The Hub entertainment Watch List: Snowfall
After more than five years on air, the FX series Snowfall finally came to an end in April. The show, which is the brainchild of John Singleton, ran for six action-packed seasons and had fans tuning in faithfully to see what moves Franklin Saint would make next.
Like many great entertainment productions, Snowfall may be fictional but it is also an imitation of real-life events. In 1996 the Central Intelligence Agency was accused of flooding American streets with crack after a series of articles, published by San Jose Mercury-News reporter Gary Webb, linked the CIA to a drug trafficking triangle that included Central America. The reporting detailed how the CIA and its network of operatives used crack to raise funds to support war efforts against Nicaragua’s leftist government.
Snow Fall tells the story of a young black teenager, Franklin Saint (Damson Idris) who gets entangled in a world of drugs and corruption. Franklin is submerged into the lifestyle along with his friends and family members, a Mexican wrestler – Gustavo (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) and a CIA operative – Teddy (Carter Hudson). The show depicts the early stages of the crack cocaine epidemic in 1980s Los Angeles.
With his team intact, Franklin is quickly able to rise from an overlooked teenager to one of the top drug dealers in the city. Franklin serves as the brains of his operation but he would not have made it far without help from a variety of sources. After deciding to enter the drug game, Franklin enlists the help of his Uncle Jerome (Amin Joseph), Jerome’s girlfriend-turned-wife Louie (Angela Lewis) and his best friend Leon (Isaiah John).
Viewers are also introduced to Franklin’s parents, Alton (Kevin Carroll) and Cissy (Michael Hyatt), who are former Black Panthers hoping to guide their son on a positive path. The team doesn’t always share the same vision but they do make sure to put their issues aside when a member of the family is in danger.
Many fans of the series were not prepared for the tearjerker ending that Snowfall provided, but it was a realistic representation of what happens when drug money dries up. Interested viewers can binge-watch the series with access to the FX Network or with a subscription to Hulu. Each of the six seasons has 10 episodes with runtimes ranging from 39 to 64 minutes.
