# American Rust (2021)

> A compromised small town police chief in a Pennsylvania Rust Belt town navigates a murder case that tangles with his own family.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/77708

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 19
- Episode runtime: 63 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: drama, crime
- Created by: Dan Futterman, Philipp Meyer
- Network: Showtime, Prime Video, Amazon Freevee
- Cast: Jeff Daniels, Maura Tierney, David Alvarez, Alex Neustaedter, Julia Mayorga, Bill Camp, Mark Pellegrino, Emily Davis
- TMDB rating: 7.3/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1532495/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: melancholic, brooding, bleak, sincere

## What critics say

Viewers positively received the small-town Rust Belt crime family drama, with Jeff Daniels' lead performance and its morally compromised characters central to its appeal, though its audience rating is moderate.

## Synopsis

American Rust (2021-2024) is a American prestige crime drama series created by Dan Futterman and Philipp Meyer for Showtime, later streaming on Prime Video. Jeff Daniels stars as Del Harris, the compromised chief of police in a struggling Pennsylvania Rust Belt town, a man whose good intentions keep colliding with the bad choices of the people around him. Maura Tierney plays Grace Poe, and David Alvarez, Alex Neustaedter, Julia Mayorga and Bill Camp round out a community where family ties and old loyalties shape every decision. The engine of the show is a murder investigation that exposes secrets among neighbors, forcing Del to weigh his duty against the people he loves. Across two seasons and nineteen episodes, the storytelling stays serialized and character driven, building a slow, grounded tension rather than relying on case-of-the-week puzzles. The mood is melancholic and morally weighted, with bleak industrial landscapes and a sense of economic decline pressing on every scene. Viewers who enjoy Mare of Easttown, Fargo and Ozark will find resonance in its small town dread and flawed, human characters. The series was canceled after its second season, so the story stops without fully closing its central threads.

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