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Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Who Is Sergeant Groomes in Duster Episode 1's Ending? Explained
Episode 1 of Max's new drama, , concludes with the revelation that Jim Ellis (Josh Holloway) is under surveillance by Sergeant Groomes. Jim has been a loyal driver for Phoenix crime boss Ezra Saxton. However, in a plot twist, he secretly becomes an FBI informant after being recruited by Nina Hayes, who is portrayed as the first Black female FBI agent in 1972. This double-agent arrangement sets the stage for the upcoming central conflict between Saxton and Ellis. Max's latest crime thriller, Duster, has set the expectations high with Episode 1, where Jim Ellis and Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson) come together to make a case for local kingpin Ezra Saxton. The duo doesn't know that Saxton is keeping a watch on Jim using local Sergeant Groomes. At first glance, Jim's repertoire in his 'job' seemed paramount. Saxton's boss trusted him to carry an organ for his son, Royce Saxton. However, FBI agent Nina Hayes found a crack that could ultimately overturn Saxton's dominance in Phoenix. As the local crime lord, Saxton has committed several murders. Nina discovered that Jim's brother's death could also be Saxton's cruel play. When the FBI agent presents the surveillance footage to Jim, he does not believe Nina right away. Jim's loyalty shifts when Saxton 'jokes' about killing Bob Temple, an elderly man who fell victim to Saxton's elaborate blackmailing game. Jim signs on as an informant to prove that Saxton didn't kill his brother. Nina reveals her father died similarly, suggesting Saxton likely ordered Jim's brother's murder. In the ending scene of episode 1, fans discover that Saxton does not trust anyone. He has employed a local sergeant to keep track of Jim's activities. Sergeant Groomes witnesses Jim signing the contract with FBI agent Nina. As per the established DNA of the 70s crime shows, the main conflict of Duster will revolve around a charismatic Jim Ellis and the shrewd crime boss, Ezra Saxton (Keith David). As a bonus, fans get to enjoy the immersive world of New Mexico in the 1970s. After episode 1, fans took to social media to discuss the Lost actor Josh Holloway's return in Duster. A viewer gushed on Reddit, 'Duster hit all the beats it needed to, and that's an array of interesting characters on both sides of the law. The set design is great, the color palette is awesome, and the world is immersive.' Another fan posted on X (formerly Twitter), 'Josh Holloway is effortlessly charming.' The post Who Is Sergeant Groomes in Duster Episode 1's Ending? Explained appeared first on - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Los Angeles Times
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- Los Angeles Times
Revving engines, thrills and drama drive ‘Duster' and ‘Motorheads'
After humans, and arguably before dogs and horses, there is no character more vital to the screen, and more vital onscreen, than the automobile. Driven or driverless, the car is the most animated of inanimate objects, sometimes literally a cartoon, with a voice, a personality, a name. Even when not speaking, they purr, they roar. They are stars in their own right — the Batmobile, the Munster Koach, James Bond's Aston Martin DB5, K.I.T.T. (the modified 1982 Pontiac Trans Am from 'Knight Rider'), the Ford Grand Torino (nicknamed the Striped Tomato) driven by Starsky and Hutch. They might represent freedom, power, delinquency or even the devil. Whole movies have been built about them and the amazing things they can do, but even when they aren't jumping and flipping and crashing, they play an essential role in helping flesh-and-blood characters take care of business. Perhaps in some sort of reaction to our enlightened view of the effects of our gas-guzzling ways, two new series fetishizing the internal combustion engine arrive, Max's 'Duster,' now streaming, and Prime Video's 'Motorheads,' premiering Tuesday. Created by J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan and named for the supernaturally shiny cherry-red Plymouth the hero drives, 'Duster' is stupid fun, a comic melodrama steeped in 1970s exploitation flicks, with a lot of loving homage to period clothes, knickknacks and interior design. The driver is Jim Ellis, played by Josh Holloway, in what reads like a turn on Sawyer, his charming, criminal character from Abrams' 'Lost,' topped with a shot of Matthew McConaughey. Jim, a man who has never bothered to make a three-point turn, works out of Phoenix for Southwest crime boss Ezra Saxton (Keith David, monumental as always), picking up this, delivering that. The first delivery we see turns out to be a human heart, picked up from a fast-food drive-through window, destined for Saxton's ailing son, Royce (Benjamin Charles Watson). Along for the ride is little Luna (Adriana Aluna Martinez), who calls Jim 'uncle,' though you are free to speculate; her mother, Izzy (Camille Guaty), is a big-rig trucker — trucking being another fun feature of '70s pop culture — who will find cause to become a labor leader. The Ellises and the Saxtons, also including daughter Genesis (Sydney Elisabeth), have history — Jim's father, Wade (Corbin Bernson), served with Ezra in World War II, and his late lamented brother had worked for him as well. Saxton is the sort of bad guy with whom you somehow