“ Smoke ” gives us a completely different side from Taron Egerton with his frightening performance to date

Publisher’s note: The above contains spoilers for the smoke episode 5.

Regarding the best young players who work today, Taron Egerton is at the top of the list. He first drew public attention as eggs Kingsman: secret servicesWhere he showed his charm, his comic timing and his potential for a star of action. He has since proven his versatility with his golden turn in gold as icon Elton John In Rocket And in the action film Netflix Continue. But it was his first major television role in Apple TV + Black birdCreated by Dennis LehaneIt gave the public an overview of The darker and more intense side of Egerton’s talent.

Now, Egerton finds Lehane for SmokeAnother Apple TV + series which reveals a completely different side of the actor. Egerton plays Dave Gudsen, a former firefighter who has become an investigator of a criminal fire who slowly begins to decline. First of all, Smoke presents itself as a slow combustion prestige drama, centered around a Gudsen mystery and its partner Michelle (Smollett Jurnee) try to resolve. But as the season takes place, the truth about who is really Dave begins to emerge, and Egerton’s performance becomes even more rivet And rather disturbing sometimes. Smoke is far from your typical criminal thriller, and Egerton’s scary and scary work is a major reason.

The character “ smoked ” from Taron Egerton is his darkest role to date

When the public meets Dave Gudsen for the first time, it is clear that he has gone through something traumatic and that he always wears it with him. As an increase in criminal fire, he tackles his work with intensity, But there is something slightly out of him From the start. He spends a lot of time telling a book on his phone, suggesting a certain illusion or personal importance. It can be praised, even pretentious, in the seriousness of itself. When he meets his new partner for the first time, Michelle, there are tensions, but it seems that they could do a decent team.

This impression is quickly broken when the show drops its first major turn: of the two pyromaniacs they hunt, Dave is one of them. After a disturbing moment at home with his girlfriend and his son, where he clearly switches on, we see a flash of the real Dave. It is in short but frightening, and Egerton the clue. A few moments later, he entered with casualness in a grocery store and sets the aisle of potato chips on fire before moving away unnoticed.

From that moment, we look at a very different character. In lower hands, Dave may have been immediately detestable, but Egerton makes almost impossible to look away. His natural charisma hides the deeper instability of the character – he is beautiful, disarming and can hold a conversation, but there is always something that simmers just below the surface. Egerton is just leaving enough of this darkness to cross to create a feeling of discomfort that persists in each scene. It is a performance full of subtle threat, and Only a really qualified actor could make a character as disturbing so credible. While the season takes place, episodes 4 and 5 so far provide Egerton with its richest equipment to date, and it is absolutely delivering.

Taron Egerton’s performances become even darker in “smoke”

Once the public learns Dave’s dark secret, that he is one of the incendiaries that he is supposed to hunt, all bets are disabled. We expect to hate him, to be rejected. But there is something in the performance of Taron Egerton which continues to attract us. You can’t root Dave, but you can’t look away either. The charisma of Egerton does not soften Dave’s actions, but it makes them more difficult to predict, which only adds to tension.

Episodes 4 and 5 take off even more diapers from the twisted psyche of Dave. In episode 4, after another tense exchange with his girlfriend, he leaves with the intention to trigger another fire – only to be thrown unexpectedly by a woman he meets in a grocery store. The following is one of the most disturbing sequences of the show. During a meeting tinged with BDSM, with the woman with blindfolded eyes, Dave begins to taunt her, dancing David Bowie In a moment that evokes The silence of the lambs in the most disturbing way. Then, in a shocking escalation, he pours a flammable liquid on his stomach and sets him up. It is unscathed and exalted, but the whole scene is frightening, made even more annoying by the masterful balance of Egerton of seduction and threat.

In episode 5, Dave heads for a conference and flirts openly with a woman there, played by Erin Karpluk. It is the most charming that we have ever seen, which offers another disturbing layer to his character. But when we learn that this woman is one of her ex-women, The whole interaction is recontextualized. What looked like a spontaneous attraction is actually a disturbing role -playing play rooted in manipulation and highlights Dave sociopathy.

The sequence is interspersed with Michelle increasingly suspicious and digging more deeply in Dave’s past. While Michelle begins to discover the truth, especially after talking with Dave’s former partner, Ezra (John Leguizamo) –The complete horror of who is Dave appears. She listens to the audio book he tells and is disgusting by what she hears: delusional and narcissistic ramblings being relaxed with violence. Ezra, who knows that Dave is an incendiary, is haunted by the things that Dave forced her to do. The last shocking moments of episode 5, which leave the fate of Dave uncertain after a car accident, add another layer of tension and complexity.

Taron Egerton’s work Smoke is a career detour of the best possible way. It is dark, a little bizarre and intentionally off -putting, and that proves exactly why he is one of the most exciting actors who work today. Smoke Perhaps is not the kind of show that dominates the prices that chat at the moment, but The intrepid transformation of Egerton into Dave Gudsen is impossible to ignore.

New episodes of Smoke Are available on Fridays to broadcast on Apple TV +.

Smoke

Release date

June 26, 2025

Network

Apple TV +

Directors

Kari Skogland