Netflix's new series Narcos is, like its central character, ambitious in scope. It attempts to capture not just the essence of Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura), a man whose deeds and very existence still loom large in Colombia, but the socio-political landscape of the time, the fear instilled in his enemies and the geo-political effect on North/South American relations in the 1980's. It fails, not because it doesn't try hard enough to achieve the virtually impossible, but because it gets bogged down in tired narrative and muddy history.
Told through the unnecessarily heavy-handed, pulp noir narration of DEA agent Steve Murphy (Boyd Holbrook, whose one-dimensional & totally unsympathetic performance drags the whole production down), Narcos chugs along well enough for a few episodes. It looks very pretty, is superbly designed and its sprawling story leaves you feeling that the team behind it was aiming for a quasi-impressionistic piece, that had to be stitched back together with Murphy's tiresome voice over.
Most disappointingly, too much liberty is taken messing with the actual sequence of events. In the two hour traffic of biopic/historical features, it's understandable that licence is taken with chronology. But in a ten episode season, one should reasonably expect a little more accuracy. Narcos suffers from the needless conceit of placing actual events randomly, rather than staying true to the arc of history as it relates to the rise & fall of the Medellin cartel.
The longer format also lends itself to the development of more sympathetic characters. Sadly, the only character the creators have ladled sympathy on is Moura's well-tempered Escobar.
All that said, should Netflix decide to pick up a second season of Narcos, I'll almost definitely see it through.
Told through the unnecessarily heavy-handed, pulp noir narration of DEA agent Steve Murphy (Boyd Holbrook, whose one-dimensional & totally unsympathetic performance drags the whole production down), Narcos chugs along well enough for a few episodes. It looks very pretty, is superbly designed and its sprawling story leaves you feeling that the team behind it was aiming for a quasi-impressionistic piece, that had to be stitched back together with Murphy's tiresome voice over.
Most disappointingly, too much liberty is taken messing with the actual sequence of events. In the two hour traffic of biopic/historical features, it's understandable that licence is taken with chronology. But in a ten episode season, one should reasonably expect a little more accuracy. Narcos suffers from the needless conceit of placing actual events randomly, rather than staying true to the arc of history as it relates to the rise & fall of the Medellin cartel.
The longer format also lends itself to the development of more sympathetic characters. Sadly, the only character the creators have ladled sympathy on is Moura's well-tempered Escobar.
All that said, should Netflix decide to pick up a second season of Narcos, I'll almost definitely see it through.