sympathize in spite of the violence he employs; there's genuine affection among the families, though one is never sure when or where a line will be drawn, only that one probably will be. Into Jim's low-rent but relatively settled, even happy world comes FBI agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson, sparky), fresh out of Quantico and ambitious to make a mark. As a Black woman, she's told, 'No one's clamoring for an agent like you,' but she's been assigned to Phoenix 'because we have no other options.' She's partnered there with cheerful Navajo agent Awan (Asivak Koostachin), as if to corral the minorities into a manageable corner, and assigned the Saxton case, regarded as 'cursed' and so intractable as to be not worth touching. Which is to say, agents deemed not worth taking seriously — along with underestimated 'girl Friday' Jessica (Sofia Vassilieva) — have been thrown a case deemed not worth taking seriously. This is a classic premise for a procedural and strikes some notes about racism and sexism in the bargain, not out of tune with the times in which it's set, or the times in which we're watching. Nina, who has managed to gather evidence of Jim crossing state lines to deliver the heart, which was stolen, and that Saxton may have been responsible for his brother's death, bullies and tempts him into becoming a confidential informant. Thus begins an uneasy partnership, though their storylines run largely on separate tracks in separate scenes. 'Lost' was not a show that bothered much with sense in order to achieve its effects, and 'Duster,' though it involves a far-reaching conspiracy whose payoff plays like the end of a shaggy-dog story, is a show of effects, of set pieces and sequences, of car chases and fistfights, of left-field notions and characters. These include Patrick Warburton as an Elvis-obsessed mobster named Sunglasses; Donal Logue as a corrupt, perverse, evangelical policeman; Gail O'Grady as Jim's stepmother, a former showgirl who doesn't much like him; LSD experiments; absurd puzzles (also see: 'Lost'); an airheaded version of Adrienne Barbeau (Mikaela Hoover), with the actual Barbeau, a queen of genre films, making an appearance; Richard Nixon (in a few creepy seconds of AI); an oddly jolly Howard Hughes (Tom Nelis) in his Kleenex-box slippers; and a 'Roadrunner' pastiche. Though not devoid of genuine feeling, it's best experienced as a collection of attitudes and energies, noises and colors. Don't take it any more seriously than it takes itself. The opening titles are super cool. 'Motorheads' is a familiar sort of modern teenage soap opera but with cars. For reasons known only to series creator John A. Norris, the whole town is obsessed with them, and along with its human storylines, the series is a tour of automotive entertainments — drag racing, street racing, ATV racing, go-kart racing, classic car collecting. I have no idea whether this will resonate with the target demographic, but there is much I cannot tell you about kids these days. As is common to the form, our young protagonists — Michael Cimino as Zac and Melissa Collazo as Caitlyn — are new to town, having been brought back from New York City by their mother, Samantha (Nathalie Kelly), to the oxymoronically named Rust Belt hamlet of Ironwood, where she was raised, and which is the last place anyone saw their father, Christian (Deacon Phillippe in flashbacks), 17 years earlier. He's an infamous local legend, admired for his skill behind the wheel; aerial footage of Christian threading his way through a cordon of police cars as the getaway driver in a robbery keeps making its way into the show, though if you live in Los Angeles, you see this sort of thing on the news all the time. Marquee name Ryan Phillippe plays the kids' Uncle Logan, who runs a garage that apparently does no business, but he has love and wisdom to spare. Though at the center of the series, Zac's storyline is a little shopworn, not just his wish to become, almost out of nowhere, Ironwood's top speed racer, but his textbook interest in rich girl Alicia (Mia Healey), the girlfriend of rich boy Harris (Josh Macqueen), a Porsche-driving bully who is also hurting inside — so feel free to get a crush on him, if that's your type. More interesting is sister Caitlyn, who prefers building cars to racing them and is perhaps the series' most emotionally balanced character. She becomes friends with shop classmate Curtis (Uriah Shelton), tall and good-looking, whose criminally inclined older brother, Ray (Drake Rodger), will become a sort of dark mentor to Zac. With the addition of Marcel (Nicolas Cantu), the archetypal 'geek who becomes the hero's best friend,' who works at the diner his father (grieving, drunk) used to own and dreams of designing cars, the four constitute the show's outsider band of good guys. They'll have their not-always-happy business with each other — being teenagers, you know, things happen — and with their elders, as their elders will with one another. The past is not past in Ironwood; old feelings will resurface and old plots unravel. (And no one knows what happened to Christian.) Except for the cars sprinkled on top, it's old stuff, not very deep, but produced with an engaging naturalism that rounds off the narrative extremes, enhances what's commonplace and makes 'Motorheads' easy to watch. (Colin Hoult is the sensitive director of photography, it's worth mentioning.) Drive on.
