Narcos on Netflix

Okay, when I heard Netflix and Amazon were going to start some of their own original programming I immediately thought this stuff was going to be a collection of shite. I assumed it would be zero budget, bad acting, bad directing, and just plain bad. I am very happy to say I am quite wrong--at least about this one series.

I hadn't intended on watching Narcos but I ran across an article about it from a person who grew up in Columbia during the trials and tribulations of the Pablo Escobar era. Like me, the writer expected the series to be drek but found himself not only enjoying the series but appreciating the huge amount of work that went into making it feel authentic. There is a lot of historical research that has gone into the first season and, since it has been renewed for a second season, one can hope that level of detail will remain.

So what is Narcos? Well, the series begins with the rise of the cocaine trade in South America, leading to the rise of the Medillin cartel. The episodes do a nice job covering the history, the characters, motivations, etc., without getting overly esoteric and erudite. In fact, one of the best parts of Narcos is how it humanize a the people it portrays. As awful as many of the people involved were, they were still human beings. They weren't monsters and they only SEEMED larger than life. The series does a nice job making sure to return most of these people to their human sized forms from the caricatures they'd become.

This is a bloody series and has quite a bit of nudity, so if that puts the of off then you will want to skip it. However, If you're put off by violence why the hell are you a football fan!? Go watch badminton or seomthing. As for tha story, if you're in your 40's or older you may know or remember (like I do) the story of Escobar, the Ochoas, Gacha, Lehder, the Medillin and Cali cartels. However, if you're younger you may not know or remember this bloody period in Columbian and American history. Whether you approach this with some memory of the events or not, this is a really entertaining way to get a reasonable account of those events (it is not an actual history, it is a drama, but it is close enough for most people) or to remember what this early fight against drugs cost. A lot of good people died.


So is anyone else watching this?

 

Nice to see some other folks watching this bad boy! I forgot the mention how much of it was in Spanish. I've been watching it on my Roku and the subtitles have been aligned nicely with the scenes, no noticeable lag. Or rather, the only lag is me. The funny thing is I really don't mind all the Spanish. It makes it feel like a much more authentic I suppose, or brings a greater deal of immersion to the experience.

Btw, I think the actor playing Escobar is great. Moura is his name I think. He isn't quite a dead ringer for Escobar, but he does a nice job capturing some of the subtleties of Pablo, like his little pot belly and the weird combination Escobar had between seemingly nerdish qualities, cold blooded murderer, and drug kingpin.

I've read that the actor playing DEA agent Murphy has been criticized for being too 'plain' but apparently he is plying the part exactly as he was supposed to and I think it works. I hate all these supposed super hero agents you see in movies; real agents aren't like that supposedly.

Faux Machine: I'll look for cocaine Cowboys, sounds interesting. I've always found this story very interesting for a lot of reasons. I suppose this was something that caught my attention growing up, but also living in Trenton we didn't have a significant drug and gang problem until about a decade or so ago (believe it or not). The city was reviving, but the economy crashed, gangs moved in, and drugs became a worse problem. We lost about two decades worth of effort and things are just barely stabilizing. It didn't help that we had a corrupt mayor as well, but it is the gangs that have been the biggest problem. I hate these people. They destroy what common, decent people try to build for their lives and I guess I sympathize with what Columbia had to deal with on a much, much greater scale when they dealt with Escobar and his thugs. I have to say I clapped more than a few times watching this series.... I can't recommend it enough.

 

Can you recommend anything else on Netflix? I'm impressed enough with Narcos to give more of their content a try. Although I did hear that the Adam Sandler film on Netflix was awful. I don't recall its name though...