Snowfall – Season 1 Review
Movie Reviews this week looks at the crime drama created by the late John Singleton Snow Fall.
It tells the story of the first crack cocaine epidemic through Los Angeles, and the impact it has on the local community.
It stars Damson Idris as Franklin Saint, an easily liked college drop out, who is currently living with his mother.
It is a close knit community, but already his uncle Jerome Saint, played by Amin Joseph (Baywatch), Jerome is well known for selling marijuana, despite Franklin’s mother, Sharon ‘Cissy’ Saint played by Michael (yes didn’t know Michael could be a female name too) Hyatt ( Brothers and Sisters, The Wire) in a stirring peformnce; desperate desire that he does not follow the same path.
The lure of making his own money, and getting a piece of the pie, Franklin feels others are doing is a pull too great, and gets an opportune meeting with Avi Drexler, played charismatically by Alon Aboutboul (Rambo III), who initially does not believe that he can offload the kilograms of cocaine within a short amount of time. Ever the opportunist, he offers to do just that, which leads to a meeting with the local Madam, Claudia Crane, played wonderfully by Judith Scott (Flightplan).
Added to the mix is Gustavo ‘El Oso’ Zapata placed menacingly by Sergio Peris-Mencheta (Rambo: Last Blood); a wrestler who has found himself being asked to do something that might make him rich but may not sit so well on his conscience, who happens to have a fan in Franklin, along with Lucia Villaneuva and Pedro Nava, played by Emily Rios (From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series) and Filipe Valle Costa (Blue Bloods) respectively, two cousins, in a Mexican cartel who have hired Gustavo. The cartel is headed by Ramiro played by Jos Ziga (From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series), Pedro’s father, and Teddy McDonald played warmly by Carter Hudson, a CIA agent who finds himself embroiled in the narcotics game to fund a war by the US government, unwittingly finding himself attached to Alejandro Usteves appropriately labelled a latin Freddy Mercury, played chillingly by Juan Javier Cardenas (The Walking Dead).
Snow Fall Season 1 is a fascinating insight into the emergence of crack cocaine in the early 80s, and although the subject matter holds no grounds for heroes, you end up sympathising with the characters and the consequences of their choices.
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