Overview

• Smoke launched on June 27 with its first two episodes now streaming on Apple TV+ and will roll out weekly through mid-August.
• The series reunites creator Dennis Lehane and star Taron Egerton after Black Bird, drawing its narrative from the true-crime Firebug podcast about John Leonard Orr.
• Reviewers have praised lead performances by Egerton and Jurnee Smollett while criticizing the show’s deliberate, slow-burn pacing in the opening episodes.
• Executive producers include former HBO executives Kary Antholis and Richard Plepler, and Thom Yorke contributes the series theme, underscoring Apple TV+’s high-end ambitions.
• Set in a moody neo-noir environment, the drama delves into psychological trauma and moral ambiguity as investigators pursue serial arsonists.