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The Review Geek
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Smoke – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review
Size Matters Episode 5 of Smoke begins with Gudsen about to head out on his Arson Conference. Captain Burke shows up to see Englehart though, waking Gudsen up where he's currently dozing on the sofa. Burke certainly backs Calderone's credentials though, calling himself a 'loyal soldier to the department'. It soon becomes clear that this visit was actually a clever ruse to find information on Gudsen's old partner, Ezra Esposito. With the information in hand, he rings Calderone and lets her know the address. This gives her a solid lead but before she leaves, Emmett pops up, asking about his stepdad. Given he's read Gudsen's novel, he questions whether Michelle is sleeping with him. She's pretty disgusted with the implication, but interestingly, Emmett has the draft of the book and sends it over to her. Thankfully there's an audio version but given his prose, I doubt anybody is going to buy this one on Audible! Gudsen is unaware of all this as he heads to his conference, leaving Michelle to catch up with Ezra. Apparently Gudsen set up Ezra and got him fired because he got too close to the truth. 'I know he's an arsonist and you know it too,' He says. Ezra explains that it's suspicious Gudsen is always at the scene of the crime first and has an uncanny ability to find an inch long incendiary device – literally a needle in a haystack – 17 times at different arson spots. Realizing his jig was almost up, Gudsen got rid of him. Meanwhile, Freddie shows up at work and finds there's a new manager, Dev. He begins spiralling, unhappy that he's not been given the same opportunity and prepping for a big fire that night. Speaking of unhappiness, over at the conference Gudsen's usual fire stunt doesn't go to plan. One of the officers questions Gudsen's methods and embarrasses him in front of everyone. Gudsen grins it off and instead focuses on Reba, a charismatic middle-aged woman at the bar. Naturally, the pair end up in bed together, vibing over the idea of drifting through life and pretending everything is fine. Unfortunately, Gudsen has a little trouble 'standing to attention' and Reba calls Gudsen out for it. He's still hung up over the presentation and she can sense this. It's also here where we learn that Reba is his ex-wife, and she knows how fragile his ego really is. After a night of drinking, Eztra invites Michelle over to his and shows her a video of his 'initiation' with Gudsen. The video is pretty unsettling, depicting Ezra setting fire outside a caravan. Despite being told the place was empty, the caravan had dogs inside. That's not the only arson incident we see this week though. Freddie is back on the hunt, but this time there's a problem. He winds up bursting the jug, spilling liquid everywhere in the park before clumsily getting another jug. Freddie's target happens to be a white couple's place over in Crawford, where he shows up and sets light to their house using six jugs. Englehart phones Gudsen and demands he get on this. Checking out the report online, Gudsen grins and realizes that their arsonist has stepped it up a gear. He realizes that this MO means it was personal for him. In the morning, Michelle leaves after making sure Ezra is okay. Ezra explains that okay is relative, given his whole life is a mess. This interaction though is a nice way of showing where Michelle's life could go if she lets Gudsen get inside her head. Calderone continues to suffer through Gudsen's book, perking up when she hears crucial intel regarding the electrical fires. We then cut back to Gudsen, who goes full-on karaoke mode as he heads back into town in his car. However, he doesn't watch the road and winds up smashing into the side of another car. They don't look in a particularly good way, and the episode ends with everything hanging in the balance. The Episode Review As we hit the halfway point of this series, Michelle Calderone is starting to understand Gudsen is their arsonist. Seeing more context around Ezra and why he's no longer working at the station is a nice inclusion, and it helps to explain what happened to him and why he's not around now. The incident at the conference is a smart inclusion of showing precisely what sort of guy Gudsen is. It's clear that he doesn't respect anybody around him -especially women – and his ego is super fragile. Of course, the show couldn't help but throw in Hollywood's favourite mantra of 'white and pale is stale'. It's not subtle. So far this has very much been a slow burn thriller, and fizzled out a bit after a pretty explosive couple of episodes to start things off. It really does feel like the proverbial deep breath before we plunge into darker waters, and for Apple's sake, lets hope things pick up in the episodes ahead. Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
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+.
