History Series / Snowfall

** [[spoiler:Franklin's attempts to antagonize Officer Nix end up backfiring when Nix kidnaps Cissy and roughs her up.]]

* AxCrazy: Skully, one of the new players who tries to take advantage of the power vacuum in season 4, is the kind of lunatic who crucifies people and shows up to a shooting high as a kite. Naturally, Franklin wants him off of the board.

* CategoryTraitor: Franklin's mom Cissy used to be a rent collector at an apartment complex owned by a white man but populated by black people, which means that her job often required her to kick black people out of their apartments when they were unable to make rent. This has not endeared her to other black people in her neighborhood, and the resulting harassment that his mother received has made Franklin cynical enough about black culture that he's willing to work with Avi.
* DepravedBisexual: Claudia is not afraid of using her bisexuality as a means of asserting dominance over the younger women who work for her. [[spoiler:In "Story of a Scar", she demands that Louie sleep with her in exchange for setting up the meeting between Franklin and Lenny.]]

** Season 4 introduces Oscar Fuentes, the new Chief of Police in Tijuana, who uses his position to squeeze Teddy and Oso for new bribes.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Beneath Manboy's civil and pleasant demeanor is a ruthless snake who will stab anyone in the back.

* TheAlcoholic: Franklin's dad Alton used to be a Black Panther, but his drinking put an end to that. In season 2, he finally decides to get sober.

* BadassIsraeli: Avi is a deconstruction; while he is hugely successful, his paranoid and erratic behavior make him a pain in the ass to deal with, and it's glaringly obvious that his organization is held together mainly by the force of his personality. [[spoiler:Sure enough, in the second-season premiere, he gets arrested, and his operation falls apart.]]
* TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler:Franklin runs into Ray Ray in prison. Ray Ray has him beaten to a pulp for what he did to Lenny back in the first season.]]

* DisappearedDad: Franklin's dad left his mother years ago and spent years living on the streets. In season 2, circumstances force him to move back in with Cissy, though he still has yet to reconcile with Franklin.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Franklin tries to keep his mother from finding out about his extracurricular activities. [[spoiler:She eventually does find out, and kicks him out of her house, but reconciles with him after he promises to eventually become a legitimate businessman.]]

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: [[spoiler:Kev gives up the manufacturing process to Lucia in exchange for the identity of his cousin's killer, harming Franklin's business in the process. Although he's tired of Franklin's management, Kev's real motivation for this is to avenge his cousin's death.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Franklin is devastated when he finds out that he killed Kevin.]]

** [[spoiler:In "Prometheus Rising", Kev hears a rumor that two of his guys got castrated by the Mexicans. Franklin has to spend the episode searching for answers about whether or not the rumor is true before his crew starts a race war in retaliation.]]

** [[spoiler:In the hopes of stopping Kev from shooting a Mexican gangster and starting a war, Franklin shoots him in the leg. He figures that because it's only a leg wound, Kev will merely be incapacitated. The next episode reveals that Franklin's shot hit an artery; Kev bled out and died, and Franklin is arrested for murder.]]

** [[spoiler:After discovering Alejandro in the act of killing Victoria to prevent her from learning his identity, Teddy kills Alejandro.]]
** [[spoiler:In order to secure a peace between them, Franklin pays Ray Ray to murder Lenny.]]
* StartOfDarkness: [[spoiler:In the second-season finale, Franklin is left deeply embittered by his time in prison, and upon being released, he resolves to take a much less forgiving approach to running his business.]]

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:After Alejandro murders Victoria in order to prevent her from finding out his identity, Teddy decides that he can't work with someone like Alejandro anymore and thus shoots him dead.]]

* BiTheWay: Claudia and Louie used to be an item, back in the day. [[spoiler:In season 2, Louie briefly leaves Jerome to shack up with Claudia, only to go back to Jerome after Claudia falls back into her bad habits.]]

''Snowfall'' is a series airing on Creator/{{FX}}, created by Creator/JohnSingleton, Eric Amadio, and Dave Andron, and starring Damson Idris, Carter Hudson, and Emily Rios.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: When Franklin and Jerome go to confront Jim Volpe for stealing some of their cocaine, Jim whines about how he needed to sell the cocaine to cover the expenses of raising his son, which he has meticulously tallied up. Jerome is so appalled at the notion of keeping a running tab on your own offspring that he summons Jim's son and goads the boy into beating up his dad for being such a stingy asshole.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Franklin tries to keep his mother from finding out about his extracurricular activities. [[spoiler:She eventually does find out, and kicks him out of her house.]]

