Narcos

I really enjoyed the first season of Netflix's drama Narcos, which chronicles the rise and fall of Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar (as played by Brazilian Walter Moura). Moura has done an excellent job of making Pablo the myth into a human being despite his monstrous image. Then again I am a sucker for the historically-based dramas. Obviously much is dramatized from the true story, but it is based on actual events and archival documentary footage and photos are often used to set the stage and give background. There has been some criticism that the voice over narration (ala Goodfellas style) and overall story framing device is an American DEA agent who doesn't speak Spanish in the character Steve Murphy (Boyd Holbrook). He has been joined in Colombia with his wife, Connie (Joanna Christie). His morally dubious DEA partner is the Spanish speaking Javier Pena (Pedro Pascal). They often get assistance from the US government in the guise of the Ambassador, CIA, and the military for tracking drug traffickers and pin pointing their locations and movements. The truth of the matter was that the US had a great presence and the extradition was a great threat to the drug traffickers at that time-so the US involvement was quite significant and important to the war against Escobar.That being said 70-80% of the story is acted in Spanish with subtitles as the narrative follows Escobar's actions and the reactions from the Colombian government and others who are caught up in the tragic events of the drug terrorism of the 80s and 90s in Colombia. Furthermore, all of the episodes are directed by Latino directors: Brazilians Jose Padihla (know for Elite Squad and Elite Squad: The Enemy Within) and Fernando Coimbra (Wolf at the Door), Mexican Guillermo Navarro (best known as cinematographer for Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and Robert Rodriquez (Dusk Till Dawn), and Colombian Andi Baiz (Satan). I have enjoyed the this series and the Colombia-like location shooting of the series immensely. It has been green lighted for a second season in which the hunt for Escobar will heat up, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it is depicted for the series-in fact I am inspired to read Mark Bowden's account in his book Killing Pablo.