• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, July 3, 2017

FX’s newest R-rated drama series “Snowfall” has all the earmarks of an FX show -- violence, f-words, sex and nudity -- the latter two happening simultaneously.

It is not shocking anymore to encounter this kind of material on this commercial-supported basic cable network, and on other networks, as a matter of fact.

But I bring up the subject because I still believe that some readers somewhere might appreciate knowing these things before they turn on this show to sample it.

Or maybe I am the one who is being old-fashioned. It’s not that I am a prude, however. It’s just that I find much of this material to be gratuitous, by which I mean that if a TV show is otherwise well-written and produced, it doesn’t really need the parade of naked butts that FX presents every time it premieres a new show.

That said, I watched the first three episodes of “Snowfall” and it seemed to me that the show got much of this stuff out of its system after the first episode (the one airing this week) and voila! it emerged in episodes 2 and 3 as a much better show.

In fact, the notes I wrote while watching Episode 1 indicate that I was more than ready to dismiss this show out of hand based on its many derivative characteristics.

“Snowfall” purports to tell the story of how cocaine and crack (the kind of coke one smokes) rose to prominence in the 1980s.

The TV show’s story begins on June 14, 1983, according to words that appear onscreen when the show starts. But the significance of this date is not specified. Can’t get anything over on me, though: I realize June 14th is Flag Day. But I have no idea what this is supposed to mean.

“Snowfall” takes place in L.A. The story is centered on a young African-American man named Franklin (Damson Idris, photo center) who’s a smart, upstanding kid by all appearances. He has ambitions for rising above his humble ghetto beginnings and decides to put his considerable intelligence to work selling drugs.

As he enters this world, we go along with him. Soon, we all become acquainted with various L.A. types involved in wrongdoing -- Mexicans, an Israeli drug kingpin, and a CIA agent who becomes involved in the drug trade as a way of financing arms purchases for an anti-Communist insurgency in Central America.

If you get the feeling while watching this show -- particularly the premiere-- that you’ve seen these types before, then that’s because you have. You’ve seen them in movie after movie and TV show after TV show probably ever since the real 1983. 

The TV and movie versions of these types of characters are so ingrained by now that it is impossible when watching yet another one of these dramatizations to ever determine whether a new round of them are “real” or based mainly on all the other movie and TV characters that came before them.

For example, while watching the first episode of “Snowfall,” I made notes about movies and TV shows that this show reminded me of that ranged from the original “Miami Vice” TV show to the movie “Boogie Nights.” When I heard part of the Rolling Stones’ song “Monkey Man,” I thought of “GoodFellas,” which also used a piece of the same song.

You get the idea. When sifting through these elements, the last thing one pays attention to is the show and story at hand.

Fortunately, though, both the show and its story began to take shape for me in Episodes 2 and 3 – so much so that I am winding up recommending this show as the first very good (although not quite great) new drama series of the summer.

“Snowfall” premieres Wednesday (July 5) at 10 p.m. Eastern on FX.