Taron Egerton Follows the Fire in a Sneak Peek From Apple TV+’s Hot New Crime Drama [Exclusive]

Taron Egerton is not playing it safe. With Apple TV+’s Smoke, the Emmy-nominated actor reunites with Black Bird creator Dennis Lehane for a crime drama that throws procedural rules into the fire — literally. Collider has your exclusive first look at an intense scene from Episode 3, just in time for the holiday weekend. In the sneak peek, Dave Gudsen (Egerton) and Detective Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett) zero in on a new clue at an arson scene — shopping bags. It might not sound like much, but in Smoke, everything means something. As Dave explains the significance of the bags’ colour, the tension between him and Michelle continues to simmer. And considering what we already know by the end of Episode 2 — that Dave is actually one of the arsonists they’re chasing — the scene hits a whole lot harder.

Smoke might look like another cop show on the surface, but that illusion burns away fast. By the end of Episode 2, titled “Your Happy Makes Me Sad,” the series upends the entire crime procedural formula. Instead of asking who did it, we already know: it’s Dave. Now, the question is why — and how long can he get away with it?

The pivot from mystery to character study redefines the series. Egerton’s Dave is a fire investigator with a tragic past, a complicated marriage, and a dangerous secret. Rather than string audiences along with breadcrumbs, Lehane shows his cards early and shifts the tension onto the psychological unraveling of a man trying to investigate crimes he’s secretly committing.

Is ‘Smoke’ Worth Seeing?

Writing for Collider, David Caballero pointed out the positive similarities between Smoke and Black Bird in his review. “Smoke is cut from the same insightful, eerie, morbidly funny, and biting cloth as Lehane and Egerton’s 2022 limited series,” he wrote.

If Black Bird gave us a glimpse of Egerton’s dramatic range, Smoke dives deeper. The Welsh actor plays Dave as a man stuck between two versions of himself — the careful investigator trying to keep his family together and the dark, broken soul seeking power through destruction. Episode 3 sees the pressure mounting. Dave and Michelle grow closer in their investigation, which only increases the audience’s dread. Every shared clue, every flicker of chemistry between them, is colored by the fact that Michelle is hunting her own partner and doesn’t know it yet.

You can watch the first two episodes of Smoke on Friday, followed by a new episode every week until August.