Narcos Review

The decision that gives this its charge is that it is bilingual and unapologetic about it. Most of the show is in Spanish, shot in Colombia with a largely Latin American cast, and it never softens the material for an audience that would rather not read. Wagner Moura learned the language for the part and then plays Escobar as a provincial businessman with a family and a temper rather than a criminal mastermind, which is far more frightening than the alternative. The scene where he understands what extradition would actually mean is better than any shootout in the series.

Real archive footage cuts into the drama constantly, and the effect is a running reminder that the bodies were real people. Boyd Holbrook's DEA narration is the weak element, an American frame bolted onto a Colombian story, flattening events into hardboiled summary whenever the show needs to skip a year. The photography is grainy and hot and best in the Medellín hillsides. The second season's manhunt is the finest sustained stretch here, and the Cali seasons that follow are more procedural and very nearly as good.