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.
Irish Independent
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
‘Smoke' review: This slow-burner is just another cop show – until it suddenly isn't
In the case of nine-part miniseries Smoke (Apple TV+, streaming from Friday, June 27), that temptation is strong. It's a slow-burner, at least initially, that sometimes seems to be testing the audience's tolerance for well-worn genre clichés. It gives us not one, but two troubled protagonists weighed down by hefty personal baggage, as well as a voiceover so cheesy you could serve it on a cracker. Mind you, this turns out to be bits of a novel one of them is trying to write, so the badness is deliberate and fulfils a deeper purpose. If you feel the urge to bail out early, resist it, otherwise you might be missing out on something very special. I say 'might' because all I've watched are the first two episodes, but they end up packing the kind of unexpected wallop that leaves you craving more (binge addicts will have to wait for the rest to drop weekly). Smoke comes with a glittering pedigree. Creator Dennis Lehane, who wrote or co-wrote half the episodes, reunites with Taron Egerton, the star of his earlier Apple triumph, the brilliant miniseries Black Bird. Egerton's co-star is Jurnee Smollett, who was terrific in the regrettably short-lived Lovecraft Country. The support cast includes Rafe Spall and two great old pros whose presence is always welcome: Greg Kinnear and John Leguizamo. Egerton plays Dave Gudsen, a firefighter who became an arson investigator after a terrifying brush with death in a blazing building Egerton plays Dave Gudsen, a firefighter who became an arson investigator after a terrifying brush with death in a blazing building. He's haunted by nightmares about the experience, yet retains an outwardly cheery demeanour for his wife Ashley (Hannah Emily Anderson) and her son Emmett (Luke Roessler) from her previous marriage. Not that the boy cares much. He resents Gudsen's presence and rebuffs his attempts at bonding. Has he seen a side of his apparently amiable stepfather that nobody else has? Gudsen is chasing two unrelated serial arsonists who are lighting fires around the fictional Pacific Northwest town of Umberland. One of them lights milk jugs full of accelerant on the porches of innocent, unsuspecting people late at night. ADVERTISEMENT The other brazenly lights fires in grocery stores while they're still open, always placing the incendiary device among the potato chips. Maybe salty snacks burn faster. The speed at which the fires spread is properly terrifying, and the depiction of the horrific burns the victims suffer is definitely not for the squeamish. After months of dead ends, emotionally closed-off detective and former Marine, Michelle Calderone (Smollett), is brought on board, reluctantly, to assist with the investigation. Her reluctance might stem from the fact that she, too, as shown in fleeting flashbacks, had a bad experience with fire as a child. For reasons not yet clear, Calderone's career has stalled, so she desperately needs the shot at redemption her temporary partnership with Gudsen offers. After an initial wariness of one another, the two begin to forge a good working relationship. Lehane tips his hand early on by revealing the identity of one of the arsonists Lehane tips his hand early on by revealing the identity of one of the arsonists. The milk jug man is a middle-aged African-American called Freddy Fasano (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine). Freddy, who's almost paralysingly shy and speaks in a barely audible mumble, works as a cook at a fast-food chicken joint. It's an extraordinary performance by Mwine, who has you sympathising with Freddy one moment, then unnerved by the euphoric joy he takes from watching a fire raging through the house of a young couple with a baby. Meanwhile, Gudsen and Calderone suspect the other arsonist could be an arrogant firefighter called Stanton (David James Lewis), who always seemed to be absent for work on the dates the grocery store fires were lit. Just as it seems ready to settle into a standard cat-and-mouse thriller, Smoke executes a humdinger of a handbrake turn in the final scene that changes everything we've seen up to that point. A word of warning: Smoke is inspired by a true crime podcast called Firebug (which was the drama's working title). If you don't want the surprise ruined, don't even look it up. Rating: Four stars
