Stream It Or Skip It?

Sometimes shows are atmospheric in nature, where they are just as interested in setting a mood as they are pushing the story forward. A new series by best-selling author Dennis Lehane (who penned the novels Mystic River and Shutter Island, in addition to developing the show Black Bird) is a good example of this. But will viewers sit through the mood-setting scenes even if they don’t push the narrative forward?

SMOKE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “Every fire starts small,” says a voice as we see a lamp catch on fire. “Nah, that’s bullshit,” the voice says. He imagines himself as a firefighter in a raging blaze. “Fire doesn’t give a fuck about your wallet, or the size of your gun, or the dick you wish was the size of your gun,” the voice says.

The Gist: Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton) used to be a firefighter in the town of Umberland, but after being trapped in the house fire he continuously dreams about — his wife Ashley (Hannah Emily Anderson) calls it a nightmare — he is now an arson investigator. He walks into his office and sees that police detective Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett) is already waiting for him. She’s been sent to assist his investigations, especially because he’s been on the trail of two serial arsonists for the better part of a year and hasn’t gotten close to catching them.

Gudsen is understandably wary of the reasons why Calderone is there; he feels that, given she’s gotten her gold shield early in her career, she must have screwed up badly to be assigned to him. His boss, Harvey Englehart (Greg Kinnear), tells him to accept the help, given that he’s been investigating these arsonists on his own.

One arsonist likes to set fire to potato chip displays at supermarkets. Another one puts a jug full of accelerant under the porches of random houses and lights them up.

Gudsen has a sideline: He wants to write about being a firefighter. So he often sits in his car with a notebook and jots down phrases and sentences he might want to use. For her part, Calderone thinks back to what might have gotten her this assignment: She used to sleep with her boss, Steven Burke (Rafe Spall), and when he said he was leaving his family for her, she backed away. To say he was pissed is an understatement.

As they investigate a big-box store fire, which might be the work of one of their arsonists, we follow Freddy Fasano (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), who works at a fast food joint and seems to take out his powerlessness on the random houses where he lights milk jugs on fire.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Dennis Lehane and based on the podcast Firebug, Smoke has a visual and tonal vibe similar to Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. In a lot of ways, the show is like Mare Of Easttown, except with arson.

Our Take: Something about Smoke feels… off. It’s very cinematic and there are lots of dreamy sequences and contemplative stares into middle distance. But as far as its story is concerned, it moves extraordinarily slowly, almost painfully so.

You’d think, with two serial arsonists to try to find, along with the troubled backgrounds of both Gudsen and Calderone, there’d be enough story to move things along quickly. But Lehane either has chosen not to do that or the stories are much simpler than we initially thought. There’s a lot of atmospheric scenes — even the theme song is written by Thom Yorke, the king of atmospheric music — and brief jumps in time. But it doesn’t add up to a story that has any momentum.

It’s not like the show isn’t well-acted with some witty, smart dialogue. But we kept getting frustrated by just how little things moved along. For instance, it’s pretty obvious that Calderone has some issues, but other than a lousy choice of lovers, we’re not sure what that is. Gudsen came away from that fire a changed man, but we’re not sure how.

We’re sure Lehane has those answers for us later in the season, but how patient we’re going to be while we see scenes of people setting things on fire is the big question here.

Sex and Skin: Calderone flashes back to the last time she had sex with Burk, but she’s not all the way naked.

Parting Shot: Sitting in his car, Gudsen searches for a good line, writes it down, and drives off.

Sleeper Star: Greg Kinnear is almost unrecognizable in Englehart’s glasses and mustache, but he definitely has a presence, especially when he warns Gudsen that “If I go, you’ll go” if he doesn’t wrap up at least one of the arson cases. John Leguizamo is also in the cast, though not in the first episode.

Most Pilot-y Line: A fire engineer that Calderone suspects might be behind some of the arsons proves he didn’t do it, all the while calling her an “affirmative action hire.” Wow.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Ultimately, the performances in Smoke will help carry the story as fills in during subsequent episodes. But we do wonder how much patience people will have for the atmospheric nature of the show as the story ramps up.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.