Smoke 1.6: A Perfect Narrative Structure

I usually wait until the end of the season before I post a second review of a TV series for which I reviewed the first episode or two after the series began.  But episode 1.6 of Smoke on Apple TV+ was so remarkable, with such a perfect narrative structure, that I had to say a few words about it now.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Most of this episode is devoted to current and former arson investigators closing in on the disquieting truth, to say the least, that Dave Gudsen (brilliantly played by Taron Egerton), an arson investigator, is himself one of the two arsonists literally lighting up the town, culminating with his last defender, Police Chief Harvey Englehart (well played by Greg Kinnear) finally coming to this conclusion himself.

But as the lights are about to go out for Gudsen, he realizes that Freddy Fasano (brilliantly played by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) is the other arsonist.  Gudsen rushes to the house which Fasano is about to burn down with him and his latest victim inside, and stops Fasano in his tracks with a fire extinguisher.  In other words: at the very moment that Gudsen is about to be denounced and arrested as one of the arsonists, he's become a life-saving hero, in a brilliantly balanced story in which Gudsen is hero and anti-hero at the same time.

His personal portrayal -- his depiction as a man -- is noteworthy and perfectly balanced too.  Earlier in the episode, we find him unable to consummate the encounter with his ex-wife in bed.  At the end of episode, we find him standing triumphant, a superhero, fire extinguisher in hand -- having prevented the blaze and driving Fasano to the ground -- and very clearly aroused.

An episode eminently worthy of an Emmy.

See also Shocker at the End of Smoke's Second Episode

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