Kari Skogland brings visual assurance to tense, character-led television. We value her control of atmosphere, though Smoke shows the limits of confident direction when a series has more episodes than its investigation can support.
Fi1m perspective
The fires in Smoke (2025) are disturbingly attractive to watch. We were unsettled by wanting to keep looking at the flames in a story about arson. Kari Skogland directed the pilot, and the series offers a fair indication of both what we value in her work and what visual confidence alone cannot do. The images retain their force as the investigation becomes repetitive; we would consider it for the atmosphere and the cast, with a substantial caveat about its nine-episode length.
Her feature work includes The Stone Angel (2007), adapted from Margaret Laurence’s novel, and Fifty Dead Men Walking (2008), which she also wrote. These were breakthrough films before her move into high-profile American television in the 2010s. An emphasis on character perspective and tension suits the difficult material of The Handmaid’s Tale (2017), while The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) gave her all six episodes to direct. There is a useful distinction here: she can set the tone for other directors on a pilot, or take responsibility for the direction of a complete miniseries.
Smoke also makes clear how much that work depends on collaborators. François Dagenais and Sam McCurdy’s cinematography makes the fires compelling, and Skogland shares the directing with Jim McKay and Joe Chappelle without a distracting change in visual confidence. Jeremy Stanbridge’s production design is less useful: its carefully finished surroundings tell us too little about the people occupying them. That is a missed opportunity in a series whose cast is doing so much to hold our attention.
Taron Egerton and Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine help make Smoke worth considering, even when the investigation has run short of reasons to continue. We would not pin those repetitions on one of three directors, but they still limit how warmly we can recommend the series. Skogland’s handling of atmosphere and ensembles gives us reason to follow her beyond it. We would be keen to follow her into another contained miniseries, provided the story earns every episode.
Biography
Kari Skogland is a Canadian film and television director, screenwriter and producer. She began her career as an editor before moving into directing commercials, music videos and television episodes from the mid-1990s, including early work on Dead at 21 and Traders.
Skogland has directed episodes of numerous series, among them Boardwalk Empire, The Walking Dead, Penny Dreadful, The Handmaid's Tale (for which she received a BAFTA and Emmy nomination), Vikings and House of Cards. She directed all six episodes of the 2021 miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the pilot of the 2025 Apple TV+ series Smoke. Her feature credits include Fifty Dead Men Walking (2008) and The Stone Angel (2007). In 2016 she co-founded the production company Mad Rabbit.
Skogland was born in Ottawa, Ontario. She is married to film editor Jim Munro.
