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The Star
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
'Smoke' review: Fires up our yearning for a gripping tale
'I only have two things to say. First, manners maketh man. And second, I'm still standing.' Photos: Handout Fire is an organism that waits and watches and breathes, or so a character in the new crime drama Smoke tells us. Indeed, with its crafty use of angles and pyrotechnics, the show makes its blazes seem almost... sentient, and nasty, spiteful try Googling that opening phrase, and the AI assistant immediately stresses that fire is NOT an organism. Whatever you do, though, don't Google the true crime podcast on which this one is based, if you don't want your enjoyment of (at least) the first two episodes to be ruined. Those unfamiliar with the case would probably, to a viewer, have to pick their jaws up off the floor by the time the credits roll. Those who know it might find themselves picking out various liberties taken by co-showrunner/writer Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone) in bringing the case to the screen. Whichever group you are in, there is still a lot to keep us invested as Lehane sets up the pieces, motivations, back stories and character dynamics of this deliberate, compelling, (semi-)true crime offering. Transplanted from the actual case setting to the fictional US Pacific North-west town of Umberland, Smoke has arson investigator Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton, the Kingsman movies, Rocketman, Lehane's Black Bird miniseries) and police detective Michelle Calderon (Jurnee Smollett, Lovecraft Country, Underground, Birds Of Prey) tracking down two serial arsonists. It wastes no time revealing one of the culprits to viewers, but teases us as to the identity of the other. 'The narrator was right, this darn fire seems to be alive and mad as heck.' Smoke successfully humanises this first suspect, Freddy (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Heroes, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Chi), with his sympathetic circumstances offering a precarious fulcrum on which his ruthless actions rest (and pivot). Meanwhile, for most of the initial two episodes, anyway, we get to see Gudsen and Calderon's developing partnership and their respective backgrounds and current situations, which are not entirely healthy and factor in the characters' actions and reactions. The two leads settle into their partnership smoothly and comfortably enough, although the people in their lives – including Gudsen's wife Ashley (Hannah Emily Anderson, soon to be seen in Return To Silent Hill) and Calderon's ex-lover Burke (Rafe Spall, Trying) – remain on the fringes, mostly. Until their respective influence/pressures on our lead characters take a startling toll in the last third of Episode Two, anyway. Its slow... build (hah, thought I was going to say "burn", didn't you) pays off in spades at this point, leaving us salivating for the rest of the week until a new episode drops, yet also satisfied by the storytelling and the leads' deftness in putting us immediately at ease with their characters, insecurities and all. Above all, highly curious about where Lehane and Co. will take this next (yes, I'm steadfastly refusing to look up the real-life case.) With nine episodes slated for this one, expect that feeling of being on tenterhooks all week long to continue well into August. A new episode of Smoke arrives every Friday on Apple TV+.
Japan Today
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
Arson ignites the Dennis Lehane-created Apple TV+ firebug series 'Smoke'
By MARK KENNEDY Author and screenwriter Dennis Lehane has a healthy respect for the power of fire. He learned that the hard way — surviving a house fire in Boston in his 30s. Lehane was living on the top floor of an apartment building when a propane tank on the roof exploded and started a blaze. The landlord was replacing the building's smoke detectors at the time so none were working. Lehane is lucky to be alive and he credits, in part, the flames. 'If you're trapped in fire — if you wake up and the building you're in is on fire — it's up to the fire at that point. It's really up to whims of the fire, whatever's going to happen to you. And I find that lack of control fascinating.' Lehane, whose literary canon includes the novels-turned-movie hits 'Gone, Baby, Gone' and 'Mystic River,' has turned to fire for his latest project — Apple TV+'s new nine-episode crime drama 'Smoke.' It debuts Friday. It's based on the true story of a former arson investigator who was convicted in 1998 of serial arson, captured in part after he wrote a novel about a firefighter who was a serial arsonist. The case — chronicled in the 2021 podcast Firebug — sparked something in Lehane. 'I just thought, that's just the height of craziness. Like, you're not only in denial about who you are, you're so far in denial you're going to write a book about what a great guy you are and then use the fires that you set as the models for the fires in your book?' he says. 