The original post: /r/television by /u/Extension-While7536 on 2025-08-18 03:14:51+00:00.
So…I finished Apple’s Smoke with my wife tonight. I have to say that the ending of this show was unsatisfying, but I would not and cannot say that “Smoke was dogshit”. That’s extreme and reductive. This show, as my wife said, had a LOT of good pieces. It is though the most uneven mystery I’ve watched in a damn long time.
1.Ntare’s performance as Freddy Fasano was haunting, (though his victims’ behavior in episode 6 was insane). The music that played when he lit fires, the look on his faces of childlike wonder as he watched them burn, was crazy, and they did a great job with visuals for him. When Gudsen questions the manager and asks if Freddy’s volatile and he says “Freddy is nothing,” you know exactly what he means after watching Ntare. The episode 7 scene between him and Egerton was gold.
2.Greg Kinnear and Rafe Spall were really strong, Spall especially getting zingers with his scenes, and towards the end I liked Anna Chlumsky’s pairing with John Leguizamo.
3.Smollett and Egerton also had lots of good scenes throughout, and Hannah Emily Anderson was also really strong as Dave’s wife Ashley.
However, so much of this is mixed with moments that completely seem out of character, tonal shifts that don’t work, plot elements that should add up but never do. Impossible behavior is followed by scenes that are grounded and smart, but then we go back again. So Smoke ends up being a truly strange experience, a rickety roller coaster. Do I recommend rickety roller coasters? No, but then again, are they memorable and at times thrilling? Yes!