* InspectorJavert: In season 2, DEA Agent Lorena is determined to bring down the Villanueva cartel, and doesn't care how much carnage she has to inflict in order to do it.

* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:In "Prometheus Rising", Kev hears a rumor that two of his guys got castrated by the Mexicans. Franklin has to spend the episode searching for answers about whether or not the rumor is true before his crew starts a race war in retaliation.]]

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler:In the hopes of stopping Kev from shooting a Mexican gangster and starting a war, Franklin shoots him in the leg. He figures that because it's only a leg wound, Kev will merely be incapacitated. The next episode reveals that Franklin's shot hit an artery; Kev bled out and died, and Franklin is arrested for murder.]]

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler:In the hopes of stopping Kev from shooting a Mexican gangster and starting a war, Franklin shoots him in the leg. He figures that because it's only a leg wound, Kev will merely be incapacitated. The next episode reveals that Franklin's shot hit an artery; Kev bled out and died, and now Franklin is wanted for murder.]]

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: [[spoiler:Kev trades the crack recipe for the identity of his cousin's killer, harming Franklin's business. Although he does it partially because he's tired of Franklin's management, the real reason is to find the killer and avenge his cousin.]]

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: [[spoiler:Kev gives away the recipe for crack, harming Franklin's business, because he's tired of Franklin's management.]]

* BiTheWay: Claudia and Louie used to be an item, back in the day. [[spoiler:In season 2, Louie leaves Jerome to shack up with Claudia.]]

* DisappearedDad: Franklin's dad left his mother years ago and has been living on the streets.

* TheAlcoholic: Franklin's dad used to be a Black Panther, but his drinking put an end to that. In season 2, he finally decides to get sober.

* OhCrap: Franklin and Leon are horrified when they realize that [[spoiler:Karvel's method of getting Ray-Ray to talk consists of brutally sodomizing him.]]

* BiTheWay: Claudia and Louie used to be an item, back in the day.
* CategoryTraitor: Franklin's mom Cissy is a rent collector at an apartment complex owned by a white man but populated by black people, which means that her job often requires her to kick black people out of their apartments when they're unable to make rent. This has not endeared her to other black people in her neighborhood, and the resulting harassment that his mother has received has made Franklin cynical enough about black culture that he's willing to work with Avi.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Franklin tries to keep his mother from finding out about his extracurricular activities.

* BadassIsraeli: Avi is a deconstruction; while he is hugely successful, his paranoid and erratic behavior make him a pain in the ass to deal with, and it's glaringly obvious that his organization is held together mainly by the force of his personality.

** In "Slow Hand", Teddy insists that a shipment of weapons bound for the Contras have the SerialNumbersFiledOff to prevent anyone from connecting the weapons to the United States, but then he blows off doing the actual filing in order to visit his girlfriend and son, and thus the weapons are sent on to the Contras unaltered.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: Teddy was banished to a desk job in Los Angeles for some unrevealed reasons. He sees Logan's operation as an opportunity to get back into the field.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In "Slow Hand", Teddy insists that a shipment of weapons bound for the Contras have the SerialNumbersFiledOff to prevent anyone from connecting the weapons to the United States, but then he blows off doing the actual filing in order to visit his girlfriend and son, and thus the weapons are sent on to the Contras unaltered.

* SummonBiggerFish: In "Slow Hand", Franklin is desperate to recover his money, and thus enlists the aid of hardened criminal Karvel to help him rough up the guys who stole it.

* OhCrap: Franklin and Leon are horrified when they realize that [spoiler:Karvel's method of getting Ray-Ray to talk consists of brutally sodomizing him.]]

* DontCallMePaul: Leon has been stuck with the nickname "Lil' Leon" ever since his stint in juvie. He hates it.

* SummonABiggerFish: In "Slow Hand", Franklin is desperate to recover his money, and thus enlists the aid of hardened criminal Karvel to help him rough up the guys who stole it.

* RefugeInAudacity: In order to prove his toughness to Avi, Franklin straps on a bulletproof vest and offers to let the crazy bastard shoot him at short range.

''Snowfall'' is a series airing on FX, created by Creator/JohnSingleton, Eric Amadio, and Dave Andron, and starring Damson Idris, Carter Hudson, and Emily Rios.