TV REVIEW | Narcos: Mexico (Season 2)

Narcos rates as one of my favourite series on Netflix. Its combination of strong characters and gripping storyline had us glued to the screen over three excellent seasons. As for it’s spinoff, Narcos: Mexico not so much.

The first season felt long and overblown with only one or two characters that stood out. The episodes were unnecessarily long, and in the end we had decided that we wouldn’t watch a second season if they made one. But, literally the final few minutes of that first season made us think “oh wait this could get good”.

WRONG

Season two is out now and we gave up on it after the fifth episode. We gave up for the same reasons why we were turned off season one. Once again, the episodes are around the 60min mark and needlessly so. They’re just way too long. It would be okay if each episode was full of story and tension, but they’re not, instead of being good tight storytelling, the episodes just feel lazy and overblown.

And I still don’t see Diego Luna as a threatening menacing cartel boss. He was great in Rogue One, but to me his casting is this is all wrong. He’s just way too much of a nice guy for me to see him as a brutal gang boss. This was really exposed when the guys from the Cali cartel from the main Narcos series turn up. They only have a little bit of screentime, but they are oh so scary in those scenes. I never once felt that way about Luna’s character.

I dunno, this one just didn’t catch us. We dipped out on season two, and won’t be watching the third if they make one.