The FX show premieres Wednesday, July 5 at 10 p.m.
ET
Hasnt TV ODd on drug dramas yet?
I know I have.
Credit: Mark Davis/FX
The subject matter remains relevant; television needs to find fresher ways to light it up.
Im not sure FXsSnowfallis the show to do that.
It wants to be a big-saga historical fiction chronicling the origins of the early-80s crack epidemic in Los Angeles.
For now, its a good-looking collection of cliches, dull sensationalism, and echoes of better pulp.
Franklin, played by Damson Idris, is the ostensible center.
A brainy and boyish black man educated at white schools, he sports preppie collared shirts suggesting super-responsible squareness.
He should be scary.
Instead, hes amusing.
This is a problem.
Franklins story recasts the coming-of-age yarn ofBoyz N the Hood written and directed bySnowfallco-creator John Singleton intoBreaking Badserial.
You feel Franklin does what he does because thered be no show if he didnt.
Snowfalls other stories mirror Franklins arc, and theyre mixed bags too.
Their tale intersects with another that helps frame the shows sociopolitical worldview.
Let me know when it gets more dope.