'I can get in the zip code of that mindset; I cannot land on the street, though." The show marks a reunion between Lehane, Greg Kinnear and Taron Egerton, who previously worked together on the 2022 Apple TV+ series "Black Bird." It also stars Jurnee Smollett, Anna Chlumsky and John Leguizamo, and boasts an original, eerie song by Radiohead's Thom Yorke called 'Dialing In.' Egerton plays Dave Gudsen, an arson investigator in Umberland, a fictional town in the Pacific Northwest, who is chasing two separate firebugs. He's teamed up with a smart but troubled detective played by Smollett, who begin a game of cat and mouse. If the setup sounds like it leads to a typical TV procedural, viewers who stick around get rewarded by a show that gets weirder and more complex, infused by Lehane's attraction to moral ambiguity. 'We walk with contradictions and I think that's the dramatic irony that Dennis is exploring.' says Smollett. 'These people are saying they're fighting to do the right thing and yet they're morally questionable. I think that's very relevant today.' Edgerton's Dave, it's soon clear, is not who he appears to be and has an almost superhuman ability to compartmentalize aspects of his personal and private lives. He is both bombastic and insecure, goofy and frightening. 'Taron has endless reservoirs of talent to draw on. He's an extremely inspired actor,' says Lehane. 'He comes at it from the same place I come at it, which is Taron won't take a role unless some part of it scares him. I won't tell a story unless some of it scares me." Egerton said he relished a chance to show a different side of himself, rebelling a little at his safe, good-guy public persona after the success of his heroic turn in 2024's 'Carry-On.' 'You know what? I'm not that affable. I am sometimes, but I'm not some of the time,' he says, laughing. 'I think the thing I love about Dave is there is a tension between what the perception of him is and who he really is. And how can you ever really know who a person is?' Adding to the series' allure is some of Lehane's street poetry, like the line: 'Whatever you do, whatever you know, however much lifetime wisdom you've accrued, fire puts a lie to it all.' Smollett was onboard after an initial conversation with Lehane in which he said: 'So many of us say we want to be happy and yet we are drawn to the very thing that will destroy us.' That was Smollett's entry point to her gloriously messy character. Smollett's detective, a former Marine, refuses to be vulnerable, is excellent at her job, traumatized by a past experience with arson and not afraid to mess with anyone. Early on, she is shown using a sledgehammer to her own home. 'She plays with fire,' says Smollett. 'She's living on the edge and has this mask and this guard up and walks around as if she's invincible because she's really just afraid." Lehane says with 'Smoke' he's drawn to people who invest in a narrative of who they choose to be rather than be true to who they really are. 'You don't know who they are because they don't know who they are,' he says. 'They're running from themselves, they're running from their true selves. And I felt like that's the interesting story here I'm trying to tell.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
RTÉ News
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Need a new thriller series this weekend? Try Smoke
"Whatever you do, whatever you know, however much lifetime wisdom you've accrued, fire puts a lie to it all." Author Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, Shutter Island, The Wire) has reteamed with his Black Bird star Taron Egerton for Smoke, a nine-part series on Apple TV+. The writer and actor are in the best of company: joining them is Jurnee Smollett, best known for Friday Night Lights, True Blood, and Lovecraft Country. Chances are you'll be spending a lot of time with the three of them in the weeks ahead. This is quite the power trio, and their show has everything you look for in a new flame. In Smoke, Egerton's fire department investigator Dave Gudsen and Smollett's police detective Michelle Calderon team up to catch two serial arsonists - and both of their careers are at stake. Gudsen has drawn a blank in his work for over a year while Calderon's secondment is effectively a CV-destroying move after an affair with her boss. Things get off to a shaky start, but amidst the paperwork, put-downs, and ashes, a partnership begins to take shape. Gudsen tells Calderon that serial arsonists "tend to be powerless in their own lives", and from the get-go Smoke introduces us to one of them, fast food worker Freddy Fasano, who is excellently played by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (Blood Diamond, Heroes, The Lincoln Lawyer). So, we get Fasano's backstory as Gudsen and Calderon try to put a face to his fires. You'll just have to watch to find out more about the other arsonist. With great chemistry between Egerton and Smollett, Smoke moves fast and deftly combines the professional and the personal to create one of the more intriguing procedurals of recent telly times. What's above covers the first two instalments, which Apple TV+ has made available now. New ones will follow every Friday until 15 August.
