Smoke premieres Friday, June 27, on Apple TV+. New episodes debut through August 15.
Taron Egerton has played many heroes in different guises over the last decade. Hoodlum-turned-spy. A TSA agent living out his wildest John McClane fantasy. Elton John in the 1970s. But his best opportunity for saving the day and showing off his dramatic chops arrived with Dennis Lehane’s limited series Black Bird; in the new Apple TV+ drama Smoke, Egerton reunites with Lehane to bring down yet another dangerous criminal. But the duo is not in danger of retreading old ground: For example, Egerton is tracking two criminals in the role of arson investigator Dave Gudsen. Though Smoke’s storytelling is bumpier and more abstract than Black Bird’s, Lehane has brought Egerton another role he can thrive in: a self-aggrandizing man with a deep desire to be a savior, whose ambition is hard to extinguish or contain.
Whereas Black Bird saw Egerton playing an incarcerated ex-football phenom tasked with getting a serial killer to confess his crimes, here he’s heading an investigation into two serial arsonists plaguing the fictional Pacific Northwest town of Umberland. Dave was a firefighter who moved into his current line of work after a near-death experience on the job; we get his perspective on the event – and fire in general – in some flowery voiceover. Though director Kari Skogland brings Dave’s walking nightmare to life, the cheesiness of the narration is jarring. This feels like bad screenwriting, until we learn that Dave isn’t just mining his past to aid the case – he’s also writing a novel based on his career. The book expands what I thought would be a standard mystery into an exploration of masculinity, identity, desire, and heroes that ties to the biggest question: Why set fires in the first place?
After months of dead ends, police detective Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett) is brought on board to assist Dave. Their first scenes together are lousy with cop clichés: Michelle is emotionally closed off thanks to a fiery childhood trauma that still haunts her, and her messy personal life is a catalyst for her new assignment. Meanwhile, Dave is reluctant to accept her help or expertise, and it seems like their power struggle might spill over into an affair, aided by more clunky dialogue. (“I quit, but me and nicotine go way back” is but one early howler). No spoilers, but I was pleasantly surprised by how this partnership actually evolves, following a path that intentionally plays on our first impressions of the pair.
The push-pull between them is there from the jump, as they investigate one arsonist who lights stores on fire while they’re open and another who lights milk jugs full of accelerant on the porches of unsuspecting victims late at night. There’s a slipperiness to Dave and Michell’s interactions as each tries to figure out the other, allowing Egerton and Smollett to play with perception and perspective. Some of this mistrust is fueled by ego, some by vulnerability, and both push the parameters of their authority in the pursuit of the truth.
Considering Egerton’s previous leading man roles that embrace action – such as the recent Netflix movie Carry-On and the Kingsman franchise – it isn’t a leap to think Dave is another character who’ll tick those daring boxes. The opening scene takes place in a blazing inferno, cranking up the sense of danger with real flames and Egerton himself taking on the burn-stage stunt. It’s an intense introduction to this character, whose arrogance masks insecurity. Playing confidence comes easily to Egerton, but he’s always doing more than the bare minimum to convey it. Smoke takes this a step further as the story progresses, with Egerton deftly switching his physicality and mannerisms as Dave’s heroic identity begins to unravel. His toothy grin is a Hollywood smile in some scenes, a potential creepy threat in others.
While one of Dave and Michelle’s cases is more of a whodunnit, the other fits the “howcatchem” model of Columbo and Poker Face, revealing the culprit early on: a socially awkward fry cook named Freddy (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine). Having two different storytelling frameworks keeps things varied throughout, but also adds to the disconnect between the two arson threads – even if they ultimately overlap. Smoke dives into the psychology of an arsonist, including how upbringing and circumstances might contribute to a firebug’s pathology. While the intent is there, it takes too long for Freddy to be given a backstory and personality. Still, Mwine sells Freddy’s pain, even when the script doesn’t always give him much to work with.
Egerton's toothy grin is a Hollywood smile in some scenes, a potential creepy threat in others.
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Likewise, Egerton and Smollett are both terrific, as is the ensemble around them, which includes the reliably great Greg Kinnear, Rafe Spall, John Leguizamo, and Anna Chlumsky. Leguizamo and Chlumsky help stabilize Smoke late in the series, their characters – he a rival from Dave’s past, she a mid-investigation addition to the team – teaming up just as the story begins to sag. As Michelle’s police captain, Spall shifts his demeanor between the first episode and the rest of the series, underscoring his range in a role that’s worlds apart from his lead performance on Apple TV+’s parenting comedy Trying. The character is aggressive and short-fused, but brings more to the dynamic than dick-measuring with Dave – though there is also plenty of that. One standout moment between the two men comes during a rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For a Hero” that comes across more like a warning than a celebratory refrain during a party being held in Dave’s honor. Another great sing-along (this time a solo in his car) allows Egerton to show off his Sing- and Rocketman-honed pipes to the perfectly timed tune of Michael Bolton’s “When I’m Back on My Feet Again.”.
Unfortunately, the twisty material in Smoke doesn’t always land; I found myself beginning to second-guess the characters’ interactions, particularly when the tone shifts dramatically and the material swings between grounded and heightened. Horrifying reality clashes with the fantastical, making it hard to trust what we’re seeing. Even if it’s an intentional choice, it sometimes took me out of the story. Still, whenever I worried Smoke was getting too lighthearted or frivolous, there was a reminder of the occupational hazards Dave and crew face. There are several that I still can’t shake from my head.
Smoke is undoubtedly ambitious; it gets even more destabilizing and, for lack of a better word, weird, as it goes on. Watching something so unpredictable is exciting and whiplash-inducing. One moment it’s echoing Mindhunter by showcasing a task force profiling a criminal; the next, it’s taking a page from the glossy, Sutton Foster-poses-as-a-20something publishing-industry dramedy Younger. While giving a safety demonstration, Dave says that fire is akin to chaos, and the same parallel could be drawn for any given episode of Smoke. Ambiguity is welcome, but by the end of the ninth episode, I had more questions than answers, and the lack of resolution for some characters is bewildering. I’m all for showing a range of flawed figures who wear masks to hide their fears and sins, but a tenth episode would have been welcome.
The different story threads in Smoke are like dancing embers flitting between fantasy and reality. Some are quickly extinguished, others slowly smolder, and some ignite into a larger flame, burning through plot hot and fast. Even though the ending falls short, it’s still a solid summer TV offering that tips into a pulpiness that the wannabe novelist at its center can only dream of achieving.
