It is clear that ‘too much of a good thing’ is not an adage the Narcos creators live by.
The show, which began strictly as some sort of a Pablo Escobar biopic, has now gone on to spin an additional season off the lives of Columbia’s Cali Cartel, and an altogether new show called Narcos: Mexico, the second season of which premièred recently. Does it feel ‘new’, though? After all, Narcos: Mexico is made up of every single trope that defines not just gangster dramas, but previous versions of Narcos, too.
At the centre of the story, for example, is Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna), a gangster who rose through the ranks in the first season, but whose fall from grace is imminent now. In typical gangster movie fashion, acquiring power and success has distanced him from those he loves most — a wife who cannot recognise the man he is anymore, kids who don’t see him enough, and friends he had to betray to get to the top.
In addition, there are other obvious Narcos elements: American law enforcement officers (‘gringos’) whose lives are constantly in danger, small-time gangsters undergoing mid-life crises and wanting to get out of the ‘business’, and sneaky politicians who are more venomous than the dons. This is clearly a hit formula being re-purposed for as long as audiences haven’t had enough.
To be fair, though, there still seems to be some firepower left in the Narcos engine. I had my reservations about the last season — a trudging, long exercise that did little apart from setting up a singular plot point that would drive future storylines: the torture and murder of DEA agent Kiki Camarena (Michael Peña) at the hands of Gallardo and his friends. This edition, though, benefits from the laborious work put into Season 1.
For starters, it gets off the blocks in no time. A group of American agents and a couple of their Mexican counterparts, headed by Walt Breslin, are on a mission to avenge Camarena’s death. This is a fascinating strand, only because for the first time in Narcos’ existence, we see the good guys function with the same alacrity and ruthlessness as the baddies. In a plot line that’s reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s splendid Munich, Breslin and his boys go about abducting those responsible for Camarena’s capture and death. Starting with small leads, they work their way up, extracting a new name out of a hostage before either finishing him off, or transporting him to the US to stand trial. Scoot McNairy, as Breslin, is a terrific addition to the cast, his wry presence only less comforting than Pedro Pascal’s Peña in early seasons.
There’s a verve and energy to this new season that seems to emanate out of the realisation that relying on the tried-and-tested is going to wear the audience down soon. Yet, with all the fatigue arising from watching more of the same over and over again, there’s something continually seductive about Narcos. It is an addiction that’s hard to shake off, and much like the show’s onscreen antiheroes, the gringos at Netflix seem to know that delivering what the customer badly needs is good for business.
The second season of Narcos: Mexico is now streaming on Netflix.
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