“Snowfall” ends; Idris soars

In the fierce, six-year run of “Snowfall,” Damson Idris has mostly been ignored by awards voters.
That’s understandable. Idris’ job, which he did perfectly, was to play Franklin Saint (shown here in an earlier episode), a cool-eyed drug kingpin. Hollywood doesn’t give awards for stoic and stony.
But now all of that changes with the series finale, at 10 p.m. Wednesday (April 19) on FX, rerunning at 11:39 p.m. and 1:06 and 2:39 a.m., then going to Hulu. The steely exterior is gone; Idris gives a performance that’s … well, Pacino-esque.
For Idris, this role this been a huge jump. When “Snowfall” debuted, he was a 25-year-old Englishman (the son of Nigerian immigrants) who had done a bunch of theater and a few episodes of British TV.
He was far from the world of 1980s Los Angeles, but had the perfect guide.
John Singleton had been a teen-ager in the ‘80s, in a middle-income Black neighborhood in LA, like the one shown at the start of “Snowfall.” He wrote and directed “Boyz n the Hood” and became, at 24, the youngest person to get an Oscar nomination for best director.
Singleton guided Idris in the role and in life, offering the advice that is printed at the beginning of the finale: “Everyone you meet on the way up, you’re gonna meet on the way down.”
There wasn’t a big downward slide for Singleton, although his movies never reached the heights of that first one. He made some successful films, but his best moments were on TV; he directed the “Race Card” episode of the O.J. Simpson mini-series, then created the oft-brilliant “Snowfall.” He died (after a stroke) at 51, in 2019, while the third season was being filmed.
For Franklin, however, there’s a huge plunge. On the way up, he sometimes showed a cool disregard for others, including his mother, his boyhood friend Leon and his colleagues; now he needs them.
Teddy, a former CIA man, stole his $70-million fortune. Last week, Franklin almost got it back … until his mother killed Teddy, who had killed her husband. She surrendered to police; Franklin fled.
That’s where we are as the final episode begins. Franklin, who made enemies on the way up, needs help on the plunge down.
It would be a one-note finale, except for a wise step: In brief intervals, it tells us what happened to other characters who deserve our empathy.
As for Franklin, the slide is spectacular and award-worthy. In this role, Idris has been ignored by the Emmys and Golden Globes; he’s had a few nominations from others, but no wins.
Now he’s ready for his close-up (a lot of close-ups, actually) and his awards.