Just finished watching the first season of Narcos, and overall it's a good show. Not a great show by any stretch -- certainly no House of Cards or Breaking Bad -- but the story is interesting and the performances competent enough to keep you watching.
My first real complaint is around the production values. The producers obviously were trying to keep a period look (these events take place in the late 1980s), and they largely succeed; the clothing, hairstyles and locations are all pretty authentic. But there are enough sloppy details to pull you out of the illusion -- things that a show of this caliber should not get wrong. Some of the technology and accessories the characters use (cell phones, jewelry, sunglasses, etc.) are wrong for the era, as are several cars. And not just background cars parked on a street either. In a pivotal scene, one of the key cartel bosses makes his getaway in a pickup truck that wouldn't have been built until the 1990s. And in another scene, a major character arrives in a 1998 BMW. There is absolutely zero excuse for this kind of nonsense. Maybe I'm spoiled by the obsessive period details of Mad Men, but the bar has been set nonetheless and a big-budget show like this can afford to hire people who sweat the small stuff.
Other than that, the acting tends towards the melodramatic at times. I'd also like to have seen a slower buildup to establish backstory and develop the characters. The first half of the series is very rushed, clearly because the director wanted to get to the action quickly. But this is at the expense of character development, and we never really understand what motivates any of the players, including the main characters of Escobar and his DEA nemesis. It's a shame, because there is a lot of opportunity to really dig deep -- these were people dealing with enormously complex, consequential events -- but unfortunately they're only roughly sketched out in favor of some quick action and cheap good-guy/bad-guy melodrama. I really would've liked to have seen this entire first season as a slow-burning character study, leading up to a cliffhanger in the final episodes, with the real payoff in season two.
But still, a good show and worth watching, particularly if you're a fan of the genre. The show finds its stride in the last two episodes (the best of the series thus far). Lets hope that season two is able to build on that.
My first real complaint is around the production values. The producers obviously were trying to keep a period look (these events take place in the late 1980s), and they largely succeed; the clothing, hairstyles and locations are all pretty authentic. But there are enough sloppy details to pull you out of the illusion -- things that a show of this caliber should not get wrong. Some of the technology and accessories the characters use (cell phones, jewelry, sunglasses, etc.) are wrong for the era, as are several cars. And not just background cars parked on a street either. In a pivotal scene, one of the key cartel bosses makes his getaway in a pickup truck that wouldn't have been built until the 1990s. And in another scene, a major character arrives in a 1998 BMW. There is absolutely zero excuse for this kind of nonsense. Maybe I'm spoiled by the obsessive period details of Mad Men, but the bar has been set nonetheless and a big-budget show like this can afford to hire people who sweat the small stuff.
Other than that, the acting tends towards the melodramatic at times. I'd also like to have seen a slower buildup to establish backstory and develop the characters. The first half of the series is very rushed, clearly because the director wanted to get to the action quickly. But this is at the expense of character development, and we never really understand what motivates any of the players, including the main characters of Escobar and his DEA nemesis. It's a shame, because there is a lot of opportunity to really dig deep -- these were people dealing with enormously complex, consequential events -- but unfortunately they're only roughly sketched out in favor of some quick action and cheap good-guy/bad-guy melodrama. I really would've liked to have seen this entire first season as a slow-burning character study, leading up to a cliffhanger in the final episodes, with the real payoff in season two.
But still, a good show and worth watching, particularly if you're a fan of the genre. The show finds its stride in the last two episodes (the best of the series thus far). Lets hope that season two is able to build on that.