Smoke Season One Finale: The Partnership from Hell

Just circling back with a review of the Season One Finale of Smoke, which I saw a couple of weeks ago. There's no word yet about whether Apple TV+ will be going forward with further seasons, but I sure hope they do.

Here is some of what I liked best about the finale, and the season in general:

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

1. Taron Egerton's performance as Gudson is mind-blowing and Emmy-worthy.  He manages to be genuinely frightening just by talking, even when he's not setting fires or committing other violence.  In the finale, this is heightened by make-up or whatever the producers did to his face.  The less-handsome Gudson with a slightly bloated face that we see is telling us, what?  That the better-looking arson investigator/arsonist was how Gudson thought of himself, thought that he looked, and what we see at the end is the way he really looks?  Probably.  But whatever the message, it was truly unnerving.

2. Jurnee Smollett's performance as Calderone is also top-notch and memorable.  What we learn about Calderone in the finale and the episodes that led up to it is that she, in her own way, is just as violent, even more so, than Gudson, if not as chilling and terrifying.  But she's willing to break the rules when necessary, including standing by and letting her boss and ex-lover Burke die after she hits him in the neck to repel his sexual advance and he's the on the floor choking.  She's also happy to frame Gudson for the arsons he committed when he seems to have successfully evaded being brought to justice.

So, Gudson and Calderone are indeed a partnership from hell, both a mixture of good and evil in themselves, and even more so when they're operating together.  This compelling and frightening partnership. eminently deserves more screen time!

See also Shocker at the End of Smoke's Second Episode ... Smoke 1.6: A Perfect Narrative Structure

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

Shocker at the End of Smoke's 2nd Episode

Talk about warnings for spoilers: here's one for what follows in my review of the first two episodes of Smoke, which have been up for a few days on Apple TV+.  Indeed, the reveal at the end of the second episode of this new series is one of the biggest I ever remember seeing on any kind of TV series -- broadcast, cable, or streaming -- especially notable because it comes so early in the story.

***

Here it is:  Gudsen, one of the two investigators looking into the two arsonists who are plaguing their city, is himself one of those two arsonists.  We certainly see him setting a fire in a supermarket -- one of the two arsonists' modus operandi -- and smiling afterwards (Taron Egerton, who plays Gudsen, has a uniquely recognizable smile).

But does that 100% mean Gudsen is one of those two arsonists that he and his partner Calderone (very well played by Jurnee Smollett) are investigating?  The TV series is an adaptation of the podcast, Firebug, which tells the story of a real-life firefighter who becomes an arsonist.  But that doesn't mean that Smoke has to follow every part of the true-life story.  Before that final reveal, we see Gudsen very frustrated.   The literary agent he is seeking for the novel he is writing has turned him down.  He doesn't get along well with his adopted son.  Could he have set the fire to vent his emotions, setting it in the way one of the arsonists he and Calderone are investigating sets fires?

If yes, that would mean that Trolley Town is now being set on fire by three arsonists.  But my guess it's more likely that Gudsen is indeed one of the original two arsonists, which is still a wild -- and true -- story indeed.

Carry-On: Do-See

So I just got around to watching Carry-On, a Die-Hard-like roller-coaster of an airport thriller which has been on Netflix since December.

No Bruce Willis in the movie, but Carry-On does have Justin Bateman as an anti-hero, "Traveler," though just outright, contemptible, highly intelligent, ruthless villain may be a more apt description.  The hero (Ethan Kopek) is played by Taron Egerton (Elton John in Rocketman!), and he puts in a very good performance.

The plot is vaguely familiar, though I don't think I've seen anything exactly like Carry-On before.  How do you get a lethal aerosol weapon on board a plane?  You target the pregnant wife of a young TSA screener and tell him you'll kill his wife (who conveniently also works at the airport) if he doesn't let the deadly package go through and on to the plane the bad guys want to destroy.

The movie has plenty of action, all kinds of would-be heroes and outright heroes, including Danielle Deadwyler (Station Eleven) as a rambunctious LAPD detective. There are some good twists and turns along the way, and the movie also has the you-never-know-who's-going-to-die ingredient that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

I won't tell you anything more about Carry-On because I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that if you're looking for a fast-paced, chic car-chase of a movie (and there actually is a car-chase in the movie), one that takes place on Christmas Eve (hence its kinship to Die Hard, and also Black Doves), you can't go wrong with Carry-On.

See also Black Doves: Snow White Thriller

more about The Silk Code here

Rocketman: Half the Story, But Excellent

What better way to start my 2020 reviews with Rocketman - after all, Elton John and I were literally born on the same day (my Wikipedia page, Elton John's Wikipedia page).  And we both make music - though Elton John's exponentially more successful than mine.  And I remember going around to record companies in New York City in 1970 with some rough mixes of Twice Upon a Rhyme, and hearing Elton John's "Your Song" playing in one of them, with everyone in the office standing around and listening to it and loving it.  I did, too.

The movie, of course, doesn't have that scene.  But it has a lot from the first half of Elton John's life, from his rise to extraordinary and well-deserved fame, to going off the rails, to coming back to the world and his life.   I would have rather the movie continued into something closer to the present, with Elton singing at Diana's funeral, writing the music for Lion King, but, hey, that was not the movie director Dexter Fletcher and writer Lee Hall wanted to make, and they did a fine job with this one.  As did Taron Egerton as Elton John - in acting as well as singing - and everyone else in the movie.

If the story seems a little trite - and yet another star deeply unhappy, sometimes getting it back in control, sometimes not - that's because it apparently happens lots of the time.  And the cinematography was especially excellent - as is the stagecraft of Elton's in-person concerts (see my review of a concert my wife and I went to and loved in October 2018 - where he sang all of his songs).  But, speaking of concerts, I wish Rocketman had included a bit of the concert Elton did with John Lennon in 1974 at Madison Square Garden, where they sang Lennon's superb "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" - here's a not-the-greatest quality video of that performance.

But the songs that Taron as Elton sang in the movie were done with panache, and, as long as you don't expect to see and hear everything, you'll really enjoy it.



Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time soon to be released, CDs now available