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You know, people often ask me about these TV shows. Which one really got under my skin, stuck with me, even years later. There’s a fair few I’ve seen come and go in this game, some good, some just… there. But when it comes to a proper gut punch, a story that felt like it peeled back a layer of the world you thought you knew, well, the Snowfall television series definitely sits right up there at the top of my list. You watch it, and it don’t leave you. It hangs about, rattling around your head like a loose screw.
It’s 2025 now, right? And we’re still talking about Franklin Saint. How he started. Where he ended up. I remember watching that first season, thinking, “This lad, he’s got a head on his shoulders.” Bright as a button, sharp as a tack. Selling a bit of weed, sure, but with a plan. A proper business mind, that one. And then the crack hit. Like a tidal wave, it was. Changed everything for him. Changed everything for South Central. Changed everything for the whole bleedin’ country, didn’t it?
That Early Saint Hustle, Before It All Went Pear-Shaped
You see a lot of these origin stories, don’t you? The ones where the hero turns anti-hero. Franklin’s journey felt different, though. Not some cartoon villain backstory. This was a young fella trying to get his family out of the trap. He just picked the wrong ladder. Or maybe the ladder was rigged from the start. That’s what I reckon. The whole system was a bit dodgy, wasn’t it? He saw an opportunity, a gap, and he filled it. No one else was doing it like him. He brought a sort of corporate structure to the streets. That’s a grim thought, I know, but it’s the truth. He tried to be legitimate, tried to buy properties, turn things over. But the street just keeps pulling you back. It’s got sticky fingers, that life. It really does.
The Realities of the Game
People ask me sometimes, “Is Snowfall based on a true story?” I tell them, “Not directly, no, not one specific person.” But the era? The feel of it? Oh, aye, that’s real. The despair, the money, the violence, the way it tore families apart. That’s all very, very real. They did their homework, the writers. You can tell. It wasn’t just made up for telly. It felt lived in. The sheer scope of it, showing how quickly things escalated from a few rocks to an epidemic, that was spot on.
Teddy McDonald: The Ghost in the Machine
You can’t talk about the series without talking about Teddy. Bleedin’ CIA chap, wasn’t he? Always lurking, always pulling strings. That whole storyline, where the government was involved in funnelling drugs to fund covert operations overseas… now that, my friend, that’s a rabbit hole a lot of folks don’t like to look down. It makes you proper uncomfortable, thinking about it. Here’s this guy, Franklin, building his empire, and he’s just a pawn in a much bigger, nastier game. Teddy’s role, the double-crossing, the desperation when he got burned, it was captivating in a way that left you a bit cold. He wasn’t some flashy drug lord. He was a quiet man in a suit, doing truly awful things, all for a supposed greater good that I’m still trying to figure out. What happened to Teddy in the end? He got what was coming to him, didn’t he? A bullet to the head. Fitting. You play with fire, you get burned. Simple as that.
The Cost of the Crown
Think about Jerome and Aunt Louie. Those two, they wanted out, then they wanted in, then they wanted to be top dog. Louie, especially, she had that ambition, that fire. But it consumed her. Made her hard. Made her lose her way. I always wonder, was there a point they could’ve just walked away? With enough cash to live a quiet life somewhere far from the madness? Or was it always going to end like that for them, too? Seems like the sort of business you don’t just “retire” from. It pulls you down, deep. You’re always looking over your shoulder.
The System, Not Just the Streets
What Snowfall television series really hammered home, for me anyway, was that it wasn’t just about some dealers on a street corner. It was about the system itself. The poverty that made people desperate. The lack of opportunity. The way certain communities were just left to rot, then blamed for the decay. And then, you’ve got the intelligence agencies, supposedly fighting communism, turning a blind eye, or worse, actively participating in flooding those same communities with poison. That’s a tough pill to swallow. It makes you question a lot of things. You see how easy it is for good intentions, or even just a desire for survival, to get twisted beyond recognition.
Franklin’s Fall: A Masterclass in Tragedy
I mean, the way Franklin ended up. Knackered. On the streets. A shadow of the sharp kid he was. Some people found it frustrating, a bit of a slap in the face. “Why didn’t he get a grand ending?” they’d ask. And I just look at them and say, “Because that’s the point, isn’t it?” Most stories like his, they don’t end with a private jet and a villa in the South of France. They end like that. Broken. Addicted. Empty. What happens to Franklin Saint? That’s what happens to most, sadly. That’s the real gutting part of the whole shebang. It wasn’t some Hollywood ending. It was a proper, brutal reality check. And for a TV show to do that, to refuse to sugarcoat it, well, that’s a brave thing.
What’s Its Legacy?
So, why are we still talking about it in 2025? It’s not just some old crime drama, is it? It’s a history lesson, told through human pain. It shows you the domino effect of addiction, poverty, and unchecked power. It ain’t pretty. But it’s vital. You watch it, and you come away thinking about the causes, not just the symptoms. You think about the people, the choices, and the forces beyond their control. I believe it made people look at that era, the 80s, differently. Not just the big hair and the music, but the devastation that was brewing underneath.
No Spinoffs? Good.
People are always asking, “Will there be a Snowfall spinoff?” My answer is always the same: I bleedin’ hope not. Some stories, you tell them, you tell them right, and then you leave them alone. You don’t drag them out, milk them dry. The ending of Snowfall was powerful. It said what it needed to say. To try and carry it on with some side character, or a prequel of a prequel, nah. Leave it be. Let it stand as what it is: a complete, brutal, unforgettable saga. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just walk away. Like Franklin should have done, if only he could’ve.
That series, it got you thinking about the real cost. The human cost. Not just the money made, but the lives lost, the minds shattered. It’s a bleak picture, but a necessary one. You don’t walk away from Snowfall feeling good, not exactly. But you walk away feeling something. And in this business, that’s what you aim for. To make people feel something real. They nailed it. Absolutely nailed it.
