A pretty interesting episode, although not a particularly illuminating one for Jodie Whittaker/Trish. I like the main plot, and this is an instance where a less linear narrative works well.
As the watch assembles to rescue a man from his own misguided proposal attempt, we see hints of fallout from the previous night’s disastrous night out. Through flashbacks, we learn how a boisterous work outing to support fellow firefighter Al in his side gig – cage fighting – went off the rails.
Mostly, this is an excellent episode for Al, played by Gerard Kearns. I always enjoyed Kearns as Ian on Shameless (even if it’s Micky who was my favorite,) and he’s very good here as a guy who feels like he’s always working hard but never measures up. We learned in a previous episode that he’s taken up cage fighting as a way to scrape together extra money for his child support and regain visitation with his son. Yes, the setup is vaguely reminiscent of Ant Man, and yes, it is brought up that, as a firefighter, it’s messed up that Al’s salary is so low that it can’t cover his child support. In the flashbacks, he struggles to deal with the firefighter and cage-fighter parts of his life colliding as the watch turns up to see him fight, and in the present, he attempts to power through a frosty relationship with Kev and prove himself.
As I said, the flashbacks are mostly effective. I think it works to keep returning to the details of this fun night out that took a hard left turn, all the while jumping back to the present where the watch is dealing with a situation that, while a little ridiculous, is also palpably dangerous. There’s a good suspense there, both personally for Al and interpersonally for all these characters who aren’t in a great place right now but still need to literally trust one another with their lives. Plus, the rescue plot features an appearance from Eleanor Matsuura. I spent her first scene wracking my brain trying to figure out where I knew her from, and IMDb gave me the answer – she played Baron Chau on Into the Badlands. And any appearance from a cast member of Into the Badlands is doing something right!
On another note, I feel vindicated about a new tidbit that’s revealed here. Dennis, the young recruit played by Taron Egerton, is called “ASBO” by the other firefighters (I imagine most people interested enough in British television to be reading my Other Doctor Lives reviews probably know that word, but in this context, “ASBO” is essentially British slang for “juvenile delinquent.”) As I previously suspected, it’s pointed out here that they call him that, not because Dennis has an ASBO, but purely because he’s from a council estate (the same one where the arson in episode 1 occurred.) Total classist BS, but sadly realistic.
This isn’t the first time I’ve wondered if The Smoke really was envisioned as a miniseries, or if that’s a label it gained after it turned out to be a one-season TV show. I tend to think of a miniseries as more focused than this. While there is the overarcing throughline of Kev dealing with his injury/trauma and trying to learn the truth about what happened the night of the arson, the story pulls in a lot of different directions. For a show, it makes sense to take these kinds of detours to focus on supporting characters like Al for an episode, but for a miniseries, it feels a little off-point.
For me, the Kev stuff is the least successful part of the story, and since that’s where Whittaker’s plot is, it means the Trish stuff isn’t all that successful either. I’ll avoid the specific details, as it involves spoilers, but I don’t need spoilers to discuss why it doesn’t work for Trish in particular. As I said last week, it’s going to be crucial for her character that we keep sight of her perspective and she maintains agency, and we don’t see a lot of that here. Rather, she’s a figure in Kev’s plot and we lose sight of Trish herself a feel. There’s a hint of something that Whittaker is able to bring out in her final scene, but for the most part, the character feels untethered here because it’s not really about her at all.
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