Yankee (2019) User Reviews

The rise of an American in the Mexican drug cartels

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 1 December 2021]

Malcolm Moriarty is a Spanish speaking American living in Arizona; he plays a small part in the local drug trade. Following a confrontation that puts a police officer in hospital with life threatening injuries he uses his contacts to make his way to Mexico. Here he quickly needs to prove his worth; he comes up with an idea to improve the movement of drugs over the border... this impresses some in the cartel but others are less keen on this interloper from north of the border. It isn't long before tensions are rising and even more people start dying. As well as the Cartel he has to worry about US law enforcement determined to bring him to justice for the assault on an officer.

It must be stated that this is fairly light-weight fare; certainly not in the league of 'Narcos: Mexico' or 'Breaking Bad'. That said I found it a fun way to pass the time. There are plenty of clichés; Moriarty, nick-named 'Yankee', gets to high levels in the cartel unrealistically quickly; most law enforcement officers on both sides of the border appear to be corrupt to some degree and Moriarty seems to survive a surprising number of attacks... at least he gets hurt, sometimes seriously. The acting is decent enough, at least to this non Spanish speaking viewer. There is a decent amount of fairly exciting action. Overall I wouldn't call this a must see series but it passes the time well if you enjoy the genre; if a second season is made I'd watch it..

These comments are based on watching the series in Spanish with English subtitles.

Strong points and weak points

[matthewdbussey · 7/10 · 19 November 2019]

I think the actor playing the main character does a good job in this. The writing isn't fantastic, but its decent. The writing (and acting) for the U.S. officers is pretty cringe-worthy across the board. The worst is definitely the head ICE agent (Wolf's boss)... not only is the writing bad, but he goes in and out of a Canadian accent which is just weird. I'll keep watching - hopefully it returns and gets a few fixes in season 2.

A poor copy of Narcos and Breaking Bad

[qui_j · 4/10 · 27 June 2019]

This isn't to the standard or "Breaking Bad" or "Narcos". The acting is sub-par at best and the plot is very limited, and weak. It's a series to put in your queue when there is nothing else to watch.

Pretty bad stuff..

[gkhege · 4/10 · 21 November 2020]

The dubbing was pretty bad...the plot was typical of Mexican shows. Mean cops and mean drug dealers, throw in a few sex scenes... you have a one season show.

Its watchable

[lbellini-32486 · 9/10 · 25 July 2019]

Look.. its not breaking bad good.. but its still has a very interesting story. I could watch up til 5 seasons of this. ITS WATCHABLE. Its perfect if you dont have huge expectations and just looking for an classic netflix series that you want to finish in one day

Sooooo believable...NOT!

[silverton-37959 · 2/10 · 28 July 2021]

This is the most poorly written series ever. The "bikers" come to a guy's house on motorcycles in the middle of the day to pick up two huge duffels loaded with cocaine. That's bad enough, but there are three of them on two bikes, with no room for the bags even if there had only been two riders.

Even worse, they leave on two bikes with 4 riders AND the two huge duffels, passing the cops on the way out who are showing up as backup. The writers seem to be a couple of stoned teenagers who are making up the story as the scenes are shot.

This story is ridiculous, and it's a total waste of time, as well.

Season 2

[shadatikor · 10/10 · 30 July 2019]

What a series cant wait to see the season 2....people are waiting to see in bangladesh......

Ridiculous English Dialogue; Horrible

[p-26680 · 4/10 · 24 July 2019]

S1:E1 English dialogue is ridiculous, sophomoric, costume design horrific (police shoulder patch 'Arizona Police' while wearing US badge), direction amateurish, production values subpar... Dubbing...! Netflix should to be ashamed.

People in the US do not interact the same as those in Mexico. Cultural differences in law enforcement are not observed.

American bikers do not talk or behave as depicted...

Clichéd and poor quality

[paultwiss · 3/10 · 1 September 2021]

At first the show had some promise but it nosedives very quickly. The writing is really poor and very lazy with numerous plot holes, continuity errors and forced events. Where does Malcolm get all his money when he has only just set out but is sending hundreds of thousands to his wife? Even after a few episodes he is regarded as the kingpin by the US ICE agents and even cartel members which is absolutely ludicrous. There is one scene where he is surrounded by kids and they are talking about waging a war on a rival group, it was a truly surreal moment. Of course, he is a decent human being so that viewers will root for him but he is just the telenovela style, good looking, honest, well meaning guy who happens to work his way up to become a major drug lord just by having an idea and meeting a few bosses.

This is a really irritating tactic the narco miniseries take nowadays, by having the lead be a drug lord yet have this compassionate and moralistic side. It is done to death in Queen of the South.

Yankee also suffers from terrible acting such as the lead actor, the ICE agents, the bikers, the cartel heads, the cartoonist sciracio etc. It is also overly long at 25 episodes and becomes more difficult to watch as the writing becomes lazier and the premise even more far fetched.

The lead actor is, in real life, on a manslaughter charge in Miami, so hopefully this may prevent another season of this rubbish.

Poor and garbage directing

[niceone-49990 · 1/10 · 28 June 2019]

Ok, we have a good story to play but in other hand we have a looser director who can't put the screen as well.. you watching a scene in day then the next scene in the night!!!!!

Great Show!

[masterj-65270 · 10/10 · 27 June 2019]

This is a really good show. The actors are excellent and believable. They look like they could really be in a drug cartel. Yes there is action with a dose of realism to it . The characters start to grow on you after awile . Show deals with normal subjects as well not just all action with no story. If you can deal with subtitles it's a blast to watch. Highly recommend!

