Smoke: Season 1

I do have to give credit to Apple TV+ for constantly looking to offer its subscribers unique and fresh tales based on stories from all over. But sometimes I'm not entirely convinced by them. That's the camp I find myself in with Smoke, the latest crime drama that follows an arson investigator and a police detective who team up to hunt down two serial arsonists causing havoc in a local constituency.

On paper, Smoke is a pretty faultless albeit safe plot premise. It's a very traditional crime drama, where we follow a story that constantly gets more and more intricate as clues and details shift focus and make spotting the clear culprit all the more challenging. The issue is that Smoke dispels its own cloud of smoke - if you will - very early on, leaving the story to instead become a cat and mouse chase where we see how and when the investigators will catch up with those setting the fires in the first place. The mystery element often attached to these kinds of projects is shattered early on, and what's left is a story that feels like it's missing something along the way, a something that does eventually make its arrival, but right at the very, very last second when it's already far too late. I'm being particularly obscure to prevent treading into spoiler territory, but after just a couple of episodes you will understand what I mean about this show effectively spoiling the surprise a tad too soon.

It's worth saying that it's not nearly a bad plot or story structure, it just lacks a bit of finesse and care, and perhaps could've done with a few more twists and turns before it lifted the curtain on the shock moment that really defines this season at least. Now granted, there are two stories that intersect in Smoke, and it's only one that's affected by this major decision (it is the bigger story though...). The other stands out and is the best part of this show by a good margin.

I'm talking here about the secondary arsonist case, which revolves around Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine's Freddy Fasano. Now, again, Smoke jumps the gun and pretty much spoils that Freddy is a serial arsonist at minute one, but that's fine this time because this story focuses on his motivation and why he does what he does instead. It's a fascinating trip into the psyche of a damaged and emotionally-compromised man and Mwine's performance is the absolute shining light of Smoke. He delivers an uncomfortable, raw, conflicting, and hard-to-process performance that will make you fear and pity Freddy at the same time. It's a brilliant effort that outshines the rest of the cast, including leading stars Taron Egerton as arson investigator Dave Gudson and Jurnee Smollett as police detective Michelle Calderone.

This duo aren't poor at what they set out to achieve, but they never command a scene in the same way that other supporting stars do. Egerton, in particular, offers an unusual and uneven performance where he combines a wavy and obscure accent with a personality that's hard to pin down. Dave Gudson as a character never feels authentic, and while that might be the point in some ways, as a viewer you're often left befuddled. It's perhaps a good thing that there are performances from individuals like Mwine, Rafe Spall, John Leguizamo, and Greg Kinnear too, as they make the overall whole more believable.

The typical excellent Apple TV+ filming and production quality is preserved here, with a great usage of sets and filming angles. However, there's also an odd visual filter that's applied most of the time that gives Smoke a strange washed colour that saps much of the personality. It's a tad ugly, which is quite a surprising thing to say about an Apple production.

So all in all you'll find Smoke to be a bit more hit and miss than traditional Apple TV+ projects. It's not an outright poor drama show, it's simply not up to the typical standards that we come to expect from the streaming service, and that's due to a multitude of reasons, be it performances, plot development and direction, and even the visual aesthetic. Smoke is an okay TV series in a sea of usually great to excellent ones on the streamer.