Narcos on Netflix

So I finally got around to watching the rest of Narcos on Netflix, I started a long time ago but never got around to finishing. During this pandemic we’ve all had plenty of time to get caught up on movies and shows at home. Time that we would normally spend teaching at the gym or training, even time that would be spent eating out is now spent at home.

I have to say that this is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen on Netflix. Overall the story was fascinating, and though at times I found it extremely frustrating and rather unrealistic, I have to say it really was a great show. I’m about to start Narcos Mexico next, but I decided to take a break after so many seasons of the original show.

I find it so fascinating that Pablo Escobar threw away his entire life, his fortune, his family’s safety and so much more over pride and ego. It just blows my mind that this man accumulated so much wealth and fortune as a criminal, AND he was in essence going to get away with literal murder! I mean, he was actually going to get away with all that he did while being the world’s biggest drug kingpin, but he couldn’t keep his ego in check long enough to serve his time in prison and then have the chance to live a “normal” life as a billionaire.

If you know the story of Pablo Escobar from the shows or from documentaries you know that he was allowed to build his own prison and he would’ve been allowed to serve his sentence in there and then he’d get to keep most of his assets as a free man. All he had to do was serve his sentence.

His prison was literally a luxury resort, he had his friends there, he had women, he had tennis courts, entertainment, his own security protecting him, his family could visit him, he had access to everything there!

In fact, he was even running his drug empire from behind bars in the prison. But then he messed up his chances to get away with it all when he tortured and killed some of his own lieutenants within the prison walls. That act basically sent everything off the deep end. Unbelievable.

Please don’t misunderstand me as rooting for Pablo Escobar, I just can’t believe that quite possibly that one bad move, that decision that he made cost him everything, including eventually his own life. That was what blew my mind most about the first two seasons of Narcos. The following seasons move on to the Cali Cartel, by that point the Medellin Cartel (Escobar’s group) was pretty much over and done with.

While doing some reading and research I found that plenty of what we see on the show is fiction and drama for the entertainment of viewers. But having some familiarity with Pablo Escobar and his actual story I know that some of it is also accurate. This is a great show, it is action-packed and just overall a wild few seasons of dramatic entertainment. It’s definitely worth a watch if you haven’t already done so.

Finally, the actors did a phenomenal job. The dude who played Escobar, he sounded like he wasn’t a Spanish speaker to me, I could hear a hint of accent so I looked him up. Turns out the man is from Brazil and had to learn the Spanish language as well as the nuances as to how they speak it in Columbia. Kudos for that work. Great work all across the board.