‘Smoke’: Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett Bring Sparks to Moody Thriller
Alci Rengifo
No streamer beats Apple TV+ in mining for IP that provides the perfect base for another exploration of the darker side of the human condition. “Smoke” is the latest moody offering from the studio, stylishly crafted as it churns out a limited series from the “Firebug” podcast. Creator Dennis Lehane, author of “Mystic River” and “Shutter Island,” takes the true crime source material and intelligently attempts to expand on the psychological dimensions via drama. The hunt for an arsonist also becomes a dissection of the inner scars of the protagonists. Eventually, the good performances stand out apart from a plot that gets much too entangled.
Jurnee Smollett, who tends to be in notable television shows, plays Michelle Calderon, a detective in a Pacific Northwest police force. She’s one of those edgy detectives with private issues to juggle. An affair with her boss Steven (Rafe Spall) ends badly and she still carries the trauma of having survived a fire in childhood, which was started by her mother. She’s then assigned to a new partner, Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton), a former firefighter turned arson investigator. Though their initial introduction isn’t the most comfortable, the duo needs to work together because there are two arsonists at work. One is the Divide & Conquer arsonist and the other the Milk Jug arsonist. D&C has already set off 200 fires. Milk Jug tends to target lower income neighborhoods.
“Smoke” is more atmospheric than kinetic, setting the mood perfectly with a title track written and performed by Thom Yorke of Radiohead and The Smile. Suspense is established early on with the crimes of the two arsonists, sometimes gruesomely when we see what fire does to the flesh of victims. One of the arsonists likes to light potato chip bags on fire in liquor stores, walking away to let the flames spread. The narrative also detours from the two main detectives to focus on a particular suspect, Freddy Fasano (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), a loner operating within society but mentally outside of it. He’s portrayed as a potential ticking time bomb, seeming so meek even when those who know him crack jokes. He can’t work at a fried chicken restaurant without someone spotting him and making a big deal. When Freddy meets a hairdresser, Brenda (Adina Porter), just getting his hair washed takes on a blissful, dreamlike quality. Brenda might just be his first door into normality.
“Smoke” spends much time with such emotional set ups, including with Michelle and Dave. At times they have some of the usual “I know better” banter cop partners are meant to spew, but the show drags out their investigation to explore their psyches. Michelle faces the power imbalance of sleeping with her boss and the racist misogyny of colleagues. Dave is still haunted by vague flashbacks from his firefighter days, including a close call involving a major fire that he uses for lectures on the power of flame. In one curious twist, which feels like the plot is trying too hard, he decides to start writing a book while still chasing after the arsonists, dealing with tensions in his marriage and becoming a single unit with Michelle.
What keeps “Smoke” burning is Smollet’s chemistry with Egerton. Their performances together can be more entertaining than the plot. A weak spot in the series is how showrunner Lehane has to follow the studio dictum of making nine episodes, an hour each, to stretch out yet another story that would have been a decent movie. Instead of getting taught, the show can get slow. It will help that this is a weekly series, so its faults won’t be as glaring as during a binge. “Smoke” sets up an intriguing mystery based around a sort of crime that can truly get frightening. Yet, its real strength lies in good casting that is fireproof.
“Smoke” begins streaming June 27 with new episodes premiering Fridays on Apple TV+.