Boston Globe
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
J.J. Abrams returns to TV with ‘Duster,' a fun, '70s-set crime thriller
Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson) is barely out of the FBI Academy when she pleads with her supervisors to be transferred to the Phoenix field office, so that she can head up the investigation into local crime boss Ezra Saxton (Keith David). She has more than a professional interest in Saxton, since she holds him responsible for the murder of her father, a onetime Saxton employee. Nina uses a similar personal connection to rope in Saxton's courier Jim Ellis (Josh Holloway), offering him evidence that the death of his brother while working for Saxton years earlier was no accident. Advertisement Keith David in "Duster." James Van Evers/Max Advertisement It's a classic buddy-cop setup, with the wary partners who grow to respect each other drawn, in this case, from opposite sides of the law, and Abrams and Morgan don't try to reinvent the formula. Unlike past Abrams shows that were focused on delivering consistent shocking reveals, 'Duster' proceeds in familiar fashion, although that doesn't make it less compelling. Abrams and Morgan populate Phoenix's underworld with a variety of appealingly offbeat characters, and they incorporate their 1970s pop-culture influences without turning the show into an empty pastiche. From her very first scene, Nina is fighting an uphill battle against both racism and sexism in the FBI, and the show never pretends that being such a pioneering agent would be easy. At the same time, Nina's confidence in her own abilities rarely wavers, and she doesn't back down when faced with dismissals and refusals from her bosses and colleagues. 'Pam Grier, eat your [expletive] heart out,' goes a typical response to Nina's swagger, and 'Duster' pays homage to Blaxploitation in its fashion and music choices, and by placing Black characters front and center among both cops and criminals. David brings his signature suave presence to Saxton, who never draws attention to his race but also revels in beating down a bunch of redneck bikers who hassle him when he and Jim stop at a roadside bar. 'Duster' isn't interested in grand social commentary, but these characters make a statement simply by existing in their specific time and place. Advertisement Mostly, though, 'Duster' (named after Jim's bright red muscle car) is just high-octane fun, with plenty of car chases, shootouts, and dangerous dudes with names like Mad Raoul, Sunglasses, and Enrique the Blade. Holloway, who's struggled to find the right role since his time as resident antihero Sawyer on 'Lost,' fits perfectly into the part of the tough but kind-hearted Jim, who accepts the brutal violence that goes along with Saxton's operation but is more focused on creating a brighter future for his young daughter. Even with Nina, his bluster is clearly a cover for his compassion and eventual affection. Hilson and Holloway have great banter-filled chemistry, but it's a relief that they're never forced into a hook-up. The same goes for Nina's relationship with her eager young partner Awan (Asivak Koostachin), whose half-Navajo heritage brands him as another FBI outsider. 'Duster' is full of camaraderie but light on romance, although Jim frequently wakes up next to anonymous women before making a discreet exit. The early humor fades a bit as the eight-episode season progresses, and Nina and Jim get deeper into their operation, but 'Duster' remains fast-paced and clever. Three separate episodes rely on Abrams's frequent 'Alias' narrative device of in medias res openings that then double back to several hours earlier, and the motivations of all the competing factions get a little muddled by the end of the season. Still, with its choice needle drops, vibrant desert setting, and charming characters, 'Duster' is breezy, low-impact entertainment. Abrams's name-brand value holds up. DUSTER Starring: Josh Holloway, Rachel Hilson, Keith David. On Max Advertisement
West Australian
15-05-2025
- West Australian
Judge's ‘grave concerns' in NSW strip search class action case
