“Narcos” is a slow-burn crime drama about a man who turns a small drug business into a global empire. The show follows Pablo Escobar’s rise through Colombia’s Medellín cartel, and it builds that arc across three seasons of grim, sweaty storytelling. It is not a fast series. It is a deliberate one, and that deliberation pays off in its best stretches even as it drags in others.
The core appeal is simple: Wagner Moura plays Escobar with a cold, magnetic presence that makes him both terrifying and oddly sympathetic. The show tracks how he becomes the world’s most wanted criminal while building a political machine that protects him at home. That tension is the engine of the whole project.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Early Episodes
The first season is the strongest. It introduces Escobar as a family man with a gambling habit who gets pulled into the drug trade by chance, then learns to master it through violence, charm, and sheer force of will. The pacing is unhurried, but the character development is sharp. The show takes its time showing how Escobar wins over partners, corrupts officials, and builds his organization brick by brick.
The second season expands outward, following the DEA agents hunting Escobar and the Colombian government’s attempts to bring him down. This stretch loses some of the intimacy of the first season, but it gains scale. The show treats the war on drugs as a full-scale conflict, with bodies, betrayals, and shifting alliances on both sides.
Middle Episodes
The middle episodes of the second and third seasons can feel repetitive. The show spends long stretches on set pieces that feel similar to ones we’ve already seen. Some subplots trail off without resolution, and the pacing occasionally flags in the later hours.
There is also a tonal problem. The show tries to balance gritty realism with stylized set pieces, and sometimes those tones clash. A scene of brutal violence can sit beside a shot of Escobar smiling at his family, and the shift can feel jarring rather than meaningful.
Third Season
The final season focuses on the endgame. Escobar has built a kingdom, and the question becomes whether anyone can tear it down. The show answers that question with a brutal, unflinching look at what happens when a criminal empire collapses. The tension peaks during a climactic sequence that tests the audience’s patience.
The performances hold up across all three seasons. Murphy, Gilchrist, and Moura deliver consistent work, and the supporting cast fills out the world around them with believable texture. The production design is rich, with lush Colombian landscapes and cramped, humid interiors that sell the sense of heat and danger.
Craft
The directing is confident. The show knows how to stage a tense scene, whether it is a meeting between Escobar and a rival or a raid on a cartel compound. The cinematography is sharp, with a color palette that leans into the sun-baked streets of Medellín.
The writing is dense with dialogue, and it rewards attention. The show drops names, dates, and political details that give the story a sense of lived history. It is not a clean, streamlined narrative; it is a messy, sprawling one, and that messiness feels earned.
What Stays With You
The show’s best moments are the quiet ones. Escobar’s interactions with his wife and children are rendered with genuine tenderness, and the show does not erase the human side of a monster. The worst moments are the brutal ones, where the violence is rendered in full, unflinching detail.
Here is what stands out across the three seasons:
- Wagner Moura’s performance as Escobar
- The early character work in season one
- The climactic sequences in season three
- The production design of Medellín
- The tension between Escobar’s public image and his private brutality
The Verdict
“Narcos” is a strong, flawed series. Its ambition is real, and its execution often matches that ambition. But the middle sections test the audience’s patience, and the show’s refusal to simplify Escobar makes for a compelling, uncomfortable watch.
It is not a perfect crime drama, but it is a substantial one. The best episodes live up to the hype, and the worst episodes are still better than most shows manage.
