Some fans on social media say looking at a trailer of Apple TV+’s “Smoke” reminds them of the early ‘90s film, “Backdraft.” While the film and the TV series both have fire as a main theme, “Smoke,” is not about saving lives. It’s really about destroying them.
Loosely based on the “Firebug” podcast that tells the story of John Leonard Orr, an arson investigator convicted of having set thousands of fires in the Los Angeles area over approximately two decades, “Smoke” was written by the prolific novelist-turned-screenwriter-turned-TV writer Dennis Lehane. Lehane’s books “Gone Baby Gone,” “Moonlight Mile,” “Shutter Island” and the Oscar-nominated “Mystic River” became movies. He found further success as a staff writer for the Emmy-winning shows “The Wire” and “Boardwalk Empire.” In 2022, Lehane developed the true crime drama (and fan favorite) Blackbird for AppleTV+. Blackbird starred Egerton, Greg Kinnear and Ray Liotta in his last role.
Egerton (also an executive producer on “Smoke”) and Kinnear are back in “Smoke” with Kinnear convincingly playing gruff police chief Harvey Englehart. Harvey is fiercely loyal to his family and friends, so finding out that the person he mentored may be a monster happens very gradually. Even then, he’s still hoping it’s not so. Kinnear, an Oscar nominee who’s spent a lot of years making films where he is the strong support to the lead, allows his looks to give way to a character with thinning hair and the middle-aged wariness of long working a job with few rewards. It works.
Egerton’s arson investigator Dave Gudsen, is laser-focused on his job, has a nice wife and stepson and appears relatively content. Enter police detective Michelle Calderon (Smollett). She is bright, assertive and extremely career-oriented. We learn that this is in part to be successful, and in part to rise above the misogynistic microaggressions she regularly faces from her male co-workers. When the two are teamed up to track down two arsonists burning up the city, each is wary of the other but eventually lets down their guard to work on the case.
Or so it seems. Is Gudsen’s laser focus because he knows more about these cases than he’s letting on? Is Michelle Calderon’s perfect cop the result of good cop work, or is it because her trauma-filled childhood has led her here? Either way, the fire investigation is drawing them closer together. When Michelle was young, her mom went into some kind of psychopathic rage, started a fire that almost killed her and did indeed kill others. Fuzzy flashbacks show Michelle as a little girl, hiding in a closet as a fire rages somewhere nearby. We see glimpses of her mother’s face caught up in the ravages of her mental state as embers drop around her. Then the adult Michelle once again manages to squash her nightmare and continue with her days as a hard-charging cop. But that childhood helplessness has left her with deep-seated anger that can quickly rise if challenged. The results make for a far less than stellar cop. Make no mistake, she will get revenge. It’s enough to think that she may be one of the two arsonists they are hunting, at least for a moment.
Dave’s a different story. He works by day and writes a book in the evenings. He leans on his wife, a librarian, to read and offer pointers where he needs them. The book is about a fire investigator who also relishes starting fires but no one suspects him. We learn that Dave is feeling a lot of anxiety. He finally admits to his boss (Kinnear) that he doesn’t feel he is measuring up with his wife (played with purposely reserved warmth by Hannah Emily Anderson). Egerton’s characteristic performance gives Dave a smile that is at once many things; it is forced, too bright, desperate and could it also be maniacal?
As the story opens up, we find that no one in “Smoke” is easily likable. No one is without their flaws and secrets. The boss has them, Dave and Michelle’s co-workers have them. Michelle’s family has them, as does Dave’s wife and stepson.
Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, probably best known for “The Chi,” is just scary as a woe-be-gone character without the tools needed to make his life better. His Freddy Fasano is under-educated, works 10-hour days in a greasy fast chicken restaurant where he rarely even gets to come to the front to work the counter. He lives in a rundown apartment he barely sees, has no family or friends, and seems to live inside his head. A part of him wants to break these chains but he doesn’t know how and the darkness hovers. Mwine embodies this character so much so that you forget you’re watching an actor.
Adina Porter (“American Horror Story,” “True Blood,” “The Vampire Diaries”) gives a nail-biting performance as the customer (Brenda Cypus) who tries to save him but like many good samaritans, isn’t expecting her good deed to step into her private life.
British actor Rafe Spall (AppleTV+’s “Trying”) gives a solid performance as Steven Burk, the long-married cop having an on-again, off-again affair with Michelle and he should get out of it, not just for moral/heart reasons but also because it’s clear that he doesn’t seem to know when to stop.
John Leguizamo rounds out the cast in a showy role as a crafty ex-cop pushed out by Dave and pining for a chance to vindicate himself.
Yet the series is led by Egerton and Smollett who seem to be in a character (and actor) duel to the end. Both give performances where they convincingly convey the underlying anger, pain and frustration that neither of their characters can quite grasp or extinguish.
“Smoke” has everything fans of Lehane’s books or TV shows have come to expect, mystery, action, violence, foreboding atmosphere but this series also has dark comedy and bits of fantasy. There are times when you’re not so sure where the fictional Dave’s fictional book ends and this fictional version of a true story begins.
“Smoke” premieres Friday, June 27 on Apple TV+.
The post ‘Smoke’ Review: Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett Make a Begrudging, Dynamic Team in Apple’s Fiery Crime Series appeared first on TheWrap.