Evan Minniti staff writer
In 1993, the seventh richest man in the world, with a networth of between $25 and $30 billion, was shot by Colombian police because he just so happened to make this enormous sum of money by trafficking cocaine into the United States. His name was Pablo Escobar.
‘’Narcos’’, a Netflix original series created by Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernardo, Doug Miro and Annab Khan, documents the rise and fall of this Colombian drug lord, as well as two Reagan-era DEA agents’ untiring quest to bring Escobar to justice. The series depicts the extreme poverty of the Colombian slums, which provided Escobar with a large dispossessed social base of support for his nefarious campaign of drug-dealing and narco-terrorism.
Brazilian actor Wagner Moura gives an Emmy worthy performance as the megalomaniac Escobar. Escobar is a chameleon, at various times a sympathetic father and husband, a sly and charismatic populist politician and, of course, the ruthless murderer he truly was.
Boyd Holbrook portrays Steve Murphy, a fictional DEA agent. Murphy is something of a conservative and often very violent in his methods against Escobar, but he is guided by good old fashioned American values and of a fierce protection for his wife.
Pedro Pascal delivers a scene-stealing performance as Murphy’s womanizing partner, DEA agent Javier Peña, who you may remember as the similarly scene-stealing Oberyn Martell from ‘’Game of Thrones’’.
The final episode of the season is noticeably shorter than the rest, and every episode of the show is extremely violent. The show mentions that Escobar made deals with a corrupt Sandinista official in Revolutionary Nicaragua, but fails to mention that the Reagan administration backed the drug-dealing, anti-communist terrorists known as the Contras at the same time. Despite this, ‘’Narcos’’is still wonderfully acted and meticulously directed by Jose Padilha.
Is it as good as ‘’House of Cards’’? No. But it is still worth watching if you have a stomach for violence.