Waste of time

[rishav_ronaldo · 2/10 · 25 June 2019]

Poor acting, storyline and redundant drama makes this show a must skip

Excellent Show

[imoff-80429 · 10/10 · 27 June 2019]

Really good show, characters well played.Hopefully Season 2 is on its way

Same Old Drug Story, Murder, Cartel, Treating Women like Tables

[malookabear · 1/10 · 26 June 2019]

Do people actually live like this? What a waste of time.

Take this show out before Narcos Mexico season 2

[iborquezd · 1/10 · 1 August 2019]

I am a big fan of narcoseries but they have to be done right. This looks like a terrible telenovela desparately wanting to be part of narcoseries fans. Its boring, its amateur, terrible acting, no surprises, terrible photography and very cliché plot (this Is perhaps the most horrible thing because they put onscreen what we all already know about cartels "no investigation at all" so, no surprises which leads me to terrible screenplay). I recommend Netflix to take this out before Narcos Mexico Season 2 if they want to expand fans of narcoseries. If people watch this garbage they will beleive that Narcos Mexico is the same thing.

The worst Narco show that I have ever watch

[renecontrerascamilo · 1/10 · 22 July 2019]

The characters even are not close of Narcos Mexico, Pablo Escobar or El Chapo or La Reina del Sur. The "Yankee" is the worst character for a Sicario or Narco working for the mexican Cartel. The "Yankee" in only three chapters is one of the heads of the Cartel if you have watched Narcos Mexico or El Chapo you can see that all narcos have been ascending around many problems, deaths and suffering. The "Yankee" is the typical and common story of Hollywood movies and even the stories does not have make sense. The blonde girl is the worst character added to Narcos stories. The worst of the worst.

I liked it

[lindsaysmith1964 · 9/10 · 6 June 2020]

Yes, there's some "poor acting" perhaps. Arguably. But that's peripheral. Some good characters. Some intriguing and interesting plot lines with unexpected turns. Well produced. The 37 or so minute episodes are a great length for a quick hit-up or a fully- fledged binge. I'm hoping there are more seasons ahead.

Independent productions can be good - this one not so much.

[Dicastuto · 4/10 · 30 January 2022]

Independent productions can be refreshing but this one is so cliche. It's a poor work on an overdone topic, Mexican drug cartels, with very low production value: poor acting, direction, video quality and lighting. It's one of the movies that is best to avoid. I'm sure it didn't cost much.

very underrated, it deserve at least 7.5 rating

[openhouse-40037 · 10/10 · 26 May 2021]

It is way better than other sleeping pills series over there with 8+ ratings.

Really poor attempt

[tfkpr · 3/10 · 16 July 2022]

I watch anything to do with drug wars, especially Netflix box sets and even 160 episode tele-novellas! This is by far the worst yet.

Despite good acting and decent characters / central story, the individual episodes and plot just aren't believable - so it's been ruined by bad script writing making it like watching paint dry. Half way through, not sure if I can bear the rest - might watch the picture test card instead!

So weak scenario

[abdulelah99 · 2/10 · 17 July 2019]

This should not be on Netflix It is amateur job Yankee is represented by silly actor which looks his first time tv show Maybe the only positive thing is the girls

Waste of time

[unupetrei · 1/10 · 1 February 2022]

I only made an account to let people know this is a waste of Time. Very bad actors, speaking mid sentence english then spanish. Some scene makes no sense. There is this cartel boss with 20 guards but still other cartel boss come inside with Guns and threaten him, then take his guest, then he goes after him and take the guest back, then the cartel boss come back at the other cartel boss home to kill him like he has no guards. This series is so bad made.

Shocking

[tjscroop-87935 · 9/10 · 9 May 2021]

With all the violence it isn't the best advert for people to visit Mexico. Makes you think that everyone there walks around with a gun in their waist band.

Best leave this one buried out in the desert...

[joebloggscity · 4/10 · 18 February 2024]

Yankee is a very strange one to really review on. I think it is a series with an initial curious idea that loses steam badly early on but is still entertaining viewing.

The story centres around the central character "Yankee" who is forced into exile to Mexico following a shooting of a cop.

However, the premise develops into become a little annoying if not offensive, with the American (mixed white Latin/American) outsmarting all the Latino locals who really are all supposedly dubious. His wife & family is stranded north of the border, whilst with little really skill he is able to rise rapidly to the top of the food chain in the drugs world.

The truth is that they had an initial germ that could have developed into something, but seemed to have taken a lazy root. Maybe the series was too long, and they could have simply had a better story if it was much shorter. The lead playing Yankee to me was very unconvincing. Never convinced me he was some streetwise capo in the brutal drug world in Mexico. If anything, he was weak to me, and counter to his mirror psychopath in the show, it made little sense he survived.

The lady who played Yankee's wife in particular was terrible, and in some ways her character on-screen was treated in an almost creepy & leery way for just the sex scenes etc. She was also a bad actress, the way her story played out was really total nonsense. If anything, it made little sense.

However, the one character who really does stand out for me was the undercover Laura Wolf who was a brilliant interesting character and was very well played by Ana Layevska who I will keep an eye out for in the future. If anything, her story was the main crux of the show for me, and I'd argue the only thing that will keep you watching.

Sadly, overall the show was poor. It's clear why there's no follow up season. Sad note, that one of the lead actors died prematurely not long after the show aired, Sebastian Ferrat. He was actually decent albeit over-the-top. RIP.

Poor but great at the same time.

[genebeats · 8/10 · 28 September 2021]

It sounds silly but sometimes I like amateur stuff, like this. I don't know why. It could have been worse and it could have been better, that's for sure. But it's entertaining and you can unplug your brain while watching it.