FX's new drama explores the origins of a terrible drug epidemic.
Note: this is a spoiler-free advance review of the first episode of Snowfall, which premieres on FX on Wednesday, July 5 at 10pm EST.
Snowfall may be the closest we ever get to seeing John Singleton revisit the world of his classic 1991 film Boyz n the Hood. This new FX drama (created by Singleton along with Eric Amado and Dave Andron) is set in the same general South Central LA area, but unfolds a decade earlier and sets out to trace the origins and impact of the crack cocaine epidemic. An ambitious goal, but judging from the first episode, Snowfall may be trying to cover too much ground.
The series certainly seems in no hurry to get to the meat of that epidemic. The first episode opens in the summer of 1983, introducing a number of players from different corners of the drug trade whose lives begin to loosely intersect. Damson Idris (City of Tiny Lights) stars as young Franklin Saint, a South Central native whose brief time as a scholarship student at a prestigious school gives him a somewhat unique outlook on race relations in LA. The series also focuses on luchador wrestler-turned-bodyguard Gustavo "El Oso" Zapata (The Borgia's Sergio Peris-Mencheta), his ambitious new boss Luica Villanueva (Breaking Bad's Emily Rios) and disgruntled CIA agent Teddy McDonald (The Night Of's Carter Hudson).
There are echoes of The Wire and Traffic to Snowfall in the way the series sets out to explore the many moving pieces and intersecting struggles that make up the city's drug trade. That said, Snowfall doesn't really strive for The Wire's gritty, grimy verisimilitude. If anything, this episode offers a warm, inviting look at an LA that has yet to be torn apart by the crack cocaine epidemic. Between the heavily saturated color palette, the sweeping aerial shots of sun-drenched LA and the catchy soundtrack of early hip-hop tunes, there's a weird but not unwelcome sentimentality to the series. It really does feel like the calm before the storm, which in turn creates its own subtle sense of foreboding.
But where Snowfall falls well short of the standard set by The Wire is in its inability to effectively juggle all the moving pieces. The Wire ensured that every running plot thread was equally engrossing, whether the focus was on desperate junkies trying to score a fix, drug kingpins making big deals or frazzled detectives fighting a losing battle to keep their city sane. Even with comparatively fewer pieces on the playing board, Snowfall often struggles to keep its momentum going. Its easy to imagine the sluggish pacing being the show's worst enemy this season. As slowly as the seeds are planted here, it's probably going to be some time before Snowfall really dives into the crack cocaine conflict.
But worse is that the show's cast of characters feels very uneven at this early stage. Of the four main players, Idris' Franklin Saint is easily the most compelling of the bunch. Snowfall isn't exactly breaking new ground as a drug-fueled crime drama, and this first episode alone hits a lot of the familiar notes one would expect from the genre. Franklin may be the prototypical street kid with dreams of making it big as a drug dealer, but he has enough shades and wrinkles to stand out anyway. He's a calm, educated young man who refuses to move up in the world unless he can do so on his own terms. He also has a peculiar sense of morality, stopping a pair of sticky-fingered neighborhood kids from stealing ice cream bars one moment and dealing marijuana for his uncle Jerome (Transparent's Carter Hudson) the next.
Idris really shines in the role, bringing a quiet intensity that makes Franklin seems far wiser and more worldly than his 19 years would suggest. He's a likable, charming protagonist, which makes his inevitable downfall all the more tragic. The Wire alum Michael Hyatt also shines in a small role as Franklin's beleaguered mother.
If Snowfall narrowed its focus to Franklin and his circle of family, friends and business partners, Snowfall would probably be a much stronger show. There's enough good material there to spin a compelling coming-of-age drama. But that's not the approach Singleton, Amado and Andron take.
It's not so much that the parallel storylines focused on Peris-Mencheta, Rios and Hudson's characters are dull as that the show doesn't move quickly enough to bring them to life. The CIA storyline should, by all rights, be the series' most compelling, as Snowfall explores the agency's own role in cocaine trafficking and possible ties to the creation of crack cocaine. But instead, that proves to be the most plodding plot thread, with this episode taking way too long to set the stage for Agent McDonald's amoral wheeling and dealing.
In general, these characters feel flat and underdeveloped compared to Franklin. They're all united by a common ability to see opportunity in the growing cocaine trade, but the show doesn't mold the others into sympathetic, fully realized characters yet. Gustavo at least has a quiet gravitas as the weary, struggling Gustavo, but his boss Luica is practically a nonentity right now. And Agent McDonald isn't developed enough for the viewer to feel particularly invested in his uphill battle to rebuild his shattered career.
Snowfall often plays like three separate crime dramas awkwardly welded together. There's some strong material and a few compelling characters, but without a tighter, more focused approach to telling this sprawling story, the series is going to continue to struggle as it marches forward.
The Verdict
There's enough that works in the first episode of Snowfall to justify a viewing, especially for John Singleton fans who want to see him return to the South Central LA setting he made so famous. Unfortunately, the show takes a very haphazard approach to exploring the origins of a terrible drug epidemic. The series shines whenever Damson Idris' character is in the spotlight and struggles when he isn't, suggesting that Snowfall would have been better off with a more narrow and focused approach.
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