Special- New FX Series

I had the opportunity to attend the DC/Baltimore screening of legendary film director, John Singleton's new FX series titled, SnowFall. Set in South Central Los Angeles in 1983, the series chronicles how the crack epidemic began. It follows Franklin Saint, played by Damson Idris, who wants freedom so bad that he has no idea of the price he pays. His freedom comes at the cost of the bondage of others. As John Singleton said during the Q&A, "Franklin wants so much to not be like his father but he ends up being a worse man than his father ever was." Franklin has been given opportunities that some of his childhood buddies, like Leon Simmons, played by Isaiah John, only wished to have.  However, to Franklin, it's not real freedom due to racial politics.  He is warned by his family about the choices he's about to make. veteran actor, Alon Moni Aboutboul, from Ridley Scott's Body of Lies, plays the Israeli expatriate who takes a chance on introducing Franklin into his business. Angela Lewis, who has played on Law & Order: SVU, plays Franklin's Aunt Louie. Amin Joseph from the new Baywatch plays Franklin's uncle, Jerome Saint. Michael Hyatt, from The Wire also stars in this "throwback drama" as Cissy Saint, Franklin's mother.

During the Q&A John Singleton stated he wrote the script to address those of us who came up during the crack epidemic to spur conversation. He also asked the question of how many people in the room had people who had been affected by the crack cocaine epidemic. Indeed, I raised my hand. We are living in a time of the opioid epidemic and prescription drug addiction but for those of us Gen X's and the Baby Boomers, we know this is dejavu. Are we still having a conversation with the generations after us about drugs and choices?

#SnowFall airs on Wednesdays at 10pm on FX.