I am a big fan of the "Narcos" and "El Chapo" shows. So for me there was not a single doubt in my mind to give "Narco Saints" a try... And off course I didn't want to wait too long and decided to watch this show immediately!
But just before I started watching this show, I did some research. Because what on earth are a bunch of Korean guys doing in South America: drug trafficking in Suriname, a country far from their homeland. I was even more surprised to see carton boxes with dutch logos on several of the movie posters/photos. It just didn't make sense to me... But after some checking, it all seems to be based on a true story. The names of the people I however could not find back on the internet. But in the president of Suriname, I think I recognized Desi Bouterse. It is a well-known fact that - as president of Suriname - Bouterse murdered many people and is/was involved in drug trafficking. That there isn't yet a crime show about Bouterse himself, is a wonder by itself...
After watching part of the show, I was actually positively surprised by the quality of it. With the blockbuster show "Squid Game", we have already seen that korean media production can be off pretty interesting quality. And "Narco Saints" seems to confirm that "Squid Game" was not some kind of one-time miracle, never to be repeated again. You can clearly see that the producers and showrunner (director) of "Narco Saints" have done their homework by thoroughly studying the original "Narcos" and "El Chapo" shows. Especially in the first few episodes of "Narco Saints" you can see back elements like the news snippits with a voice-over from the main character.
An important point that I want to make is the choice of language and subtitling. I find it always difficult whether to chose to watch it in either (1) the original language with english subtitles, or (2) dubbed in english... Like many of you, I don't understand a word of korean. The fact is however that korean people speak so fast, that subtitles are often impossible to read fully before they disappear. So I had no alternative than to chose english dubbing. It's a pitty however that the english dubbing isn't of a too high quality. It would have been so much better if they had asked the real actors to also do a dubbing in english. This so that at least we have the english voices from the real actors. But I have to admit... watching the show with the current low quality english dubbing is still a nice experience.
Overall, the show was a great watch. The acting is great and many action scenes are very good. The visual effects however could have been better. When it comes for instance to some jet fighters taking off, you can clearly see that it was a fake.
All-in-all, it was over 6 hours of pretty good content. I think though that the director should have edited it down to somewhere between 4.5 and 5 hours. Episodes 4,5 and 6 could have been better told in two episodes of maximum 45 minutes. Especially episode 5 became a "bit" too repetitive and predictable.
I don't know why they decided to not use real names in a production "based on true facts", but this is something I hope will be changed in a second season. Because I truly hope we will see more narco shows produced by koreans! And off course any next season should again be based on true facts! I wouldn't even mind if it would then focus on drug crimes in other countries. I honestly would even be interested to see a show about the real meth druglords from Asia.
One small remark that I want to make... It was pretty obvious that Rolex sponsored the show through product placement! At one point they even put a Rolex sticker on an antique wall clock. That was pretty funny to see actually :-)
