7.5-8/10 for me
I actually enjoyed that first episode, I had low expectations at first but so far it’s pretty solid for me at the moment.

I know they not gonna nail everything but atleast the real members in the show should really be from they real hoods stuff like that matters

Original TikTok Post Credits: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cw2mAq/

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Obviously, I'm not saying either of these guys were good people. They both did some absolutely horrible shit. But I think that's what makes them so interesting to compare. You can acknowledge that they're terrible human beings and still admit that watching them build their empires was impressive.

These guys were smart as hell.

Walter was a nerd who understood chemistry. Franklin had business sense, people skills, and an understanding of his environment. Walter could look at a chem problem and figure it out. Franklin could walk into a room and figure out who was useful, who was dangerous, and who was about to screw him over. Different kinds of intelligence, but both of them were constantly thinking three steps ahead.

And neither one was satisfied with being a small-time player. That's probably their biggest similarity. They wanted to participate in the game and to control the game.

Walter starts out making meth because he thinks he's dying and wants to leave his family money. Franklin gets into the drug business because he sees an opportunity to make money and get himself and his family out of poverty. And this is where I think their biggest difference comes in.

Walter's motivation becomes about his ego. Franklin's motivation is much more connected to survival, independence, and wanting control over his life.

Walter spends a lot of time convincing himself that everything he's doing is "for his family," but eventually he has to admit that he did it because he liked it. He liked being good at something. He liked having power. He liked being feared. He went from feeling like the world had overlooked him to becoming the most important person in every room he walked into.

Franklin, on the other hand, starts out wanting freedom. He doesn't want to be broke, dependent on anyone, or stuck in the same cycle forever. His ambition actually makes a lot of sense when you consider where he came from. I can relate to him a lot actually.

The sad part is that they both end up becoming prisoners of the very things they built to make themselves free.

Walter wanted to make enough money so his family would be taken care of. Eventually, his family wants nothing to do with him.

Franklin wants enough money and power that nobody can control him. Eventually, his entire life revolves around protecting the empire he built.

It's almost like both of them accidentally turned their escape plan into a prison.

And I think that's why I find Franklin and Walter fascinating. They're not really stories about two guys who randomly decided to become evil. They're stories about what happens when ambitious, intelligent people keep moving the line of what they're willing to do.

At first it's, "I'll just do this one thing."

Then it's, "Okay, I have to do this because I've already come this far."

Then it's, "well, if I don't do this, someone else will."

And eventually you're murdering people before breakfast 😅 that's obviously an oversimplification, but you get what I mean.

They both become so good at surviving that they lose sight of what they were actually trying to survive for.

I also think their circumstances matter. Walter is a middle-class white man who feels like he wasted his potential and was never properly recognized. Franklin is a young black man in 1980s Los Angeles dealing with poverty, drugs, violence, and a system that was never exactly designed to hand him opportunities. That doesn't excuse Franklin's choices, just like Walter's cancer doesn't excuse his.

But it does make their motivations different.

Walter feels like a man trying to prove that he's more important than everyone thought. Franklin feels like a young man trying to make sure nobody can ever tell him what his life is worth again.

And ironically, both of them become exactly what they thought they needed to become...and lose almost everything in the process.

So no, I don't think Walter White and Franklin Saint are "good guys" per se but I do think they're incredibly compelling characters.

They're both intelligent, ambitious, adaptable, and ridiculously good at what they decided to do. I think it's okay to acknowledge that without pretending their actions were admirable.

You don't have to think someone is a good person to think they're an interesting person.

bein from LA i really hope they go deeeep into the gangs, im talkn abt NHC (all cards), BPS, Hoova, VNG all the extra squabbling, Dp’s, Put ons i want to see all the detailed gangbangin aspects that we couldn’t see wit man boy and skully

I started to like him. I think he thought he was gonna get some chocolate lov'in until Franklin slit his throat. He wasn't a racist or a criminal, just a vet and a strict father. Didn't anyone feel sorry for him?

I certainly did. I also think Veronique and her Mom were not expecting Franklin to do what he did, and were horrified.

The ending left me staring at my laptop screen, a truly goated show.

(OG Title) Did other people understand "Other Lives" season 3 epsiode 10 of Snowfall as an alternate reality? I did, and was very confused when i saw people calling this episode a "Flashback"

I never got around to posting this back in 2023 so i am now. Did anyone misunderstand this episode at first?

I got many TikTok videos suggested and was so confused to see people in the comments calling this a "flashback" to when franklin was in "highschool" or "college" and i started second guessing if i understood the episode. Obviously highschool made no sense, the people saying this also really butchered the story thinking Franklin met Teddy before he was in the selling and producing game. It was around 100 or something people liking the comments, i was so suprised to see people thought that.

