The first thing that came to mind when watching the first two episodes of Apple TV+’s new miniseries, Smoke, was, “Boy, does this remind me of Black Bird.” The latter is Dennis Lehane’s 2022 miniseries starring Taron Egerton as a complicated man with a dark edge beneath his handsome and confident exterior, while the former is Lehane’s 2025 miniseries starring Egerton as a complicated man with a dark edge beneath his handsome and confident exterior. To be fair, it’s not like both shows are carbon copies of each other — Smoke’s visual identity, especially the jaw-dropping cinematography, is worth the watch alone. However, it’s undeniable that the two miniseries share the same DNA, a willingness to explore the inner psyche of troubled men living on the fringes of society, whether voluntarily or not. The themes make for riveting television, and Smoke is cut from the same insightful, eerie, morbidly funny, and biting cloth as Lehane and Egerton’s 2022 limited series.
What Is ‘Smoke’ About?

A bestselling author whose works have been adapted into successful, Oscar-nominated features like Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River and Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone, Lehane created the show inspired by the podcast Firebug by Truth Podcasting Corp, which was in turn based on the real-life crimes of arsonist John Leonard Orr. Smoke stars Egerton as Dave Gudsen, a detective and arson investigator on the trail of two serial arsonists in the Pacific Northwest. Begrudgingly and at the insistence of his boss, Harvey Englehart (Greg Kinnear), Gudsen teams up with detective Michell Calderon (Jurnee Smollett) to help in the investigation. Calderon has a story of her own, including a complicated dynamic with her boss, Steven Burk (Rafe Spall), and a troubled past that still haunts her. The show also stars John Leguizamo and Anna Chlumsky, neither of whom show up for the first four episodes, and Hannah Emily Anderson as Dave’s wife, Ashley. TV veteran and Emmy nominee Adina Porter has a pivotal role, too — in fact, I wish she had more to do. However, the real standout in the cast is Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine as Freddy Fasano, a meek, insecure, and silent man who works at a fast food chain restaurant and dreams of ascending the corporate ladder.
‘Smoke’ Succeeds on the Strength of Its Excellent Cast

As in Black Bird, Smoke rises on the strength of its cast. Coming off the wild success of Netflix’s Carry On, Emmy nominee and Golden Globe winner Egerton is reliably great here. It’s also a different role from what we’ve seen him do; Dave has all the trademarks of an Egerton role — charm, cockiness, confidence, undeniable allure, and just a hint of edge to differentiate fro the countless other “cool, broken men” on prestige television. However, Dave also has a darkness within him, and the show’s trailer isn’t shy about spoiling that particular plot point, a choice that I find wild, to say the least. Egerton is very obviously enjoying his time on the dark side, from his bizarre and often eyebrow-raising accent to his more subtle choices, especially in Dave’s quieter, more unsettling moments. Emmy nominee Smollett, best known for the show Lovecraft Country and for playing Dinah Lance in Birds of Prey, is equally great here as a tortured and tough detective who keeps things close to the chest. It’s not an easy role — Michell is confrontational, slightly brash, and too haunted to be a fully functional detective, but Smollett keeps her character grounded by being openly vulnerable, even in the harshest moments. Kinnear and Spall have little to do other than be in Dave and Michell’s periphery, but whenever they’re there, the show gets a bit more lively. Similarly, Leguizamo and Chlumsky are disappointingly wasted in roles that amount to little more than support for the main investigation.

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As mentioned, though, Mwine is the one to watch. As in Black Bird, where Paul Walter Hauser stole the show from out of everyone’s nose and got an Emmy for his performance, Smoke is a real showcase for Mwine. Freddy Fasano is both a victim and something far more sinister, and Mwine’s performance does justice to the dilemma. It could be easy for the role to seem gimmicky; indeed, in the hands of a lesser actor, Freddy could very easily fall into dangerous tropes. However, there is a real and compelling quality to Mwine’s work; he is detached but full of longing, envious but desperate to belong to something or someone. More than one will draw parallels between Hauser and Mwine, I’m sure, and the roles do indeed share a few too many superficial similarities. However, Mwine’s work is simply too magnetic, flashy without being commanding; he stands out without trying, and gives Smoke a real wildcard.
‘Smoke’ Is a Solid Drama With Striking Visuals

Image via Apple TV+

Lehane is too good a writer to produce anything less than riveting. Smoke is no different from his previous work, literary and otherwise, to both its benefit and detriment. It has solid writing and a compelling enough mystery, even if it’s missing the bite of some of Lehane’s best works. Indeed, there is a familiarity to not only the writer’s previous works but to other prestige television miniseries about law enforcement looking for a criminal too smart for them. It’s not like the show doesn’t have a few ingenious narrative tricks up its sleeve, but they don’t exactly knock it out of the park. Dave’s writing ambitions lead to some insightful lines about the nature of fire and humans’ response to it, and a few funny jokes about the sheer ineptitude of his literary abilities, but the framing device gets stale rather quickly. Similarly, Michell’s haunted backstory is intriguing but too vague to amount to anything tangible within the show’s first six hours. In some things, especially in the reveal of the arsonists’ identities, Smoke walks in strides, yet the interpersonal drama moves at a glacial pace until it eventually takes a backseat to the criminal investigation. The balance between the crime and human dramas could definitely use a bit more finesse. Visually, the show is peak prestige television. The numerous shots inside the fire, including a truly spectacular opening sequence that’s so enveloping that it may very well fool you into feeling fire’s hot kiss on your cheek, are perfectly executed, with stunning, vivid cinematography. In Smoke, fire is another character, ever-present and always lurking, ironically, from the shadows. Similarly, director Kari Skogland packs quite a punch in the debut episode, including a particularly energetic sequence from the arsonist’s POV. Details like these give Smoke a real spark, keeping things going at a nice pace even when the narrative is taking its time.
‘Smoke’ Is Certainly Worth Your Time

Image via Apple TV+

Smoke needs a bit more heat to turn the fire from merely hot to truly scorching. All the elements are there, but the spark is missing to truly kick them into overdrive. The show has the opposite problem to Black Bird: whereas the 2022 show could’ve used an extra episode, Smoke has two too many. That said, the nine-episode miniseries is a nice change of pace from the usual six-episode format currently dominating streaming. To the show’s credit, a lot of the best character-driven drama happens in the middle, an approach that wouldn’t work in a shorter season. Despite its shortcomings, ambition-wise, there is simply too much talent in Smoke for it to be anything other than nine great hours of television from a streamer that consistently delivers brilliant miniseries that sadly remain underappreciated. It might not be an instant smash hit like other shows that become addictive from the get-go, and a few too many similarities to Black Bird might make it seem a bit been-there-done-that, but in the end, Smoke is nothing less than a carefully assembled crime drama.

Smoke

Apple TV+’s Smoke, starring Taron Egerton, is a riveting crime drama miniseries that’s certainly worth your time.

Release Date

June 26, 2025

Network

Apple TV+

Pros & Cons

Solid work from Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett.
A scene-stealing, fascianting performance from Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine.
Stunning, vivid cinematography, especially in the scorching fire scenes.

The writing can feel a bit familiar, especially compared to Lehane’s previous work.
The narrative could use more heat to keep the fire going.

Smoke will debut its first two episodes on Apple TV+ on June 27, with subsequent episodes dropping on a weekly basis.