Jump to content

Netflix's new drama: 'Narcos' (starring Oberyn Martell + Capitão Nascimento)


AncalagonTheBlack

Recommended Posts

First trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7elNhHwgBU

 

 

Narcos is a crime drama television series, slated to debut on August 28th, 2015 on Netflix. The series was created by Chris Brancato, Eric Newman, and Carlo Bernard, and will be a serialized take on drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel The first season will consist of 10 episodes and is expected to debut on August 28, 2015

 

Written by Chris Brancato (Hannibal) and directed by Jose Padilha (Elite Squad)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I just watched the first three episodes.  From an historical viewpoint at least, Narcos is engrossing (though when our narrator first sees the woman he's going to marry, her hairstyle is at least 40 years out of period -- pure 2014-2015, not 197whatever)  How people who are looking for adventure drama primarily will see it I don't know.

 

It's so amazing to think of all this taking place in a time so long before I ever even knew the places the series shows existed, much less had seen them:  Bogotá, Cartegena, Baranquilla, Medellín, etc.  Medillín now is a very hip and cool city, capital of salsa, with great hotels, restaurants, shopping and parks.  I, at least, am really enjoying this aspect of the series, as well as the Spanish that is spoken many of the scenes. This is done very well, very skillfully.  An only-English speaker isn't going to be disturbed at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Watched the first two episodes of this. It has some problems - the guy playing the American DEA agent is one of the most bland, boring actors I've seen, and there is way too much narration by him. However, the story itself is so fascinating it's easy to look past that and get caught up in it. The other actors are pretty uniformly good; the guy playing Escobar is turning in a solid understated performance, and Pedro Pascal's acting skills are probably already well known to most members of this forum. Hopefully they start to develop the side characters a bit more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I liked what the Guardian said about Narcos here -- a pull from the review:

 

It’s not too much like a history lesson? It’s exactly enough of a history lesson. That most of the story is true is utterly fascinating, especially when it comes so close to melodrama with kidnappings, affairs, extortion, murder and a few devious families controlling insane amounts of wealth. It’s like Empire, but with more Spanish and tons of bloodshed. Chris Brancato (an alum of everything from the original Beverly Hills 90210 to several shows in the Law & Order franchise) makes the episodes compulsively watchable and even though the whole plot could be spoiled with a simple Wikipedia search, there is still plenty of action and suspense.

 

 

This isn't a series that is for binge watching so much as watching 2 or 3 episodes at a time  -- partly to absorb the historical aspects and to think about what they signify in terms of contemporary issues, including both Europe's and North America's ongoing immigration, drug and labor (including sex trafficking)  crises.

 

And to properly appreciate the great location vistas and backgrounds, as well as to consider them in connection with what literature gringos insist on quantifying as "magical realism" -- which is NOT how South Americans characterize such works as those by Gabriel García Márquez, nor does Márquez himself, for that matter.

 

Márquez grew up in  Aracataca, Colombia, and then lived with his grandfather in Baranquilla, where he began his career as a journalist.  As we see in Narcos, journalists still mattered a great deal, in terms of politics, in Escobar's day -- and, in fact, they still do.

 

OTOH, that's how it works for me, which doesn't mean that's how it works for everyone.  :cheers:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am finding this series extremely well done so far (2 episodes). I'm impressed by Moura's portrayal of Escobar and love the attention to detail. Unlike Kindly Old Man, I actually like the narration from Agent Murphy. It helps fill in the details  and reminds me of Ray Liotta's narration in Good Fellas.

 

The 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys would probably interest those viewers who are enjoying Narcos. It deals with the drug trade and wars in Miami during this period. I found it fascinating. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Watched the first two episodes of this. It has some problems - the guy playing the American DEA agent is one of the most bland, boring actors I've seen, and there is way too much narration by him. However, the story itself is so fascinating it's easy to look past that and get caught up in it. The other actors are pretty uniformly good; the guy playing Escobar is turning in a solid understated performance, and Pedro Pascal's acting skills are probably already well known to most members of this forum. Hopefully they start to develop the side characters a bit more.

Only have watched the first episode but I agree; especially about the over use of the narration. Still I was definitely engrossed with all the Escobar scenes. The actor has tremendous screen presence. It feels like half documentary/half drama but in an interesting way. Hope to see more of Pedro Pascal who was criminally under used in the pilot.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Watched the first two episodes of this. It has some problems - the guy playing the American DEA agent is one of the most bland, boring actors I've seen, and there is way too much narration by him. However, the story itself is so fascinating it's easy to look past that and get caught up in it. The other actors are pretty uniformly good; the guy playing Escobar is turning in a solid understated performance, and Pedro Pascal's acting skills are probably already well known to most members of this forum. Hopefully they start to develop the side characters a bit more.

The DEA guy is incredibly bland, and I like it that way. He's Marco Polo done right, just moving the plot enough along but letting the people in the strange land he's in shine. I could care less about his silly marital issues or his hopes and dreams. 

 

Also: I wouldn't blame the actor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've watched the first two episodes, I'm liking it so far. The acting seems pretty solid. As others have said the main guy seems a bit bland and not really proactive but as Castel said I think that's whats needed rather than a Marco Polo situation where he knows everything and can do crap better than all the locals.

 

Mostly I'm liking how so far its not making any attempts to sanitize either side. The Cartels are despicable people involved in shady shit who will do horrible things to get ahead and the Police are more than willing to torture for information and execute people without trial with little regard towards collateral damage

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The DEA guy is incredibly bland, and I like it that way. He's Marco Polo done right, just moving the plot enough along but letting the people in the strange land he's in shine. I could care less about his silly marital issues or his hopes and dreams. 

 

Also: I wouldn't blame the actor.

 

I like this perspective. I was thinking they were doing a bad job of setting him up as the ostensible protagonist, but maybe they are doing a good job showing how this is a war with no real good guys, just the totally amoral narcos vs. the DEA, who are just as awful but also commit the even worse crime of being really boring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I finished watching Narcos last night.

 

Excellent, all around.

 

One of the elements I liked most about the series is what the creators did not do: show any of the figures, whether they were criminals or DEA, as particularly sympathetic, with whom one does hero-identification.

 

If there were any real heroes in any sense at all they were the two presidential candidates, and some of the national court's judges -- when have we seen that lately?

 

I also appreciated that the series dramatized just how awful for a nation and its people it is when outright criminals overtly challenge all of the legal and political institutions, from the local cops to national courts and the judges.

 

It also shows how one cannot be immersed in that kind of violence and money without it affecting one's own capacity for violence and need to ignore laws, because one believes that obeying the laws will let the bad guys operate freely forever.  Catch 22 of law enforcement and bad guys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...