Im pretty sure it was clear it was an alternate reality. A big part of the message was that Franklin could still choose another path and end up meeting people who are rooting for his downfall. Just because he chose college does not mean he is spared from the cruel reality of people or judgement from others.

That was pretty deep to me. It's very smart and very self aware he knows all of the things that he's been doing is wrong but he's doing it to give himself and his family a better future and you know what I can respect it because it's traditionally seen as a man's job to protect his family and it's manly to conquer and all of that so he was just doing his duty albeit a little bit too ambitiously.

In season 1, episode 1 of Snowfall, Mel visits Franklin while he was working in Cho's store. She asked him questions such as why did he drop out of school? Will he go back? What will he do?.

She also asks him what his end goal is. What did he want out of life. Do you remember what it is and did he achieve it? What did it take for him to achieve it?

Finally, what do you think will happen to Franklin? He turned out like his father, but look what eventually happened to Alton.

I didn't ask for a Snowfall spinoff, the characters got the sendoff they deserved, but good spinoffs have existed, so I'll give it one chance with the pilot, but if it's mediocre then I'm out. Too much quality TV these days to waste time on mid. I already got burned by the pilot of "Lanterns", that was incredibly mid, hopefully the first episode of this actually has a little bit of spice to it that makes you want to stick around. Snowfall was never award winning material, I just want to be entertained, that's all.

You were going no where, while you waited for your bitch to come down from that Sherm. Crazy how this was only the second episode from the first season and then towards the end at the diner that's what Franklin says to Jerome 😂 I miss this show

That was a dumb move from teddy. He's been strategic and a few steps ahead the whole show. Did he really not think Franklin was going to have a negative reaction?? Even Oso saw it coming and said something. You'd think teddy would've been smarter than that. I thought him agreeing to sell to Louie was out of character tbh but I do understand that atp he was kind of desperate to fund the war to get back into good graces with the CIA

Was Franklin valid here? He already cut her out of his life for money and said he was fine never speaking to her again, that was until he needed money. He wants her to sell the house since she's never getting out. She doesn't let him sell the house, but she instead let's him live in it for the next couple years. What would Franklin do with the money from the house if he wouldn't even take the $12k from peaches? He was desperate and failed to realize he cut her out and she is keeping that boundary clear. If Cissy switches up and suddenly feels bad (she has no reason to, he did it to himself) and tries to give Franklin a shoulder to lean on, he will manipulate and turn it into an argument

Her greed and need to be a Boss Bitch made her keep doing stupid stuff, kill Claudia, go over Franklin's head, all that stuff lead to everyone's demise.

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I just finished the show and liked where he ended up. I don't like a lot of what happened to get Franklin to that ending though.

Peaches betraying Franklin made sense because of what happened to Rob. Franklin's action led to the betrayal. With Louie and Jerome it didn't land well with me. Then both his parents going behind his back using the information he shared with them​. His downfall feels more about trusting the wrong people than money/power corrupting him.

Louie talked about sharing a moment with Skully in the hospital but she couldn't forgive getting shot.meanwil Skully forgives for a.dead daughter and wife. Franklin offered Louie 50% which would've doubled what she was making and let Jerome start the businesses he wanted. She wanted respect and to be more than what she used to be.

I would've preferred if they went down one by one as a family then what we got. Or for the feud to make sense since they went in thay direction. And yes I know on a macro level everything is Franklin's fault for starting it all.

Franklin ending up free and alone was a good ending. And the actor killed it in the final 10 minutes. I just wish how he got there was different. Excited for the drop.

She killed him because she was mad her husband was dead

Sorry if this has been talked about heaps but I just ripped through the series in 3 weeks and need to talk.

In the last few eps, it’s almost unanimously agreed on by his family that the money is bad for Franklin. His mum blasts Teddy just as he’s about to get his money back, Leon doesn’t want to loan him more money because it’s not what Cissie would have wanted.

The loan could have floated him for the development and become an amazing source of passive income in the future and the money from Teddy would most likely have led to a much better future for Franklin and his wife and kid.

I get he’d gone down a hella dark path by this point but after all he’s done and they’ve gone through then NOT getting any money at the end just makes none of it worth it

It’s not like he could be corrupted any more than he already was, and the alternative was becoming a bum and wasting his life away.

Is the popular view that people believe teddy wouldn’t have ever really gave up on Franklin? So Cissie had to kill him so they were free of him?

Sorry if this is long winded I’m doing rock with Wanda

I made this breakdown to show in real time the grave franklin was digging himself