Comment on FX ‘Snowfall’ cloudy but compelling

Franklin is smart and ambitious, and brash enough to tell an Israeli drug kingpin named Avi Drexler (Alon Moni Aboutboul) he can sell a kilo of cocaine overnight. Franklin has the skills to make good on his promise, but he soon finds he needs to be more circumspect to survive in the drug business at the moment when the crack cocaine epidemic is exploding in Los Angeles. [...] Lucia Villanueva (Emily Rios), the daughter of a Mexican American crime boss, is trying to break into the rapidly evolving coke business, with the aid of a former wrestler, Gustavo Zapata (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), known as El Oso (the bear). Teddy is torn between his stated desire to make his crumbling marriage work, especially because he now has a young son, and his obsession with making the arms-for-coke deal work with the Contras. Franklin’s mother, Cissy Saint (Michael Hyatt), is determined, for example, to make sure her son isn’t destroyed by the wave of drugs, crime and hopelessness sweeping over South Central. [...] what motivates Lucia, Oso, Franklin and Teddy isn’t logical: Once we get it, that Franklin, Lucia and the others are motivated by their specific personal addictions, the characters may still remain elusive but at least we’re more willing to go along for the ride, bumpy as it may be from time to time.