| September 7, 2026 
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A compelling ’90s hip-hop drama | | Brandon Mychal Smith and Gail Bean in a scene from the hip-hop drama “The Drop,” a spin-off of the FX series “Snowfall.” Ray Mickshaw/FX |
Dear Watchers,“Where are you from?” is a pretty innocuous question most of the time — unless you are living in 1990s Los Angeles, where two highly territorial, gun-toting gangs will shoot people in the street for wearing the wrong colors or living on the wrong block. That is the ever-present danger in the FX series “The Drop: A Snowfall Saga,” debuting on Tuesday at 9 p.m., on FX and Hulu. The show is a spinoff of “Snowfall,” a six-season FX show that dramatized the spread of crack cocaine and the rise of Los Angeles street gangs. “The Drop” keeps the milieu but changes focus, fictionalizing the rise of West Coast rap. The main returning “Snowfall” character is Wanda Bell (Gail Bean), who was formerly addicted to crack and is now working to remake herself into a music mogul. She is doing time as an intern for Darryl Grant, known as D.G. (Brandon Mychal Smith), who runs the hip-hop label Black Banner for the venerable record company Macroscope. Wanda is pushing D.G.’s Macroscope bosses to sign Artillery, a rapper who is already a local legend for his song about a cop-killing. (Artillery is played by the real-life rapper Simmie Sims III, better known as Buddy.) Wanda has to win over white music executives who still see rap as a cheap commodity; and she has to placate D.G., a former gangster who sees his business as his kingdom and Wanda as a woman who does not know her place. Wanda also has to work around the demands of the Crips and Bloods, with help from her ex, Leon Simmons (Isaiah John), another “Snowfall” holdover who now runs a free legal clinic. Wanda’s real ace in the hole, though — and the show’s best character — is her cousin Lamar (Asante Blackk), a budding musical genius chasing a sound that celebrates and documents Los Angeles. Fans of Dr. Dre will recognize Lamar’s style, which combines synthesizers, bass-heavy beats and sunny ’70s soul samples. Music nerds will recognize his type: socially awkward but privately obsessive, lost in his own head. Bean and Blackk give terrific performances, putting across Wanda and Lamar’s genuine passion for music. All these two want is to share a piece of themselves with the world. And all they encounter are people who want to shut them down because of who they are and where they are from. Also this week | | Domhnall Gleeson, center, in a scene from Season 2 of “The Paper.” John P. Fleenor/Peacock |
- “The Office” spinoff “The Paper” returns for a second season, after a very good Season 1 that introduced the awkward but well-meaning staff of a Toledo, Ohio, newspaper led by a new editor played by Domhnall Gleeson. Season 2 debuts in its entirety on Wednesday, on Peacock.
- Based on the Ryan David Jahn novel “The Dispatcher,” the Australian mini-series “Last Seen” is about a police officer (Patrick Brammall) who receives a call for help from a young woman he believes could be his long-absent daughter. The first two episodes of this six-part mystery thriller arrive on Wednesday, on Apple TV.
- In the down-to-earth romance “Colin From Accounts,” Brammall and Harriet Dyer (both of whom also created the series) play a likable couple brought together by the title character, an injured dog. The story of their up-and-down relationship comes to an end with Season 3, arriving in full on Thursday, on Paramount+.
- The docuseries “A Killer Story” examines the strange case of Dana Chandler, a woman who keeps being retried for the same murder — and who, in the process, has found both allies and enemies among true-crime aficionados. The three-part series debuts at 9 p.m. on Thursday, on HBO and HBO Max.
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