Hacker Cinema
Snowfall
2017 · TV series · 6 seasons
Created by Eric Amadio, Dave Andron, John Singleton
Los Angeles. 1983. A storm is coming and its name is crack. Set against the infancy of the crack cocaine epidemic and its ultimate radical impact on the culture as we know it, the story follows numerous characters on a violent collision course.
5 positive2 neutralfrom 7 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
7 comments on Hacker News
This could easily be an episode from Snowfall (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6439752/), the rather excellent TV show about the early days of the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles during the beginning of the 1980s. The CIA feature prominently and regularly acquire large amounts of cash & narcotics in order to run their operations.
I think "high school chem teacher builds a drug empire that rivals Mexican cartels" is definitely a glorified macho-suburban fantasy elevated to an art form. In reality season 1 would have ended with Bryan Cranston's character dissolving in a vat of drain cleaner or buried out in the New Mexican desert missing his head and fingers. I mean, look at the drug addict that gets the most screen time in the show: he's the cofounder of the drug empire guiding the main character through the drug game like a methed out Master Miyagi.
Compare it with Snowfall: the main character's family has at least some history of drug dealing and he only succeeds because he discovers a cheap and ultra-addictive recipe for crack cocaine and because the CI-freaking-A is using him to fund the global war on communism. Recurring characters get killed off in dumb gang skirmishes all the time and the drug addict with the most screen time is literally a shell of her former self that can barely get through the day up until the latest season.
Or compare it with The Wire: all the people involved in the drug game are only in it because they have literally nothing else to live for except the glory of the game. Basically no one survives except the cops and Bubbles never really gets fully clean.
Neat idea. But, I am checking Snowfall TV show (https://www.movieofthenight.com/series/Snowfall/643) for Russia and site says it is not available to stream in Russia, but it is in reality, via Kinopoisk (https://www.kinopoisk.ru/series/909854/).
TV Shows:
The Great
Succession
Snowfall
Best storytelling since Sopranos in those 3 I think.
Games:
Warzone
Hell Let Loose
Best social FPS (need friends for Warzone though)
Books:
Denis Johnson (all of his books)
Algorithms We Live By
Behave (best book of the decade imo)
From your first Wikipedia link ... that show is pretty good:
> Snowfall is an American crime drama television series set in Los Angeles in 1983. The series revolves around the first crack epidemic and its impact on the culture of the city. The series follows the stories of several characters whose lives are fated to intersect including CIA operative Teddy McDonald who helps to secure guns for the Contras. The character reporter Irene Abe is said by fans of the show to be a stand in character for the real life Gary Webb.
Although I am not to sure if the suicide wasn't really a suicide. On the other hand a group that is known to have done worse than this it doesn't sound implausible.
> the writer has mainly watched American movies that are easily accessible.
I highly recommend Scandinavian crime drama's they are under rated https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-OOpZitfd0
the work of Jurgen Haabermaster is also outstanding for all those who want to break out of the bland diet Hollywood serves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAlxNNvfvJs
on a serious note I found some fantastic serials that are not so well known and which I will remember for a long time (e.g. Indian "Sacred Games", Italian "Gomorrha" or "Suburra", British "Small Axe", USA "Snowfall", German "Dogs of Berlin" or "Dark", French "The Bureau"). In fact there wasn't a single show in the last 2 years where I felt I ended up wasting my time or were forced to bail out after S01E02 because it didn't resonate. The alternative to great serials is only a good book and from my pov a movie can never give the same depth as a good serial.
The thought-bubble above my head went like this:
1. "Cocaine economics! This could be interesting."
2. "Man that Snowfall piece is still making waves in online journalism."
3. "Note to self: check out that cool Escobar show. When did that come out?"
4. "Damn, this is a big ad for the show, wrapped up in journalism, sort of. Written by marketers, not journalists. Ugh."
5. "I now have a strong negative connotation with that Escobar show. Probably won't watch it."
(edit: show, not movie)