Damson Idris leads ambitious ‘Snowfall’ into a new season
NEW YORK » When we last saw Franklin Saint, he had problems, not least of which was three fresh bullet wounds. As season three of “Snowfall” ended, rivals were circling his mini-drug empire and violence levels were up.
“After being shot three times, he’s completely broken, not only physically but spiritually and in his mind, too,” says Damson Idris, who portrays the canny Saint. “So season four is him rebuilding himself.”
The new season kicks off Wednesday and opens on New Year’s Eve in 1985 with crack ravaging the streets of South Central Los Angeles and the CIA using drug money to fuel its influence in Latin America.
Idris hopes the new episodes can both enchant current fans and attract new ones. “I think the work we’re doing on this show is going to be spoken
of alongside the likes of ‘The Wire’ and ‘The Sopranos,’ which would be a huge privilege in my opinion,” he said by phone from London.
The FX series was cocreated by the late John Singleton and keeps the Oscar-nominated director’s authenticity and ability to tell a large story from a small one. “Snowfall”
is ambitious in its attempt to talk about both crack and the Contras.
“His legacy lives on,” said Idris. “I remember that he would talk to me about Nina Simone and how Nina Simone said that the artist’s job is to reflect the times. In my opinion, Singleton reflected the times. And that’s the legacy and footsteps I hope to follow in.”
“Snowfall” touches on police brutality, media influence, real estate, U.S. politics, secret wars, corruption and how crack in three years turned South Central from a working class neighborhood to a war zone with bars on windows.
“The show is so much bigger than Franklin Saint in South Central. I think it’s a show for a global audience,” said Idris. “It’s educational alongside of being entertaining.”
Dave Andron, co-creator, showrunner and an executive producer, said season four will up the violence levels as the war on drugs takes hold, prompting scare tactics and the militarization of police.
“It is obviously very tragic and yet really rich, fertile ground,” he said. “There’s a real scope and spine to this thing. It’s incredible that it hasn’t been told in this way before.”
The new season opens with Saint struggling after being shot. He uses a cane and prescription pain pills, wincing at simple tasks like putting on clothes. But when a rival calls him soft and weak, another warns: “Boy’s brain still work.”
On the streets, demand for crack is soaring and competition is fierce. Saint is tempted to get out of the game but knows that’s not an option. “What I know for sure is, if we bail, there’ll be chaos,” he says. “I have to stay and fight.”
“He’s proven to everyone that he isn’t the strongest. He isn’t impenetrable. He isn’t James Bond,” said Idris. “Everyone is seeing Franklin in a weak state and for that reason, he’s being questioned.”
The show may seem very grounded in the mid’80s with its use of pagers and Lacoste shirts, but viewers will instantly see a modern comparison between the way crack was criminalized then and the way opioids are seen as a health issue today.