'Narcos' tells the extraordinary story of Pablo Escobar, a Columbian who rose to the top of a massive drug smuggling enterprise. The series has been highly praised, but I didn't like it that much. Told from the perspective of U.S. government agents, it paints a picture where those agents are tough as hell but essentially heroic, and there's relatively little interest in the everyday lives of ordinary Columbians (or indeed, of Americans addicted to the drugs Escobar smuggled). Whereas series like 'The Wire' have shown us drug barons who, while grotesque, remain human, 'Narcos' is more about spectacle, and a story whose morality is fundamentally black and white. The details of Escobar's tale are amazing; but I didn't feel I got much in the way of deep insight by watching this show.
Review of Narcos
