From The Idol to Russian Doll, a wave of series is filling screens with characters that just love chainsmoking. But how has a habit whose days seemed numbered returned to television?
If you were around to absorb 2000s pop culture, you will remember that smoking was considered cool, for a while. Kate Moss smoked. Alexa Chung smoked. The Olsen twins, famously, smoked. Smoking was something you did in big sunglasses while having a bitching session on the street or outside a club. The ultimate accessory, in any scenario, was a ciggie dangling from your mouth as you went about your business. Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw was the queen of this (smashing out her newspaper column on Marlboro Lights.) As were Bridget Jones, Rachel from Friends and pretty much anyone on a reality show, even up to 2018.
Then, like side fringes, Smirnoff Ice and tights under denim shorts, smoking was suddenly passé – distasteful, even gross. Which makes sense, obviously: We know that smokers are 15 to 30 times more likely to get lung cancer than people who don’t smoke, and even smoking a little bit increases the risk of lung cancer and death. So, for a generation raised on “wellness”, dewy-faced health influencers and sobriety coaches, smoking simply wasn’t the vibe any more (the vaping conversation is for another day). For a while, you would very rarely see cigs on screen unless it was specific to the era (for example, Mad Men).