A judge presiding over the case of a woman suing the state of NSW over a strip search at a popular music festival has told the court she has 'grave concerns' about the conduct of the defence, who admitted after two years the search was unlawful. Raya Meredith was made to undress in front of a police officer, lift her breasts, and remove her tampon during a 'humiliating' and terrifying strip search at the Splendour in the Grass music festival in 2018 that police later admitted was illegal. The then-27-year-old is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit brought by Slater and Gordon and the Redfern Legal Centre against the state of NSW on behalf of more than 3000 people likely subjected to illegal strip searches from 2016-2022. Ms Meredith's lawyer, Kylie Nomchong SC argued in her closing statements Tuesday and Wednesday that there was a failure on the part of 'senior echelons' of NSW Police to ensure proper training and supervision given to police doing searches. Julian Sexton SC, who is representing the state of NSW, pushed back on claims by Ms Nomchong about police training and the findings of a report by the Lessons Learned Unit (LLU) following a complaint after a 2013 Mardi Gras afterparty. Mr Sexton said the report, contrary to submissions by Ms Nomchong, did not represent an 'admission of widespread unlawful use of strip searches' or routine unlawful strip searches and instead only made 'recommendations about best practice'. He went on to tell the court that out of 172,000 searches in 2016, 3850 were strip searches. Resulting from those searches were only 79 complaints, four of which were sustained, with a further two sustained complaints the following year. 'This demonstrates that there was a decreasing number of complaints sustained. There were only five complaints sustained in the period up until November 2018. That doesn't indicate a widespread use of unlawful searches,' Mr Saxton said. He made similar claims about the 'very small number' of civil cases. Justice Dina Yehia said the defence case and state of NSW's admission that Ms Meredith's strip search was illegal were of 'grave concern' during Thursday's hearing. Justice Yehia told Mr Saxton before the lunch adjournment that 'the conduct of the proceedings in relation to the three iterations of defence that were initially relied upon, that is a matter, I'll be quite honest with you, of grave concern to me. 'All I have is three officers' statements that say either that they don't remember the search at all or both that they don't remember the search nor remember the plaintiff, the lead plaintiff in those circumstances,' she said, referring to Ms Meredith. 'I'm just not sure how this could ever have proceeded in the way that it did with the initial pleadings.' Mr Saxton said the admission about the legality of the search was 'more accurate to say it was an admission based on the absence of proof' and police may have based their recollections on 'practice' rather than specific memory. In response, Justice Yehia said: 'An assertion that the officer's assessment of the plaintiff's demeanour, physical appearance, body language and answers to questions while they spoke outside the tent is very specific.' Under NSW law, strip searches – which are recognised as being 'highly invasive and humiliating' – are supposed to be undertaken within specific statutory guidelines, including preconditions of 'seriousness and urgency' that they be done. Ms Nomchong told the court on Tuesday that not a single COPS event log contained why a strip search was necessary, and the general duties officers were 'defective in their understanding of the basis on which strip searches could be carried out'. 'They were not supervised. They were not trained. And, as a direct result, that is why my plaintiff was unlawfully strip searched … along with others who attended the music festival in 2018,' Ms Nomchong said in her more than six-hour statement. Resuming on Wednesday, Ms Nomchong urged the court to award exemplary damages 'not only to express the court's disapprobation but because of the manifest breaches of the (Law Enforcement Powers and Responsibilities Act) by searching officers'. Ms Nomchong went on to add 'but also because of the … manifest failures on the part of the senior echelons of the NSW Police Force responsible for both general and focus training for conducting strip searches' in the state at the time.
