Narcos Returns for A Second Season on Netflix
It’s not hard to find the common crime drama on television. Flip through the channels and you’re guaranteed to find a Law and Order or CSI re-run somewhere. Filled with loyal, dedicated, and borderline invincible characters that always manage to catch the bad guys, the American police crime drama is as prevalent as it is repetitive. It’s familiar. It’s average.
Narcos is anything but average or familiar.
Narcos is a gritty drama based on the life of Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, played by Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, depicting Escobar’s rise of to be the “King of Cocaine”, the wealthiest criminal in history, and the largest supplier of cocaine to the United States. Set in the eighties as the United States starts what would be known as the War on Drugs, Escobar builds his empire from the ground with a insidious combination of charm and violent intelligence, becoming a folk hero, so much that he was elected to the Colombian Chamber of Representatives, and a crime lord, killing all those who stand in his way.
The show is narrated from the perspective of Steve Murphy, played by American actor and model Boyd Holbrook, a US DEA agent sent to Colombia to assist the Colombian police in their search for Pablo Escobar. Fueled by revenge against the drug traffickers for the killing of his partner agent in Miami by smugglers, he volunteers to be sent to Colombia and is partnered with Javier Pena, a veteran fellow DEA agent unafraid to use illicit means to accomplish his goal. Javier Pena is played by Chilean-born American actor Pedro Pascal, best known for his role as Oberyn Martell in the series Game of Thrones, as well as appearances in shows such as Law and Order and Graceland. Aiding the agents is Colonel Carrillo, a Colombian police chief hardened by the drug war and willing to go above and beyond the law to protect the lives of his fellow Colombian policemen and take down Escobar.
As said before, American crime dramas are not hard to come by. Often, they are dragged down by repetitive storylines and bland characters, instead attempting to compensate viewers with action and realism. Narcos is a completely different breed. The story takes viewers on an emotional rollercoaster, letting viewers see the compassion and care inside the characters, especially Escobar, and then ruining the sympathy viewers build with brutal and gory violence. The characters are not characters thought up within the confines of a Hollywood office that exist only in the pages of a script. Instead, the characters in Narcos feel real, even the fictional ones, all encompassing a sense of humanity that is hard to find in television. The characters make mistakes, they pay the consequences, and develop. The decisions they make are unforgiving in the harsh world of cocaine trafficking.
Speaking of harsh reality, ironically enough for a drama, the strong suit of the series is their realism, both the beautiful and the ugly sides. Narcos rips away the black-and-white perfect picture that is held by other television shows. Sometimes the “good guys” often blur the lines between legal and illegal means, all to accomplish an unpopular goal that seems to be impossible to reach, while at points the “bad guys” are just regular people doing what they need to do to for their family to survive. Justice is rare, and pain and loss accompanies all parties involved, whether deserved or undeserved, innocent or guilty. In addition, scenes in Narcos are fast paced, gritty, and uncensored, and the writers never hold back. Whether it be withering from the raw emotional pain of a crying mother, or the cringe and recoil of a cold alleyway execution, Narcos guarantees an emotional view into a reality that would rather be ignored by most. The reality of the Colombian drug war is anything but just and right, and the story reflects that, in the hunt to bring a man to justice, justice is one of the last things to pave the road.
Narcos, though their first season has been out for almost a year, their second season has just now been released, and the series has been confirmed for an additional two seasons. The series is a Netflix exclusive, so it’s availability is limited to those with Netflix subscriptions. If you haven’t gotten a Netflix subscription yet, I would wholeheartedly recommend getting one just for Narcos.
Having been a fan of crime films and shows, ranging from The Godfather to Pulp Fiction, I can honestly say that Narcos takes its place among the best. Although it is written and played by a mostly little-known cast of English and Spanish actors and producers, the production and writing in amazing and captivating. The story is emotionally raw in a beautiful way, laying bare the criminal underbelly that is drug trafficking. Although the story is focused around Pablo Escobar, the plot spends a great deal of time depicting the Colombian government, U.S. forces in Colombia, and rival cartels as they interact with Escobar, creating a diverse set of personalities. The world in which the plot exists in is harsh and gritty, letting the viewer be encapsulated in a story that is unique and real. Gripping, emotional, and beautifully human, Narcos is everything one can want in a crime drama and more.
