Something called Amazon Freevee saves American Rust from cancelation

After getting the ax at Showtime, the Jeff Daniels-led American Rust will get a little polish and a second season from Amazon

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  June 9, 2022 | 11:30pm
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Something called Amazon Freevee saves American Rust from cancelation
Jeff Daniels Screenshot: Showtime

The streaming service formerly known as IMDB TV is getting Showtime’s leftovers.

Possibly the worst-named streamer this side of SeeSo, Amazon Freevee has decided to give the recently canceled series American Rust a second season, soaking the show in vinegar and cleaning some of that unsightly rust off with a bit of spit-shine and elbow grease. We assume they’ll also be giving it commercial breaks because Amazon Freevee, as the name implies, is free. It’s totally ad-supported—no Prime membership required.

It’s never been easy keeping American Rust on the air. The show initially received a straight-to-series order from the USA Network in 2017 before bouncing over to Showtime, where the show premiered in September 2021 and where it was canceled in January 2022.

Set in the rustbelt town of Buell, Pennsylvania, American Rust follows police Chief Del Harris, who busts 0ut the old magnifying glass and Sherlock Holmes hat to clear his girlfriend’s son of a murder charge. It’s all very Mare Of Easttown, with an economically devastated town ensnared by the opioid crisis and one cop trying to do a decent thing in an unforgiving world. It certainly sounds like a television show.

Like many prestige dramas, the cast features some heavy hitters, with lead performances from Emmy-winner Jeff Daniels and Emmy-nominee Maura Tierney. Coincidentally enough, Amazon Freevee is where Daniels wants to be. Surely, he must be the first person ever to say that.

“I’m grateful to Amazon Freevee for giving us the chance to make season two of American Rust,” Daniels said. “Set inside a struggling American small town, our authentic, realistically told story is built for streaming. The movies they don’t make anymore are being made as series at places like Amazon Freevee. It’s where I want to be.”

At The A.V. Club, we weren’t huge fans of American Rust. Reviewer Zach Handlen called it “a dreary, well-acted, badly written chunk of misery porn.” But who knows, maybe Amazon Freevee isn’t just where Daniels wants to be; it’s where American Rust needs to be, allowing the whole cast to unlock new forms of austere gloominess.

[via Deadline]

 
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