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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
If You Enjoyed ‘Dept Q', Don't Sleep on New Prestige Crime Series ‘Smoke'
There's a lot of noise around the big blockbusters coming out right now – Fast cars! Dinosaurs! Jonathan Bailey's flip flops! – but while the cinemas are busy whipping themselves into a frenzy, a new prestige drama is quietly dropping onto television screens. As Netflix's recent Dept Q showed, a high-calibre, low-key crime thriller can scratch a different kind of itch, and if you've burned your way through that one, you're in luck: another superior offering is on its way. Smoke, which consists of nine hour-long episodes, isn't set in dreary old Britain/Scotland, but takes place in dreary young America, in an unspecified state. It does, however, star several British actors, including a chisel-jawed Taron Egerton in the lead, who also executively produces the series. Egerton plays Dave Gudsen, an amiable and ominously named firefighter turned arson investigator who is wrestling with memories of the traumatic conflagration that ended his former career. Dave is also getting flak (I stopped myself saying 'heat' – you're welcome) from his boss (an excellent Greg Kinnear) for failing to identify the two serial arsonists who are running rampant through the local area. One of them, 'The Divide and Conquer' arsonist, is setting off simultaneous fires in multiple public locations including supermarkets, so that the fire departments are stretched beyond capacity. The other, the 'Milkjug' guy, is burning down ordinary people's houses with cooking oil, though viewers are given more than a tip-off of who that might be with the introduction of downtrodden fry cook Freddy (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine). Dave, however, is having minimal success tracking down either culprit – in fact, he seems rather distracted by his own literary ambitions, as he's got a schlocky fictionalised memoir on the go – and the situation is raging out of control. The corporation that owns the supermarkets isn't happy and is threatening to take action against the whole department; that, if not people's houses burning down, might be what's needed to light a firecracker up Dave's... (sorry but it's so hard!). What does Dave need? Why, a partner of course! And preferably one towards whom he can feel mild animosity, if not outright contempt. Enter Michelle Calderon (another conspicuous name, from the Spanish for 'cauldron'), played by the impressively self-contained Jurnee Smollett, a detective from a different police force who has been assigned to assist Dave for reasons that aren't entirely clear. Michelle has secrets, including a toxic affair with her former boss (another Brit, Rafe Spall) and some fire-related trauma from her earlier life. She's doing her best to block it out – mostly by exercise – but the past, as we know, doesn't like to stay buried. Of course these elements are all familiar, some might say hackneyed, tropes of the crime genre, but what elevates Smoke – which is based on the true-crime podcast Firebug – is the quality of its cast and, thanks to writer Dennis Lehane (Gone Baby Gone, Shutter Island), who created and wrote the series, its big-swinging script. 'Fire doesn't give a fuck about your wallet, or the size of your gun, or the size of your dick you wish was the size of your gun,' narrates Egerton, presumably quoting from the book Dave's writing in giant letters in his notepad (maybe it's not so bad after all!). It's punchy stuff. Smoke looks great too – all desaturated compositions of sickly grey-greens, with the striking billows of pale yellow when a fire is burning white-hot. And fire really is staggering beautiful, as much as it is terrifying and obliterating and all the other things that get writer-mode Dave so hot under the collar. It's certainly a change to have a drama that focuses on ash dispersal rather than blood spatter. (For a bit of bonus cred, the title track, over elegant sequences of smouldering pages, is performed by Radiohead's Thom Yorke.) That said, there are no dinosaurs, or F1 cars, or flip-flops. But Smoke does have tension, and great performances, and slow-burn simmer. Also, if you stick with it, the promise of some serious twists (and John Leguziamo!) to come. 'Smoke' is now streaming on Apple TV+ with new episodes every Friday You Might Also Like The Best Men's Sunglasses For Summer '19 There's A Smartwatch For Every Sort Of Guy What You Should Buy For Your Groomsmen (And What They Really Want)
BBC News
23-06-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Chios: Wildfires rage on Greek island
A state of emergency has been declared on the Greek island of Chios where five separate wildfires are burning and being fanned by strong in 17 communities have been evacuated and an arson investigation has been launched into what caused the different fronts to start is such a short amount of forest fires broke out on Sunday in the areas of Kofinas, Agia Anna and Agios Makarios. A fourth blaze erupted shortly after midnight in Agios Markos, followed by a fifth front on Monday morning in blaze has already damaged homes, crops and infrastructure on the Aegean island, with local media reporting that several houses have been destroyed. There is a moderate high temperature warning on Chios, with highs of about 30C, but it is expected to get hotter toward the end of the 190 firefighters were operating on the island, supported by 11 aircraft and helicopters. An additional 90 firefighters are also due to arrive from Athens and Thessaloniki, authorities from the island show locals trying to help firefighters, throwing buckets of water on flames and using clothing to try to pat out smaller spot media reported extensive damage to a number of houses and at least one distillery, with some residents saying they had been unable to return to see if their property had been damaged. Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Ioannis Kefalogiannis travelled to Chios, and said after an emergency meeting that he is "troubled and concerned" about the outbreak of multiple fires in different parts of the island "without a clear explanation"."This is something that must be investigated thoroughly," he a team from the fire service's Arson Investigation Unit, working alongside local police officers, has launched an investigation into what caused the local power grid has been damaged by the fires, causing outages in the wider Vrontados area. Teams from the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network (HEDNO) have been sent from the neighbouring island of Lesvos to carry out repairs. Some planned power cuts have also been introduced to support firefighting operations. Water supply issues and damage to infrastructure have also been is the first major wildfire this summer for Greece, which is no stranger to devastating fires and extreme Chios, an intense wildfire in 2012 wiped out more than half of the island's iconic mastic - a tree resin used in cooking and pharmaceuticals - disrupting the global supply of the so-called "tears of Chios".
Associated Press
23-06-2025
- Climate
- Associated Press
More evacuation orders issued as firefighters battle major wildfire on the Greek island of Chios
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities sent new evacuation notifications for two areas near the main town of the eastern Aegean island of Chios Monday morning, as firefighters struggled to control a major wildfire raging on the town's outskirts for a second day. The fire department said 190 firefighters were battling the blaze Monday. They were backed up by 35 vehicles, five helicopters and two water-dropping planes. Strong winds in the area since Sunday have hampered firefighting efforts. Push alerts have been sent to mobile phones in the area urging people to evacuate a total of 16 villages, settlements and neighborhoods on the outskirts of Chios town since the blaze broke out on Sunday. The fire started in three separate locations. Authorities have sent a specialist fire department arson investigation team to the island to look into the causes. Wildfires are frequent in Greece during its hot, dry summers, but authorities have said climate change has been fueling bigger and more frequent blazes. In 2018, a massive fire swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in their homes and on roads as they tried to flee. More than 100 people died, including some who drowned trying to swim away from the flames.
