Smoke, on Apple TV+

If Rober De Niro in Backdraft was the last fire department arson investigator you can remember seeing in movies or TV, you might want to keep it that way. You will definitely remember Taron Egerton in this series, no matter how hard you try to forget him playing arson investigator Dave Gudsen, who never stops talking. During his rare quiet moments, he either grinds out his thinly fictionalized, wish-fulfillment “novel,” or engages in dangerous criminal behavior. Those arson investigations won’t solve themselves—or at least that is what Gudsen hopes in creator Dennis Lehane’s 9-episode Smoke, which premieres tomorrow on Apple TV+.

Gudsen has been investigating not one, but two serial arsonists. One is a nasty serial killer, who uses fire to kill his victims. The other is the D&C, or “Divide & Conquer” arsonist, who takes advantage his competitors’ three-alarm fires to set his own impulsive blazes. So far, Gudsen hasn’t caught either, partly because he happens to be the latter.

Lehane and the battery of co-writers make little secret of Gudsen’s guilt. His new partner, Det. Michell Caderone on loan from the real police, also figures out pretty quickly. Gudsen’s current wife #3, Ashley, does no suspect him of outright criminality, at least not yet, but she is getting pretty tired of his attitude and anger management issues. However, Gudsen’s boss Harvey Englehart remains shockingly cluesless.

As both arsonists grow increasingly reckless, Calderone assembles a task force to catch Gudsen, which includes his former partner Ezra Esposito, whose disgrace Gudsen engineered and her boss, Captain Steven Burk, whom she dumped as her lover as soon as he decided to leave his wife for her. They obviously have a lot of collective baggage, but the two arsonists each have more individually.

Frankly, Smoke probably sounds much more twisty and thrilling than it really is. Unfortunately, it is hamstrung by tonal issues that start with Egerton, who seems to think he is playing the Joker in the latest Batman movie. Seriously, Egerton is so ridiculously over the top, it is impossible to believe anything that comes after the first episode. Yet, it is based on the very real story of John Leonard Orr (an arsonist-arson investigator with literary ambitions), who was the subject of the Firebug podcast Lehane used as source material, as well a true crime book by Joseph Wambaugh.

Egerton was terrific in Lehane’s Black Bird, but he is embarrassingly unintentionally funny as Gudsen. In fact, casting was generally disastrous for Smoke, because Jurnee Smollett is also miscast as Calderone, but not to such a spectacular extent. To give credit where it is due, she even has some poignant moments when processing Calderone’s family trauma and betrayal.

John Leguizamo is on auto-pilot portraying the sleazy Esposito, but at least that works in the dramatic context. Greg Kinnear is the only successful holdover from Black Bird, bringing similar world-weary dignity to Engelhart. Yet, the best work comes from Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine as arsonist #1, whom he portrays as terrifying and pathetic, in equal measure.

It is hard to believe Apple and Lehane are releasing Smoke in its current state, unless they are rebranding it as comedy. It just does not work and it probably could never have worked considering how badly it miscast its two largest roles. Not recommended, Smoke starts streaming tomorrow (6/27) on Apple TV+.