Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Over the years, television has taught us many lessons — the power of friendship, when to attempt grand romantic gestures, how to lie under oath. But last night Snowfall may have taught us the most important lesson of all. You really shouldn’t shoot coke up your friend’s butt unless you know what you’re doing.
John Singleton’s dreamy show about the birth of LA’s crack epidemic has been criticized for being slow by some critics. However, you certainly can’t say that about one of the show’s first scenes. Set in a luxurious drug den, the show’s introduction to Alejandro Usteves (Juan Javier Cardenas) is filled with nudity, sex acts, risque pool adventures, and lots and lots of coke — all elements you’d expect from a super wealthy LA party. Though things may be extravagant, it seems to be an overall chill party. But every good party has one guy that takes things too far, and Snowfall is no different.
While in the middle of what is sure to become a threesome, Alejandro’s buddy demands that one of his new female friends shoot a line of coke up his ass. For whatever reason, she agrees, and shoves the fanciest gold straw you’ve ever seen between two bare cheeks.
One minute everyone is happy and snorting absurd amounts of nose candy. The next Mr. Cokey Buns is simultaneously foaming at the mouth, choking on his own vomit, and bleeding profusely.
Instead of calling an ambulance like a normal person who is not hiding a mountain of coke under their deck, Alejandro lets his friend die. This triggers the series of events that will eventually lead to one drug dealer changing this fictional version of LA for the worse, but forget about that for a minute. This quick, bun-filled scene embodies one of the elements I really enjoy about Snowfall. It’s a series that’s more concerned with realism than glamorization.
Prestige TV is filled with beautiful people with unknown amounts of money living in places you’re unsure they can afford. Snowfall rarely falls into that trap. In the show, lower income housing isn’t pretty or clean. It looks as impoverished as it is. Not every character is hyper-stylized. People are often sweaty because LA is a hot place, and air conditioning is expensive. And when rando blows coke up a character’s ass without any instruction or preparation, something goes horribly wrong. It’s sad, but in this realistic universe, it’s not completely unexpected.
I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t do coke. Whatever drug you take and how you prefer to consume it is completely up to you, though Decider doesn’t condone illegal drug use. If you really want to know what plugging (the official name for this phenomenon that I learned for this article) is like, VICE already tried it out for all of us.�� All I’m saying is if you’re going to get a bit more experimental with your drug of choice, do some research. There’s a bit more to butt-focused coke use than just shoving a straw up your crack. Don’t make the mistakes of Snowfall. Be better.
