New series on Netflix. True account of Pablo Escobar, the Medellin Cartel, and the DEA guys who fought them. I've only watched the first two episodes but it's been riveting -- Breaking Bad kind of riveting. Anyone else been watching?
Narcos
- Thread starter pokes r us
- Start date
I have a feeling the creator is a huge fan of Scorsese, could also call it the Columbian Goodfellas.
I am also 2 episodes in and its not great but very good. Some of the dollar and death numbers they mention are staggering.
I am also 2 episodes in and its not great but very good. Some of the dollar and death numbers they mention are staggering.
When I attended American University for my LLM I made friends with several foreign students. One of the women in my classes was from Mexico, but her husband was from Argentina and he was a fairly well known journalist in Latin America. Another one of my classmates was a former Senator from Columbia and his wife/girlfriend was a fairly famous Columbian actress who has been a staple on TV for 30-40 years now.
One night we threw a pot-luck dinner and subject turned to Escobar (don't get me started on the two different types of Mole that two of my women classmates made, I've never seen a restaurant manage to come close to how delicious it was). It seems the journalist had scored a major coup in that he had actually been personally invited to Medellin to interview Escobar, when Escobar was at the height of his power in the late 80's. He spent 5 days or so with Escobar, with Escobar giving him unprecedented access. Escobar had played it smart and had been building hospitals, schools, churches and building cafeterias and the like which provided free food to all the people in the region. In return, he received their loyalty and support as many of them were literally starving prior to his "generosity."
In turn, the former Senator from Columbia, at left the country under duress and actually was living under diplomatic immunity in the US (some sort of joint agreement between the two countries) because he had been targeted by Escobar and had a huge bounty on his head. The Senator had lead an anti-corruption drive in the Govt and turned out several politicians, police officials, etc. who were in Escobar's pocket. He was also mentioned as a very likely Presidential candidate and Escobar had already had at least 3 other candidates killed so he could try and put his own guy into power.
Until that night, the two had never met and had never realized the commonality of their stories or the "insider" type info they had on the Medillin cartel and Escobar. It was quite an education just hearing them compare notes on the guy.
Really incredible stuff I found out that night, and the "numbers" in terms of dollars and deaths was indeed staggering. They both thought that Escobar and his family was worth (stashed in cash, stocks and foreign bank accounts around the world) at least $40-$50 Billion at the time of his death. The guy did business almost exclusively in $100 bills and actually owned several large warehouses with crate upon crate of currency stacked to the ceilings.
One night we threw a pot-luck dinner and subject turned to Escobar (don't get me started on the two different types of Mole that two of my women classmates made, I've never seen a restaurant manage to come close to how delicious it was). It seems the journalist had scored a major coup in that he had actually been personally invited to Medellin to interview Escobar, when Escobar was at the height of his power in the late 80's. He spent 5 days or so with Escobar, with Escobar giving him unprecedented access. Escobar had played it smart and had been building hospitals, schools, churches and building cafeterias and the like which provided free food to all the people in the region. In return, he received their loyalty and support as many of them were literally starving prior to his "generosity."
In turn, the former Senator from Columbia, at left the country under duress and actually was living under diplomatic immunity in the US (some sort of joint agreement between the two countries) because he had been targeted by Escobar and had a huge bounty on his head. The Senator had lead an anti-corruption drive in the Govt and turned out several politicians, police officials, etc. who were in Escobar's pocket. He was also mentioned as a very likely Presidential candidate and Escobar had already had at least 3 other candidates killed so he could try and put his own guy into power.
Until that night, the two had never met and had never realized the commonality of their stories or the "insider" type info they had on the Medillin cartel and Escobar. It was quite an education just hearing them compare notes on the guy.
Really incredible stuff I found out that night, and the "numbers" in terms of dollars and deaths was indeed staggering. They both thought that Escobar and his family was worth (stashed in cash, stocks and foreign bank accounts around the world) at least $40-$50 Billion at the time of his death. The guy did business almost exclusively in $100 bills and actually owned several large warehouses with crate upon crate of currency stacked to the ceilings.
I thought it was one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. With so much packed into Season 1, I'm curious to see what season 2 will be like as I can't imagine there is enough material to make it as riveting as the 1st. Either way, Netflix continues to impress with original programming.
I'm thru 8 of the 10 episodes on Narcos and I really like it so far. I also just finished Bloodline and I thought it was very good as well.
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