Netflix released a new iteration of its most popular show on Friday November 16th and while Narcos: Mexico is a standalone show, it follows the same formula that made Narcos so popular across the world, transcending geographic and linguistic barriers.
Netflix released a new iteration of its most popular show on Friday November 16th and while Narcos: Mexico is a standalone show, it follows the same formula that made Narcos so popular across the world, transcending geographic and linguistic barriers.
Number of Episodes: 10
Plot
The opening monologue says it all: “Drug dealers are like cockroaches. You could poison them, step on them––f***, you could set them on fire. But they always come back... Usually stronger than ever. Anytime you think you’ve knocked out the dope business, a smart trafficker, well, he'll just find a better way.”
The story – after spending three seasons in Colombia – moves to Mexico and shows how the ill-fated War on Drugs started and looks unlikely to end any time soon.
We follow the lives of two protagonists – Michael Pena’s Kiki Carmena – an agent who goes on to become the Patron Saint of the DEA and Diego Luna’s Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, the skinny man who came to be known as El Padrino – the Godfather of the Guadalajara Cartel which used marijuana as a gateway to bigger and meaner things.
What’s good
It’s a formula that has worked well in various shows in the past, pitting men of resolve and stubbornness against each other and both Diego Luna and Michael Pena bring an earnestness to their roles.
What's fascinating is the role that the authorities played in creating the monster, showing just how big the drug problem is in Mexico
The characters are almost prescient knowing that weed isn’t the real deal. Luna’s Felix is the antithesis of Lucas Moura’s Pablo Escobar, who was the personification of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, a ticking time-bomb waiting to explode into chaos.
Felix, on the other hand, is a complete outsider, meticulous to the point that he reminds you of Don Vito Corleone from time to time. He is driven by ambition but there’s not a hint of chaos, he knows what he needs to do to achieve immortality – unite the warring drug lords across the land, a task made difficult by the fact that they are borderline psychopaths with a taste for violence.
He strives to create an empire, he is a megalomaniac but not one raging firestone but instead cold and calculated, not unlike a Fortune 500 CEO. He just doesn’t want to make money, he wants to be accepted and honoured for his creation, even though you imagine deep down he knows his outsider status won’t go away.
Pena – often seen in humorous roles like the one he played as Scott Land’s sidekick Luis in Ant-Man – shows the range of his acting chops. He is a study in contrast to Pedro Pascal’s Javier Pena, straight as Pena was crooked.
Then there are delightful side characters.
There’s Rafael Caro Quintero AKA Rafa played by Tenoch Huerta, the Walter White of weed, a man who is absolutely obsessed with the plant to the point that he cares about them more than other human beings. He plays the character with a delightful derangement and at times is reminiscent of Nawazuddin Sidduiqui’s Faizal Khan in GoW – both in looks and character.
There are a bunch of other eminently watchable character artists to hold up this plot including Amado Carrillo Fuentes’ Lord of Skies (played by José María Yazpik), who’s the only main character to crossover from the main Narcos show.
What’s not
As usual, the female characters, barring Teresa Ruiz’s Izabelle Bautista, are defined simply by their husband’s actions, playing different shades of damsels in distress. Izabelle Bautista, on the other hand, wants to be more than her physique demanding her share of the pie.
Unlike previous Narcos seasons, there’s also no standalone, jump-out-of-your-seat action sequences though there is one scene which will fill every fan of the show with unbridled pleasure.
While the show does well to show how deep the rot runs in the corrupt Mexican politician system, it could also have delved into the fact about how the ill-fated war on drugs started, thanks in part to an overzealous first lady in the White House – Nancy Reagan.
In the US, prohibition created the underworld cartels who then moved into every other sphere of crime, a multi-headed Hydra that became impossible to control. Similarly, overzealous targeting of poor marijuana farmers created Mexico’s drug problem as the cartels graduated to coke and other drugs. It was perhaps something that could’ve been explored more, or probbaly will de delved into in the upcoming season.
There are times when the plot flounders a little but the pacing problems are minimal compared to the ultimate payout. Of course, all this is nit-picking at the end of the day and Narcos: Mexico is still better than shows we devour, a delight thanks to solid acting, great locations and two superb protagonists.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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