The Struggle

I know that this sort of conclusion will be controversial amongst the fanbase. For what the story is, I think that it's a fitting conclusion. Franklin Saint is one of the most well - written characters I have watched in television. The more I think about it, the more I realise that this bears some resemblance to Breaking Bad's ending but has its own unique touch. I must say that i think the director made a huge improvement on their filming, editing and overall choices for the last two episodes. You can tell that there is more tension when there isn't multiple storylines going on at once. Overall a fitting conclusion to a decent show, well done to all the cast and crew.

I've watched Snowfall since the beginning. It was never in the same league as Breaking Bad or even The Wire, but the first few seasons were good. Then it wandered all over the place and got increasingly more tedious. I don't know that I've ever seen a show about drug dealers that spent so much time talking about what they're doing rather than, you know, doing it.

The show's creator, John Singleton, created an interesting group of characters, and he further cast the show with some great actors. They all did excellent work. But after those first few seasons, the writing really became more and more pedestrian. Derivative. Aimless.

This season has been all over the place. Some episodes haven't been bad, but the last few episodes have all seemed like they're rushing to wrap it up. Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul had a similar problem, but at least the previous seasons were all consistently good. Even if the last few episodes felt rushed, the argument could be made the series took some time to develop the story in a cohesive way.

So, this finale for Snowfall is what it is. We see Franklin Saint -- who never seemed to get to enjoy any of the millions he made outside a house he bought -- doing what he usually does, which is walk around in a jacket and square off against this or that person. Some of the characters are no longer around on the show, and it feels empty as a result. Sissy Saint is in prison for what she did to get justice for her husband and to save Franklin. Teddy got what he deserved if not in the way he deserved it. Things were never going to end well for him, but he was reduced to a two-dimensional bad guy in the last few seasons compared to how he started.

It's a little sad to see Steven Williams looking old and frail -- I've followed his work since at least The Equalizer.

The finale suffers from a lot of the same problems of the past few seasons, which is lots of dramatics and not much story. There are so many angry Franklin Saint exclamations of "So, you're doing this to me" to all the people he thinks betrayed him, you could have a drinking game. In fact, the characters in these last few seasons of Snowfall only seem to have one of two emotions: anger or regret.

The best scene in the finale is when a desperate Franklin tries to get into a safe. It's filled with genuine tension, as well as a sense of actual plotting instead of the usual stalling. There are some very modern references -- "anxiety" -- that weren't commonly tossed around in the 1980s, which take us out of the moment. Throughout most of the series, the writers have shown they either don't know or don't care much about the 1980s, as there's an inauthenticity to so much. But if you don't know, it won't change anything. When Franklin starts laughing over the irony of how little money he finds, it seems lifted straight out of a similar scene in Breaking Bad. How the scene ends is predicable but still shocking. And it tells us how things are going to end for Franklin.

But a time jump at the end is close, where we find out what the life has done to Franklin. Let's just say he's finally his father's son in some ways. In much the same way Jesse is a kind of moral conscience in Breaking Bad, Leon was a kind of moral conscience in Snowfall, and it's good to see his life turns out better. There's a kind of not-so-subtle cheap shot at Korean Americans at the end, though I suppose someone thinks they're making a poignant political message.

So, that's it. A series that started out not bad, sagged in the middle, and produced a finale that was like an encapsulation of that run. It ends on the right note, and that's good.

It begins shortly after the events of the previous episode in its final minutes, something you could easily say was a controversial way to end it but in my opinion it felt so human. The way Teddy said it to her, with no remorse in his voice, only the ice running through his veins as he said a sentence which cost him his life. I think many would have done the same in Cissy's shoes. That cliffhanger was unpredictable and in my opinion, quite impressive. In the end credits, we heard the sound of the phone instead of the normal music, that to me made it even stronger. Onto the series finale, an episode I've looked forward to but not wanted, Snowfall have been a show I've followed since 2017 and have inspired me in many ways. I really hope John Singleton would have appreciated the ending, Eric Amadio and Dave Andron were the two other co-creators and it was the latter one who wrote these two final episodes. I think Dave Andron's writing was great! From the story to the dialogue, honestly, more build up and perhaps another season to flesh out Franklin's development and arc would have helped. But I'm fine with what we got, I've enjoyed the story of this season and most importantly the story and writing in this episode.

This whole season have looked incredible, with mesmerizing and spectacular cinematography, the grand finale keeps the cinematography and direction but also its editing to a high. How they use the camera, it amazes me, and should be done in more shows. Snowfall have always looked great but this season, they went above that, the camera angles in this season feels reminiscent to Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, I mean the cinematography is perfect and stunning.

Alright, let's talk about Damson Idris acting performance in this episode as Franklin Saint, the protagonist since day 1, his acting is superb and deserves an award for his performance. But to explain the reasoning, we have to understand Franklin Saint after the cliffhanger of the previous episode and what he went through in this and the prior season. He is obsessed with money and in this episode, his obsession along with the addiction to drinking and the money, we get to see someone who is everything he never wanted to be but someone evil. He have grown into someone even worse than the people who molded him, or, did he always have that in him? It's been a couple of seasons and its been incredible watching him delve deeper into the darkness and everything obsession leads to. This performance, this character, Damson Idris have always been among the best parts and this episode shows he became the best part. Ultimately it was his pride and ego which made one of our protagonists, Franklin Saint, go down into a dark road which led in bloodshed. This was a character who was the same age as me when the show ran, it was thus the character I saw myself in, I never thought his arc would lead him down this road and it made it so much better. But now when we see where Franklin Saint ended up, was it the right place? From a writing point of view, yes. What Damson Idris did with the character, what the writers wrote, how the directors directed Idris in the role. It have been incredible watching his performance. This episode focus almost solely on Franklin Saint but there are so many great performances in this episode, particularly Isaiah John and Michael Hyatt as Leon and Cissy respectively.

Not everyone will like the ending or the direction this season took, but if you look at the characters, it works. Snowfall have always been about its characters and how their lives intersected, when Franklin's intersected with Teddy's, we knew he would never be the same but yet we hoped he would and then we hoped he would redeem himself. The world isn't easy like that, it isn't black and white, it's grey. John Singleton knew it and so does Eric Amadio and Dave Andron, the latter wrote the two final episodes and I think there's nothing wrong with the writing. I just think no one expected this nor the cliffhanger in the prior episode. I liked it and thought it was great!

For John Singleton.

10/10 Snowfall finale has put itself in the league with the greats like breaking bad the wire and the sopranos. Seeing the rise and fall of Franklin saint is one of the hardest things to watch in tv show history. A full circle ending for Franklin becoming like his father and facing the consequences of the community and neighborhoods he destroyed. No one expected this route for Franklin, we all thought it would be the cliche and repetitive route some of these tv shows take either being killed or going to prison. At the end of snowfall we see Franklin even as an alcoholic happy fans may not like it but he's happy that's he's free from all of it. The money was his crack and now he has no chain of it around him.

This is the worst series finale ever! For 6 seasons I loved this show. The characters stayed themselves and the storyline was great. The last 2 episodes were boring and ridiculous. Franklin never drank or did drugs and was always all business then the last episode he's crazy , a drunk and evil by shooting innocent people and strangling his girlfriend...wtf..it makes no sense!

Then Leon should have left and gone with his wife to Africa..why didn't he go and stop the drugs. That makes zero sense! The mom is annoying and should have not been in this episode or the prior episode at all. Just stop watching this series after Jerome and Kane shoot it out..ugh!