I will try to cover most of the things that I have felt while and after watching the new season of the Narcos Mexico Story and the end of the Mexican drug cartels (probably).
Season 2 ended up with the Guadalajara cartel and the infamous lines of the notorious drug lord Felix, “Now you’ll see what happens when you open the cage and let the animals out. You’re going to miss me.”
So, I was expecting a ruthless battle amongst the plazas in Season 3. Not quite satisfied with how things went. It was like someone had pressed the fast forward button and the things were running at 2x or 3x speed.
The new season tried to focus on multiple drug lords and eventually failed to put emphasis on a single one which we had seen throughout the entire Narcos franchise. For example: Narcos Season 1 and 2 had put more focus on Pablo Escobar and Medellin Carte, Season 3 on the Cali Cartel, Mexico Season 1 and 2 on Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and the formation of Guadalajara cartel amongst multiple plazas.
This was lacking in Mexico Season 3. At one point of time, I was hoping that they would soon change the focus to the drug lord Joaquín Guzmán but no, it went back again to Amado Carrillo Fuentes and the Arellano-Félix brothers. Lack of scripting or trying to end the franchise might have been the cause. It could have been done better I think considering the fact that Joaquín Guzmán was / is as notorious as Pablo Escobar and the season could have given more focus on his story rather than putting Amado in the front.
The story of the new season mainly starts during the downfall of Pablo Escobar and the rising of Cali Cartel.
Some of the cast and crew were not up to the mark, maybe because the roles were not given properly or there was a lack of grooming from the production end. Despite that, the DEA agents and the journalist Andrea Nunez (Luisa Rubino) deserves special mention for holding the positions.
Things that I liked the most:
1. The introduction and importance of a genuine reporter.
2. An incident changing the mentality of the police.
3. The fact showing that a military general can also be corrupted.
4. The drug lords protecting their bloodlines at all costs.
Things which I didn’t like:
1. The franchise could have hired a different grooming team and cast.
2. More violation and bold scenes could have been added to look it more legitimate considering the fact that the season 2 ended up with Felix talking about post Guadalajara violence.
3. The season could have given more focus on one or two drug lords and their plazas instead of trying to highlight everyone of them.
4. A recap kind of a thing could have been added in the first episode so that the audience can relate and be like, “Oh okay! It resumes from here…”, but that didn’t happen.
I am a die hard fan of the Narcos Franchise but I can say that the last season didn’t please me as much as the earlier five seasons did. I was expecting a new season after this one but they have confirmed that they would not be releasing any story about the Mexican Drug Cartels and Plazas but a small story (probably 4-5 episodes) about the Cocaine godmother and the Columbian drug lord Griselda Blanco.
Taking everything into consideration, I will give a rating of 3 out of 5 (0.5 extra for being a die hard fan) to this new season. I hope they can comeback with a bang with the story about Blanco.
Till then, adieu! And thanks for reading this, BTW!
