Smoke Season 1 Review

Smoke (2025-)

Season 1 - 9 episodes (2025)
Watch the trailer
Created by: Dennis Lehane
Starring: Taron Egerton, Jurnee Smollet, Rafe Spall, Greg Kinnear, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, John Leguizamo
Rated: TV-MA

Plot
A troubled detective and an enigmatic arson investigator attempt to catch two serial arsonists terrorizing the city.

Verdict
The pilot episode is slow, but this picks up soon after as we delve into potential arsonists and why they act out. Most of the season explores the unique dynamic between the troubled leads and their messy personal lives. The tension keeps building as we're provided more details around the question driving the plot, but this creates a finale that stretches credibility too far by taking shortcuts to augment the drama. The final episode leaves you with a negative impression of the show. That and it could stand to shed an episode or two.
Skip it.

Review
Two serial arsonists terrorize a Pacific northwest town. Arson investigator Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton) has developed no suspects when detective Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett) is assigned to arson. They have a great chemistry; they're almost too friendly having just met. Dave has nightmares about when he was trapped in a house fire. Michelle irritated someone to get what is effectively a demotion. They conclude the suspect must be a fireman.

Taron Egerton, Jurnee Smollet play Dave, Michelle

The first episode also introduces fast food employee Freddy Fasano (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine). He must be a suspect or even the culprit with the amount of screen time. I don't think the show would spend this much time on a red herring.

While the first episode is a bit slow, the second episode picks up. Michelle breaks into a suspects home and gets caught. She has to spin a story to conceal her offense. We also get a sneaking suspicion that the suspected fireman arsonist be Dave. That could explain how no suspects have been caught, and that drives the tension between he and Michelle.

Everything Dave does is scrutinized under a new perspective. He's rather private, writing a book, and we learn that his glasses are fake. How much of Dave is a charade? Michelle tracks down Dave's old partner, Ezra (John Leguizamo). Ezra suspected Dave might be the arsonist, though he could never prove it. We get a scene in episode three where Dave forgets to pick up his step son and refuses to apologize. In the ensuing argument, we get a glimpse of what might be Dave's veil breaking. That or maybe it's just his frustration during the argument. Michelle obtains a copy of Dave's book, and it's worse than we could have imagined. Dave is a terrible writer. She, her captain, and Dave's commander Harvey Englehart (Greg Kinnear) launch a secondary investigation involving Dave.

Greg Kinnear plays Harvey Englehart

We begin to notice a pattern of Dave blaming everyone else. At a fire conference, he's upset a woman interrupted his presentation. That's not the problem, it's that he refuses to admit it got under his skin. Dave considers himself infallible. Meanwhile Freddy has become more violent, killing people in his latest fire. Dave gets a lead on Freddy. Instead of sharing information, he attempts to bring Freddy in himself. While that seems like a break in protocol, no one calls him on it. 

Episode seven's scene with Dave interrogating Freddy is intense. Freddy insinuates Dave is an arsonist. While I don't know how Freddy would know such a thing, it's fun drama that confirms what we suspect.

Episodes seven and eight tip too far into the unbelievable. We learn why Harvey has been so quick to defend Dave, and Michelle gets into trouble. This show already had great tension, and this show decides to take it to eleven. Unfortunately it feels like too much. We want to root for Michell and against Dave, and episode eight makes that difficult.

Jurnee Smollet, Taron Egerton play Michelle, Dave

The final episode is the showdown between Michelle and Dave. That culminates in Dave running his car into a rock, sending Michell through the windshield while Dave is protected by an airbag. The passenger side would have an airbag, but when the dust clears she's standing outside of the car ready to take Dave down. Going through the windshield is going to leave her at best dazed and at worse dead. She also has a gun before the crash, and a gun after the crash. Same gun? Second gun? Who knows. It's a wild finale, but it stretches credibility too far. At one point I wondered if the terrible logic was due to we were actually watching scenes from Dave's book, but we're not. It would make more sense. If that wasn't all, a vehicle that was in a crash is searched for evidence. The crash somehow moved the glove box into the engine bay. That also makes no sense.

There's another cheap trick the show pulls about Dave's perceptions of himself. The problem is that this show isn't from Dave's perspective. I thought initially it might be some kind of body dysmorphia, but the show doesn't really land that. It's more of just a gotcha moment.

While the pilot is slow, this picks up in the next episode. The dynamic and tension between Dave and Michelle carries the show, but the series abandons all logic in the finale. I get stretching credibility for drama but this goes beyond what's believable. The lackluster finale makes the rest of the show worse in retrospect.