Canceled Showtime Series Saved by Freevee Gets Season 2 Launch at Amazon Prime Video

The crime drama American Rust has jumped around quite a bit since it first premiered on Showtime, but you can now catch it on Prime Video. The series debuted on Showtime in September of 2021, but it was canceled after just one season. A few months later, Amazon revived the series on its ad-supported streaming platform Freevee, but now after a long wait, it will actually premiere on Prime Video on March 28.

American Rust has all the makings of a great crime drama – it is based on a novel by Philipp Meyer and adapted for TV by Dan Futterman, and it stars Jeff Daniels, Maura Tierney, David Alvarez, Bill Camp, Julia Mayorga, Alex Neustaedter, Mark Pellegrino and Rob Yang. The show aired nine episodes in its first season on Showtime, and it got mixed reviews from critics. However, it had reasonably high ratings, which may have played a part in its rescue.

The story takes place in a small Rust Belt town in Pennsylvania and follows the chief of police Del Harris (Daniels). He once had a romantic relationship with Grace Poe (Tierny), so he finds himself in a complicated situation when Grace's 21-year-old son, Billy (Neustaedter) and his friend Isaac (Alvarez) are accused of murder. He tries his best to carry out the investigation objectively. The themes of the story focus heavily on the decline of the American middle class.

American Rust already made some considerable changes from the novel in its translation to the screen, but the second season will need to go beyond the book's story altogether. It has the subtitle "American Rust: Broken Justice." Amazon's logline reads: "Del Harris (Jeff Daniels) and Grace Poe (Maura Tierney) try to rebuild their lives after the harrowing events of Season One. Season 2 picks up with a string of seemingly unrelated murders, hinting at a much larger conspiracy that threatens everyone in this small, tight-knit town."

As for the show's meandering path from Showtime to Freevee and finally to Prime Video, it may have to do primarily with changes at Amazon. Freevee – formerly known as IMDbTV – has long been Amazon's home for ad-supported content, but recently the streamer put ads in all of its content for regular Prime members. That has called into question the need for Freevee to exist at all, and according to Variety, this is not the only sign that Freevee may be losing relevance. Prime Video will also host Bosch: Legacy and Leverage: Redemption – both of which were previously Freevee exclusives.

American Rust Season 2 premieres on Thursday, March 28 on Prime Video. Season 1 is not available to stream at the time of this writing, but Meyers' book is available in print, digital and audiobook formats.