FX's "The Drop: A Snowfall Saga" is a spinoff of the acclaimed crime drama "Snowfall," shifting focus from the 1980s crack epidemic to the 1990s Los Angeles hip-hop music industry. Arriving more than three years after its predecessor concluded, the series follows Wanda (Gail Bean) and Leon (Isaiah John), two survivors of the original show, as they attempt to break into the music business, offering a lower-stakes but more accessible narrative that requires little prior knowledge of "Snowfall."

Reviewing the first five episodes made available to critics, the writer finds the show uneven but promising, praising its authentic ensemble cast, strong period atmosphere and an "almost nonstop" soundtrack of bangers. Created by Malcolm Spellman, the series abandons the multi-stranded, novelistic structure of "Snowfall" in favour of a simpler, more standalone approach, only directly referencing the original show's characters and drug-to-rap parallels by the fourth episode; while it lacks the mounting dread and dynamic lead performance that defined "Snowfall," reviewers see potential for the new series to develop its own identity, much as its predecessor did before it.