Arab Times
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab Times
Arson ignites Lehane's firebug series ‘Smoke'
NEW YORK, June 26, (AP): Author and screenwriter Dennis Lehane has a healthy respect for the power of fire. He learned that the hard way - surviving a house fire in Boston in his 30s. Lehane was living on the top floor of an apartment building when a propane tank on the roof exploded and started a blaze. The landlord was replacing the building's smoke detectors at the time so none were working. Lehane is lucky to be alive and he credits, in part, the flames. 'If you're trapped in fire - if you wake up and the building you're in is on fire - it's up to the fire at that point. It's really up to wthe hims of the fire, whatever's going to happen to you. And I find that lack of control fascinating.' Lehane, whose literary canon includes the novels-turned-movie hits 'Gone, Baby, Gone' and 'Mystic River,' has turned to fire for his latest project - Apple TV+'s new nine-episode crime drama 'Smoke.' It debuts Friday. It's based on the true story of a former arson investigator who was convicted in 1998 of serial arson, captured in part after he wrote a novel about a firefighter who was a serial arsonist. The case - chronicled in the 2021 podcast Firebug - sparked something in Lehane. 'I just thought, that's just the height of craziness. Like, you're not only in denial about who you are, you're so far in denial you're going to write a book about what a great guy you are and then use the fires that you set as the models for the fires in your book?' he says. 'I can get in the zip code of that mindset; I cannot land on the street, though.' The show marks a reunion between Lehane, Greg Kinnear and Taron Egerton, who previously worked together on the 2022 Apple TV+ series 'Black Bird.' It also stars Jurnee Smollett, Anna Chlumsky and John Leguizamo, and boasts an original, eerie song by Radiohead's Thom Yorke called 'Dialing In.' Egerton plays Dave Gudsen, an arson investigator in Umberland, a fictional town in the Pacific Northwest, who is chasing two separate firebugs. He's teamed up with a smart but troubled detective played by Smollett, who begin a game of cat and mouse. If the setup sounds like it leads to a typical TV procedural, viewers who stick around get rewarded by a show that gets weirder and more complex, infused by Lehane's attraction to moral ambiguity. Contradictions 'We walk with contradictions and I think that's the dramatic irony that Dennis is exploring,' says Smollett. 'These people are saying they're fighting to do the right thing and yet they're morally questionable. I think that's very relevant today.' Edgerton's Dave, it's soon clear, is not who he appears to be and has an almost superhuman ability to compartmentalize aspects of his personal and private lives. He is both bombastic and insecure, goofy and frightening. 'Taron has endless reservoirs of talent to draw on. He's an extremely inspired actor,' says Lehane. 'He comes at it from the same place I come at it, which is that Taron won't take a role unless some part of it scares him. I won't tell a story unless some of it scares me.' Egerton said he relished a chance to show a different side of himself, rebelling a little at his safe, good-guy public persona after the success of his heroic turn in 2024's 'Carry-On.' 'You know what? I'm not that affable. I am sometimes, but I'm not some of the time,' he says, laughing. 'I think the thing I love about Dave is that there is a tension between what the perception of him is and who he really is. And how can you ever really know who a person is?' Adding to the series' allure is some of Lehane's street poetry, like the line: 'Whatever you do, whatever you know, however much lifetime wisdom you've accrued, fire puts a lie to it all.' Smollett was onboard after an initial conversation with Lehane in which he said: 'So many of us say we want to be happy and yet we are drawn to the very thing that will destroy us.' That was Smollett's entry point to her gloriously messy character. Smollett's detective, a former Marine, refuses to be vulnerable, is excellent at her job, traumatized by an experience with arson and not afraid to mess with anyone. Early on, she is shown using a sledgehammer to her own home. 'She plays with fire,' says Smollett. 'She's living on the edge and has this mask and this guard up and walks around as if she's invincible because she's really just afraid.' Lehane says with 'Smoke' he's drawn to people who invest in a narrative of who they choose to be rather than be true to who they really are. 'You don't know who they are because they don't know who they are,' he says. 'They're running from themselves, they're running from their true selves. And I felt like that's the interesting story here I'm trying to tell.'
