The FX drama “Snowfall” was one of the sneak success stories of the Peak TV era. Co-created by a marquee film director in “Boyz N the Hood” auteur John Singleton, “Snowfall” thrived where many series of similar origin failed. But it did so quietly: “Snowfall” didn’t win awards or mint breakouts beyond lead actor Damson Idris, but after premiering in 2017 — before the launch of Apple TV or Disney+, and an eternity ago in Hollywood years — the crime show steadily grew for six seasons before concluding in 2023, a rarity for an original drama these days.
Three years later, “Snowfall” has received another accolade that testifies to its under-heralded success: a spinoff. Beginning in 1990, four years after the final episodes of its parent show, “The Drop: A Snowfall Saga” retains the South Los Angeles setting, but shifts its focus from the drug trade amid the rise of crack cocaine to the music industry amid the rise of gangsta rap. Instead of a West Coast version of “The Wire” or “Narcos,” “The Drop” is more like a fictionalized version of N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton.” (There’s a nod to the late group member Eazy-E in the opening minutes.)
While “The Drop” doesn’t craft its protagonists into figures as compelling as Dr. Dre, Ice Cube or Snoop Dogg, the world they navigate is instilled with a vivid sense of place. It’s rare for productions to film in L.A. these days, let alone celebrate the city to the extent “The Drop” does. That’s a quality worth admiring, even if the series can be uneven in its early episodes.
