Season finale: American Rust (created by Dan Futterman, 2021-)
Long months after trying to watch American Rust for the first time, I got back to it, and it's finally grown on me. I still don't care about the central plot's crime or, more broadly, about anything that involves Daniels's and Neustaedter's characters. But since it's a series, there's time for what otherwise could be lost in the peripheries. Tierney's character gets more screen time, most of which revolves around her increasingly resolute determination to talk her workmates into unionizing. There are several scenes of women talking, still underdeveloped, yet already interesting and potent. Tierney is the most subtly expressive, empathetic, and present actor on the show, as, likely, is painfully underutilized Zenzi Williams, who's her great partner in the few moments they share. There's also Alvarez, whose runaway plot meanders at first (though he's partnered for one-two episodes with scene-stealing Nicole Chanel Williams), but then he has this sweet sex-working moment with an older guy, when he is caught by experiencing pleasure, which he grasps with an unexpectedly beautiful face expression. There's nothing special about what the series looks or sounds like, but there's also nothing that doesn't work. I'm looking forward to the second season, I'm happy it'll happen.