Boston Globe
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Smoke' stretches too much story over too many episodes
'Smoke' was created by Dennis Lehane, the Boston native and author of twisty thrillers ('Mystic River,' 'Gone Baby Gone') that routinely get adapted into movies. He also developed the 2022 Apple TV+ limited series ' The Lehane world is unforgiving, especially when two serial arsonists are at large, each with a different M.O. One, Freddy Fasano ( a spooky, deeply interior Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), uses milk jugs full of gasoline, topped off by the grease he accumulates at his dead-end job as a fry cook. The other likes to flick lit, carefully doctored cigarettes and watch the world burn. Could this second firebug be Gudsen? We get the answer early on in the nine-episode series, though proper spoiler decorum prevents me from definitively disclosing. Let's just say where there's smoke there's never mind. Advertisement Taron Egerton in "Smoke." Apple TV+ Inspired by the true crime podcast 'Firebug,' 'Smoke' is one of those nine-episode stories that could have easily fit into a five hour container, or even the two-hour running time that has treated so many Lehane tales well. Secondary characters and storylines pile up, and sometimes border on the ridiculous; at a certain point, the fires become less dangerous than the sharks the series must jump as it heads down the stretch and tries to find a way to wrap everything up. This is one problem with stretched-out storytelling: the more you add, the more you must resolve. 'Smoke' starts pretty strong before it starts writing checks it can't cover. Then, the twists, the sensations, and the spectacle take precedence over coherence. Lehane can do twists quite well; I'm a big fan of 'Shutter Island,' which ends by having the viewer questioning her or his own sanity. Here, however, the effect is more like Shyamalan-lite, with a little dollop of Michael Bay on top. Both Shyamalan and Bay, of course, can be fun, and so can 'Smoke,' even when it aspires to maximum grimness. Lehane and his writing staff prove adept with dialogue and character, although the people in 'Smoke' run out of places to go, and the best villain goes away far too early, and with little fanfare. Advertisement Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine in "Smoke." Apple TV+ Mwine's Freddy Fasano wanders into 'Smoke' like a ghost and haunts every moment of his screen time. He speaks in the mumbling whisper of a man not for this world, and who never found any footing in it. The chicken joint where he works is depicted as a mundane circle of hell; as Freddy stares at his tasks with dead eyes, dreaming of infernos to come, we can't help but think about one of the reasons the series gives for why firebugs commit their crimes: It's the only time they feel any power over their surroundings. Or, to quote the opening line of Ray Bradbury's novel 'Fahrenheit 451,' 'It was a pleasure to burn.' 'Smoke' is a work of jocular bleakness, and you can pick a couple of musical bits to represent this schism. The first is Thom Yorke's 'Dialing In,' written and recorded for the series, which plays over the opening credits. It's a gorgeously gloomy, shimmering and minimalist dispatch from a cold, dark place, the kind of song Radiohead's frontman mastered many years ago but never grows old. It does the series proud. Not so much a climactic scene that finds Gudsen and Calderone driving into the middle of a sprawling blaze to the tune of… Advertisement SMOKE Starring Taron Egerton, Jurnee Smollett, Greg Kinnear, Hannah Emily Anderson, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Rafe Spall, and John Leguizamo. On Apple TV+. Chris Vognar, a freelance culture writer, was the 2009 Nieman Arts and Culture Fellow at Harvard University.
