The Second Greatest Crime Thriller Series is a 6-Season Masterpiece

Retroactive assessments have placed The Wire among the most important crime series of the past 25 years, yet it drew only average viewership and no major TV awards during its original HBO run. A similar fate befell FX's Snowfall, which ran for six seasons from 2017 to 2023 and totals 60 episodes, offering a layered portrayal of the 1980s crack epidemic in Los Angeles and the way the drug trade reached as far as the CIA.

Co-created by the late John Singleton and developed at Showtime before FX picked it up, Snowfall covers 1983 to 1986 and centers on Franklin Saint (Damson Idris) and The Family, a group of crack dealers in South Central. Saint’s arc has clear parallels with Season 1 of The Wire, in which Avon Barksdale’s crew prompted an undercover sting, and the series expands its scope beyond local dealers to show wider institutional impact.

The cast includes Carter Hudson as Teddy McDonald, an undercover CIA officer who goes rogue to fund a Nicaraguan cartel and partners with Saint to funnel cocaine into the U.S.

United States, Los Angeles

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