NARCOS is based on the excitingly surreal story of DEA agents Steve Murphy’s (Boyd Holbrook) and Javier Peńa’s (Pedro Pascal) hunt to bring down the infamous Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura). For those of you who aren’t familiar with Escobar, he was the biggest cocaine trafficker in the 80s and at the height of his power would haul in over $400 million a week…YES A WEEK. With that kind of cash involved you would expect to see excesses greater than that of THE WOLF OF WALL STREET flood the screen with constant sex, drugs and violence.
Curiously enough there is not a great deal of sex or drug taking on screen and the show is centred more on the violence and the impact the Medellín cartel had on Columbia. The show does not glorify the vast amount of money and power gained by the cartel, but rather focuses on the bloody struggle between the law and Escobar.
NARCOS also serves as a character study into the mindsets of Murphy and Escobar. Wagner Moura’s portrayal of Escobar is a perfectly nuanced performance that highlights the Jekyll and Hyde like nature of the drug king. Moura manages to flesh out the more human aspects of a man who seemingly has everything and nothing. His need for even more power is insatiable and becomes very child like, in an extremely dangerous way.
In some ways it is like watching a kid who had a lollipop snatched from him, but instead of crying about it he goes to extreme measures to make sure the people who took it away suffer. We learn more about the era and Murphy through his exposition ladled voiceovers that help keep us on track, although some have criticised the abundance of them, I think it is a deeply effective narrative tool which helps keep the show flowing smoothly.
The title sequence, which at first I was not too keen on, helps to set the scene by showing us actual footage and pictures of real events set to sombre jazzy Latino music. This also serves as a reminder to the viewer of the legitimacy of some of the more extreme occurrences.
The dialogue flickers between English and Spanish and this really helps cement the realism, perhaps a television network would have demanded that the show be primarily in English, which would have made it a lot less authentic (Netflix winning again). Perhaps the price paid for this could have been a slightly smaller budget, and although the show by no means has a small budget, I feel as if it would have had a chance to be lot more visually cinematic if it just had a little more money laundered into it.
Surprisingly the show is not addictive and I never really found myself desperate to see the next episode immediately, but I don’t mean that in a bad way. NARCOS has a certain slow rhythm to it, which probably seems contradictory considering the numerous shootouts, chases and helicopter scenes.
Escobar has solid character development and this does overshadow Murphy, who is not underdeveloped per-se, but could be explored in a little more depth.
The story begins with agent Murphy who rises through the ranks of the DEA and after tragedy strikes he moves to Columbia with his surprisingly willing wife in order to end Escobar.
Murphy has a personal vendetta against Escobar and slowly realises that proper procedure and a firm ethical code are not going to help him in Columbia, especially given Escobar practically owns Medellín and ruthlessly hunts down anyone who crosses him. This escalates throughout the season, and we see Murphy becoming more morally ambiguous as he faces tough decisions in order to save others in the long run. There is a cat and mouse vibe about NARCOS, but with an important twist: it’s the mouse chasing el gato.
There are numerous side characters that pop in and out of the scene but given the high mortality rate many of them aren’t around for long, this means we really zero in on the central figures.
NARCOS can be a little bland at times and might not be as exciting when compared to BREAKING BAD or THE WIRE, but it does deliver on action and it seems like the stakes are going to be raised for next season.
NARCOS is a watchable show that can be a little rough around the edges but ultimately will leave you satisfied.
