What Are You Watching? ‘American Rust’

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Saturdays are spent in a recliner wearing sweatpants with the remote in my hand. (I need a day like this in order to make it through all the other days.) I stumbled upon “American Rust” on Showtime when I added that service to my Amazon Prime account. I’ve been a Jeff Daniels fan ever since my kids put me through watching “Fly Away Home” over and over again when they were little.

“American Rust” (2021) takes place in a small depressed Pennsylvania town in the Rust Belt, where police chief Del Harris (Daniels) leads a murder investigation where the top suspect is his girlfriend Grace Poe’s (Maura Tierney) son. This leads to a complicated but intriguing investigation. Del’s background seems a bit sketchy and he clearly was involved in some police work at his previous job that he tries to keep on the downlow in his current position. He’s also prone to drink and painkillers.

There is an interesting cast of characters in this family drama, including Grace’s son Billy and his friend Isaac. All of the acting is top-notch, but I’m guessing that it may move too slowly for other viewers.

In my book though, the acting carries this show and even though it tends toward dark and moody, I find it compelling and am happy to hear that there will be a Season 2 available on Amazon’s streaming service, Freevee, coming up.