"American Rust" is back from the dead three years after its cancellation.
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The series, which stars Jeff Daniels as a grizzled police chief in small-town Pennsylvania, was canceled by Showtime after a lackluster Season 1. The crime drama found a new home on Amazon Freevee, Amazon's ad-supported video-on-demand service. And now, Amazon is set to launch a sophomore season on Prime Video March 28.
Prime Video just released the official debut trailer announcing the series' comeback, which has added the subheading "Broken Justice" to its title.
The trailer sees Del Harris (Daniels) being welcomed back into the fold, where he's tasked with untangling a far-reaching conspiracy in the Rust Belt. Harris also does a little hunting, a lot of brooding and changes a lightbulb (how many sullen detectives navigating the broken American dream does it take? Just one).
In the series, based on Philipp Meyer's novel of the same name, Daniels is joined by returning stars Maura Tierney ("Twisters"), David Alvarez ("West Side Story"), Mark Pellegrino ("Supernatural"), Rob Yang ("Rabbit Hole"), Kyle Beltran ("American Horror Story") Alex Neustaedter ("A.X.L.") and Julie Mayorga ("Rare Objects").
Season 1 was less than beloved by critics, receiving a subpar 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics noted the series' slow pacing and dreariness, which would have been fine if it had better understood the subject matter it admirably tried to portray.
The audience score fared much better, at 76%, but that didn't translate to viewership—low ratings also led to the show's initial cancellation.
Regardless of how Season 1 turned out, the subject matter of "American Rust"—the Rust Belt and its surrounding environs that have been spent and forgotten by the US—is an important story to be told. Here's hoping that with the talent of the Emmy Award-winning Daniels at the ready, Season 2 can turn things around.
