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


AncalagonTheBlack

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Just finished... i was savoring it. Not quite as good as Season 1 but nonetheless brilliant, probably my favourite season of television this year.

 

Spoiler

It did seem to drag a little in places. The girl, Limon's friend had too much screen time with too little significance. Scenes with Escobar and the wife were milked a bit too often and the Murphy's scenes with his wife mostly filler.

Glad they've set up S3 but this show will suffer without Wagner Moura's presence. Despite knowing how it ends and all the bad shit he did I still found myself rooting for Escobar so hats off to Wagner.

Also thought they should have made Agent Pena S2's narrator as he was so much more involved. Bar Frankfurt, the Murphy had very little to do.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Pablo Escobar's son -- Juanito for Narcos watchers -- has written a book about growing up in the Escobar family. Pablo Escobar: My Father, was published in Latin America in 2014, it's been a bestseller throughout the continent.  Now it's been translated into English, and reviewed today in the WaPo, which might be of interest to some of us who have watched both seasons of Narcos:

Quote

 

. . . . It is reflective of a more generalized whitewashing of the celebrity drug lord Pablo Escobar. There is a thriving business in Escobar-tourism in Medellin, the Colombian city that served as his stronghold. “Narcos,” a television series on Netflix that parallels many of the stories in the book, portrays Escobar as a lovable rogue. That show is an insult to the dead; suffering as entertainment only enables brutality.

Now the drug kingpin’s son Juan Pablo Escobar, who also uses the name Sebastián Marroquín, has written this moral train wreck of a memoir of his father’s life and times. Published in Spanish in 2014, “Pablo Escobar: My Father” has been newly translated into English. It is reasonable to ask why. The younger Escobar dwells on the indignities of his own life, and revels in the luxuries of his adolescence (a $10,000 wristwatch he wore when he was 13), although he claims not to want to brag. He glides over the deaths his father orchestrated; if Juan Pablo, the man, feels the tragic weight of his inheritance, Juan Pablo, the writer, lacks the skill to convey it.


 

There is much more to the review, than this pull quote from the top of it.

 

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I was surprized to read somewhere this summer that Pablo's son was critical of Narcos portrayal of Pablo as being too harsh. That surprized me because previous portrayals (Namely "Pablo Escobar: Patronas Del Mal) have featured a much, much more brutal Pablo. Side by side Narcos comes off as positively generous compared to some of the stuff depicted in Patronas Del Mal. For instance in the latter, there was Pablo ordering the brutal infanticide of the mistress he impregnated, they didnt go there in Narcos I noticed. 

Anyways booksellers gonna be booksellers, and we cant expect familia to be unbiased over their own blood, so Pablo's son is not going to be that great objective source that is a paragon of virtue so to speak, he's going to be biased, that doesnt surprize me at all. 

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  • 4 months later...

Once I got to the bottom of why my TV would only play closed caption vs english subtitles I breezed through the second season. It was easily as good as the first and I was surprised they had the courage to play out Pablo's story and to continue with a third. I'll be interested to see how they handle the new dynamic

the show itself suggests that the new narcos are more of an underground operation with no real interest in theatrics - they just want to sell the drugs and make the money. So I guess there'll be less of a civil war feel to it

There were some really well directed scenes as well. One that comes to mind is a chase scene where the shot pans out to encompass a street of buildings and we can see various characters moving in and out of the buildings giving chase. Another was the

attack on Pablo's home where they followed the attack from various POV

I also liked how they had an episode that many would accuse of being a "filler"

where Pablo hangs out on a farm with his dad

but is actually excellent in terms of characterization and should act as a reminder to viewers and creators that you can make episodes with little action/plot development that is still vital.

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  • 5 months later...

O my.  Since so much of the Narcos's success hung on the real life larger than life character of Escobar himself -- with the Medellin cartel, that's going to be much harder to pull off, one may think.

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I don't think Escobar is completely necessary though I will miss Agent Murphy'a narration. I was equally interested in other characters outside of Escobar -- the reporters, the president and his aide, Pablo's various lieutenants and hitmen, the CIA guy, Chepe etc. The best and most fascinating thing about Narcos was how they unfolded these monstrous real life events from the wrappings of fictional dialogue, drama and characters. I actually learned things about Colombia's history that I did not know. If they can keep that up with the rise of the Cali cartel, then I don't think I'll be disappointed. 

The one thing I hate is how I enjoy this show that essentially glorifies these monsters.

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11 hours ago, Nictarion said:

I'm not sure I agree it glorifies them. They don't shy away from how brutal these guys were. And at the end of the day even the most ruthless criminals still have families and people they love. 

I agree, they never shied away from showing how quick they were to kill innocents without much thought other than it suited their selfish needs. Like you say such villains can easily compartmentalise their "work" and family lives.

I'm quite curious about the new season and really hope the different cartel results in different storytelling. A bit like how "the wire" could completely change its approach from one season to the next. It sounds like the new cartel were much better at staying out of trouble but I guess that doesn't mean they weren't involved in trouble - they just kept it under the radar or probably targeted rival narcos rather than involving the CIA or colombian government. A quick wiki check

" With connections to British mercenaries, allies among countries, countless spies and informants in the government and its vast intelligence and surveillance network throughout the city of Santiago de Cali, the cartel was once renowned and compared to the Russian KGB by the DEA, calling it "The most powerful crime syndicate in history", later called "The Cali KGB". "

They were also accused of social cleansing.

I can see why they've got two seasons to cover this cartel.

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