‘The Drop: A Snowfall Saga’ Review: Not Enough Burst

The Drop: A Snowfall Saga has been in the works for quite a while now as it was announced before Snowfall aired its final season back in 2023. Since then it, got picked up for pilot in March 2025 which got picked for series in November for FX. Prequels are very hit or miss, for every Better Call Saul that lives up or even exceeds what came before, there are tens or even hundreds of shows that don’t.

When I first heard that Snowfall, one of the most underrated or rather underseen TV shows of the 2010s/2020s would be getting a sequel, especially one following Leon and Wanda, I had mixed feelings. I thought the pitch of the music business, especially hip-hop was fascinating but I wasn’t sure about the Leon or Wanda of it all. If I had to give a grade as a spinoff, I’d say it doesn’t quite live up to Snowfall but I wouldn’t call it a complete fail.

In Snowfall, Leon has a really good arc as the show went but I struggled to see how he would carry a show without a Damson Idris by his side. Same with Wanda, who was a smaller character than Leon but one with a slightly blanker state with more potential for development. To the show’s benefit, they use Wanda in an interesting manner but I can’t help but feel it’s still missing a dynamic character like Franklin Saint.

Damson Idris as Franklin Saint is one of my favorite TV performances ever. It is a masterwork of the evolution of a character in the same league as Bryan Cranston’s Walter White. Snowfall had its hiccups over the years that brought it down from the Breaking Bad tier of show but Damson Idris was never one of them. The way he goes from a relatively well-put-together, smart, ambitious good kid to a greedy, detestable drug kingpin through the seasons is the magic of Snowfall and Damson Idris brings it to life. To me, when I think about The Drop: A Snowfall Saga, it sadly doesn’t have that type of character that makes me feel that way, if anything it’s the opposite.

The Drop: A Snowfall Saga picks up on Wanda chasing her music dreams as she’s interning for a record label. She tries to push for the label to sign a street artist, Artillery to no avail. Meanwhile her musically gifted producing younger cousin, Lamar is also trying to chase his music dreams. Eventually, after Artillery is almost killed by the police, Leon and Wanda visit him across gang lines and Leon impuslively plays his beats to Artillery who raps over his beat.

The look and feel of 1990s LA is very well done throughout the series with some really cool direction choices that make it come alive. This is sort of where it feels closest to early Snowfall. The Drop is going for what the Snowfall pilot went for and it works for the show. The original music is also quite good and the needle drops, some even employing current-day artists mesh well with the show.

What keeps the show from hitting its potential I felt were the writing and the characters which kind of go hand in hand here. There’s a lot of talk about shows having annoying characters that make people want to stop watching a show but whenever people cite them, I usually find them interesting enough to offset that feeling but in this case, Lamar gets on more nerves than I have. He is a deeply annoying character that the show really fumbles. There are interesting ideas with awful execution that really ruin his character and ultimately the show suffers because he’s sort of the co-lead of the show.

Ultimately, the show doesn’t have any characters to offset Lamar’s shortcomings either. Wanda is decent but never quite interesting enough to really carry the show. Nobody is interesting and prominent enough to turn the tides for the show. The writing in general attempts to tackle a lot, often to mixed results. I found most of the storylines generally well thought out but not executed in an interesting enough manner.

The show, especially in its technical elements has enough potential to continue and become a better show but I really would like to see more interesting characters, perhaps ones with more intentional eccentricity that can carry the show. Perhaps, the rap artists themselves will be more prominent. Regardless, I’m not too mad this show exists but I think it needs to evolve to make it worthwhile. If it gets renewed, I’m hopeful something can shift for that to happen.

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