Series – arsonist John Orr: The towers are in embers

When the fire investor Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton) is provided by the policewoman Michell Calderon (Jurnee Smollett), he is anything but enthusiastic. But soon the two seem to understand each other. They are supposed to track down a serial fireister that keeps a city in the northwest of the USA through fires in shopping malls and residential areas.

The fabric was filmed in 2002 by HBO with Ray Liotta in the leading role under the title “Points of Origin”. The “Smoke” series is loose on the podcast “Firebug”, which tells the story of the real arsonist John Orr. The firefighter and fire investigator from Southern California took around 2,000 fires in the course of several decades, most of them in the 80s, and staged himself as a hero in the event of fire fighting and education. In his book “Points of Origin”, Orr wrote about his supposedly heroic life as a fire investigator with numerous information that only the perpetrator could know. Orr considered this to be great literature, but above all it helped to convict him.

Series maker Dennis Lehane, who also worked as a screenplayer for the cult series “The Wire”, tells an incredible story about a man who can mostly pretend, but the facade is slowly crumbling. This is exciting for the spectators and is staged in an exciting way and beyond predictable platitudes, which has to do with great acting.

There are no model figures, trauma all have here.

All characters, including a shaken fire investigator called Esposito (John Leguizamo), who eventually teamed up with others to get the serial offender on the route, have their own corpses in the basement, suffer from trauma and are not model.

The investigator Michell Calderon, for example, was closed as an eleven -year -old by her mentally ill mother in a closet when the residential building was set on fire. In the case of hearing hearing, she defends herself massively that her mother is released again. Her colleague Dave Gudsen also suffers from a fire trauma from an earlier effort.

Fires and the associated destruction are staged in this series and sometimes disturbing. Against the background of numerous fire disasters in the USA and Canada, this has further explosiveness in recent years and currently again: is there a way to get this apocalyptic events with protective measures and control? This question keeps asking themselves firefighters and fire investigators.

The fire brigade has been an integral part of the US culture industry since 9/11, with many series down-to-date heroic stories about this profession. This does not make “Smoke” – the hero status of the firefighter and the fire investigator is rather questioned here.

The social conflicts of the individual figures are supporting elements of this crime story, such as Gudsen’s difficult relationship with his wife and her son from first marriage or the relationship between Michell with a superior: Even without crime, this nine -part would be a social drama that is under the skin.

In several, cleverly interwoven action strands, “Smoke” also tells of precarious work and living conditions, about the longing for control over one’s own existence beyond a foreign determination and the inability to get involved with the offers of solidarity support. The fire, which is all on the trail of the fire, is not the only serial fire poller …

The gloomy story ends with the same as rapidly and astonishing finals and is absolutely worth seeing.

»Smoke« on Apple TV+ from June 26th.