Epoch Times
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
Season 1 of ‘Duster': Not Quite a True Crime Thriller
TV-MA | 8 episodes | Drama, Crime, Mystery, Thriller | 2025 Set in 1972, 'Duster,' the latest venture from producers J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan, covers a lot of narrative ground and reminds people of a certain age what life in America was like over a half-century ago. Although 'Duster' is fictional, the six writers of the eight episodes weave in nonfictional events to such a heavy degree that it plays out like a true crime series. For instance, within the first 15 minutes, references to Watergate and the recent death of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover are made. Nonfictional characters are also brought into the mix. In the fifth episode, President Richard Nixon becomes an on-screen character. In another, it's Howard Hughes. In yet another, it's Elvis Presley's manager Col. Tom Parker talking to then-unknown actress Adrienne Barbeau (young version played by Mikaela Hoover). In the same episode, the real Barbeau has an extended cameo as someone else. The level of self-awareness here is off the charts, but in the best way possible. FBI agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson) and Jim Ellis (Josh Holloway) under the hood of the Duster, in "Duster." HBO Max Needle Drops and Polyester 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. All of the characters are adorned in clothing most of us would rather forget. You can practically smell the rayon, polyester, and assorted ozone-killing hair care products. Not quite a police procedural, the entire season focuses on the FBI trying to gather enough evidence to arrest Phoenix crime lord Ezra Saxton (Keith David). It becomes clear early on that veteran agents (read: white guys) are petrified of Saxton. Whether it's out of fear of reprisal, death, or widespread corruption, none of them are keen to pursue him. Related Stories 9/7/2023 7/11/2024 This isn't the case for new hire Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson). Bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and loaded for bear, Hayes is ready for action. Because Hoover was both racist and sexist, blacks and women were never considered for field agent positions, and Hayes is both. Muscle Car The only hope Hayes has to nail Saxton is Jim Ellis (Josh Holloway of 'Lost'), one of Saxton's employees. Ellis is the second owner of a 1970 cherry red Plymouth Duster 340. He feels that he owes Saxton and is loyal almost to a fault. Once Hayes offers Ellis definitive proof of a previous crime that cuts deep personally, he reluctantly agrees to be a confidential informant against Saxton. Jim Ellis (Josh Holloway, L) and Ezra Saxton (Keith David), in "Duster." HBO Max The producers, along with alternating directors Steph Green and Darren Grant, aren't shy when it comes to 'borrowing' the intellectual property (IP) of HBO Max's parent company (Warner Bros. Discovery). Adjacent to product placement, IP essentially does the same thing: It lends the fictional production a tad more realism. On one of the character's bedroom walls are theatrical posters for '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'The Omega Man,' both Warner movies. One episode starts with a Warner 'Road Runner' cartoon that quickly morphs into another cartoon where Ellis imagines his own murder. Had 'Duster' been produced by Netflix, we would have seen none of this. Flash Forward Although not exactly original, the writers and directors incorporate something akin to 'flash forward' at the start of at least three episodes. All begin with what looks like something we'd see in the last 10 or so minutes. Just before the payoff, the actual chronological start of the episode kicks in accompanied by on-screen text reading '12 (or 13, or 8) hours earlier.' It's a clever way to keep viewers on their toes. Jim Ellis (Josh Holloway), in "Duster." HBO Max There is such strong emphasis on the period props, costume design, time-appropriate music, the tipping of caps to pop culture of the day, and the unorthodox storytelling choices for a reason. Great writing, acting, and direction in period pieces will only take a film so far. It seems easy to make a movie set 200 (or even 2,000) years ago. But for 50 or 60 years ago, that's a challenge. It could be because many Americans lived through the 1970s, and those that didn't have seen images (moving and still) of that time. Winging it is not an option. Everyone involved with the look, sound, and feel of 'Duster' recognizes this and completely nailed it. Going beyond the above nuts-and-bolts description of the premise and key characters probably isn't a good idea. Every episode further unspools a dozen or so plot threads, most of which take the entire season to fully play out. Trying to figure out what comes next each time is what makes the show so addictive. I'm afraid I have some bad news for those who prefer to binge-watch their premium cable shows. Beginning May 15 and continuing through July 3, a new 45-to-55-minute episode will drop every Thursday. In the last 20 minutes of the eighth episode, I was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out which characters would live or die, and only got about half of them right. I also wanted to see if there would be a hint of a possible second season, and I'm happy to say it appears more than likely. The series begins streaming May 15 on HBO Max. 'Duster' Directors: Steph Green and Darren Grant Starring: Josh Holloway, Rachel Hilson, Keith David, Corbin Bernsen Episodes: 8 TV Parental Guidance: TV-MA Release Date: May 15, 2025 Rating: 4 1/2 stars out of 5 What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to [for featured image caption, suggest a tweak: Nina Hayes stars as Rachel Hilson in the TV series 'Duster.' (HBO Max)]
