$1
First month then $5.99/month
Annual
$35
First year then $59.99/year
Premium
$79
First year then $119.99/year
*Substack access provided by the next business day, using your subscription email. Choosing the Premium plan constitutes your permission to share your subscription email with Substack and your agreement to Substack’s Privacy Policy.
Already have an account? Sign In
Looks like you already have a subscription!
You're all set!
Thanks for subscribing.