‘Narcos’ Review: A Fascinating International Crime Drama

A colorful history of DEA, drug traffickers and dictators is chronicled through the personal narrative of agent Steve Murphy (Boyd Holbrook) in Netflix new series Narcos. In the late 70s, South America was a slow simmer of massive potential gain through cocaine and other drugs. The United States was a return customer of epic proportions. This is where Pablo Escobar became a legend in a rising that can only be understood through Magical Realism.

‘Narcos’ Review

Magical Realism is defined by episode 1 in the series as “what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe.” Such was the profitability of the drug trade that production was at near industrial levels. It would seem as though a figure such as Escobar to accrue such power would be inevitable.

This episode covers the fate of traffickers when Augusto Pinochet, the then-dictator of Chile, begins a massacre aimed at killing off the drug trade. This wasn’t in the spirit of eliminating crime or political rivals, but for the sake of consolidating power. This is where “The Cockroach” gains his reputation as a survivor and takes his expertise in cocaine manufacturing to Columbia to work for Escobar. Murphy tells the story about the first person he ever killed, how he met his wife, and the start of his career in Miami chasing down hippies in flip-flops. Joanna Christie plays Connie Murphy, who treats a pregnant drug mule when the package ruptures in her stomach. Doctors try to extract the child, but it dies in Connie’s arms. After her experience, Connie takes a stand against the Medellin Cartel with her husband.

Wagner Moura plays a magnetic Pablo who portrays the charisma and control expected from a powerful drug lord capable of menacing entire countries. Louis Guzman plays “The Mexican.” Pedro Pascal plays Javier Peña, a DEA agent.

The reference to Magical Realism is almost obligatory in the premiere episode of Narcos when we consider the number of times this story has been told. The figures involved are considered legends today, and the level of their operation pushes the boundaries of the believable into the realm of the ridiculous.

Narcos is now streaming on Netflix. Pictured: Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar