Griselda

I just finished watching Griselda with my brother and I can say it definitely lived up to my expectations. Anyone familiar with the Miami drug wars in the 70's and 80's has heard of the name Griselda Blanco. Her nickname is the Godmother. She is one of the most ruthless drug lords that's ever lived with over 250 murders accredited to her. I thought I was going to be distracted by Sofia Vergara's prosthetics but after a few minutes you don't even notice it. The entire cast does an excellent job but I couldn't believe how good Sofia was as Griselda. She stole every scene she was in and was terrifying as Griselda. Yes, this show plays loosely with the facts of the real story but that's ok. They did that to make the show more entertaining and watchable. There's a documentary called Cocaine Cowboys 1 & 2 that tells the exact story and it's worth a watch if you have the time.

I had high hopes for this miniseries. Coming from the producers and directors of 'Narcos', I figured this would be just as committed to accuracy and unflinching in its handling of the violence. It seems the producers felt, since this was a woman narco, they had to pull punches. The result is a series that could play on the Lifetime Channel with very little editing.

The REAL Griselda Blanco was an unrepentant mass murder. She was directly investigated for 40 murders and believed to be responsible for 250, total. This miniseries glazes over that. There is only a tiny fraction of The Black Widow's hits shown and a lot of the murders take place off camera.

Also, the first two episodes seem to be devoted to cementing Griselda Blanco as some sort of feminist icon. I mean why not? She's a 'woman' murdering drug dealer but she's being being picked on by all the 'male' murdering drug dealers. I consider myself a feminist and almost always support the connected causes. Griselda wasn't a 'feminist' any more than Pablo Escobar was a 'humanitarian'.

She was a total psychopath who murdered both husbands and an incredible number of people some of whom only had tenuous connections to the drug business. Her assassins didn't care what the collateral damage was and neither did she. Among these were woman and children. Her lifestyle led to death of three of her children. She was a monster and a black hole of a person who swallowed up people whole. She should have been portrayed that way. She is not.

While all gangster movies play with the likability of the leading mobster they also show the sides of them that make them horrible. Every good film about the Mob shows its destructiveness.

By the time Season 2 of 'Narcos' was over it was quite clear what a monster Pablo Escobar was. By the end of the final episode I think everybody watching feels, 'He got what he deserved'.

The 'Griselda' series soft handling of the bad side of Griselda Blanco makes this portrayal feel very dishonest. I found the final scene especially egregious.

I really didn't think I was going to write this long of a review. It's just the more I think about this series the less I like it and the message it seems to want to send.

This series was far better than what I was expecting. The acting is done extremely well so everything feels real not like how some of these shows are so far fetched with bad lines and scenes where nothing is believable. They've done a good job with the actors outfits and the set because everything looks exactly like it did in the 70s and 80s. Honestly the only gripe I have is that everything isn't exactly accurate to Griseldas story and how things happened in real life. I suppose alot of people probably won't really know her story and it's not enough of a big deal to sway you from watching or not watching it. Since the show goes into great detail i just would have preferred them to keep true to how things actually happened instead of some of the things the show has changed. For instance, how Rivi is introduced in the show. In real life they met by chance because Rivi messed a hit up, and Rivi is super essential to Griselda so I don't really understand the way they wrote him and her husband Dario becuase in real life it was Rivi doing alot of the things the show has Dario doing. Overall I'd definitely recommend watching, it's not as good as Narcos but will definitely keep you entertained through every episode.

I never thought Sophia Vegara could play a serious role as she does in Griselda. She is a revelation. Absolutely terrific. You can't take your eyes off of her as she lifts the whole narrative around her. Just awesome. She should win awards for her portrayal.

A lot of people reviewing are grousing about the accuracy of the story and they are not wrong. Griselda is portrayed in a very sympathetic light and we know the real woman was not a sexy stunner like Sophia. Even with the heavy makeup, Sophia is drop dead gorgeous. Butttt, suspend your need for 100 percent accuracy and there is still a ton to like about this miniseries.

Griselda is even better than I expected. I love this genre and Griselda Blanco is narco legend. It may start a little slow for some but stick with it because it picks up in a hurry. It's based off a true story and from what I read they do a pretty good job sticking to it. Obviously, with any Hollywood adaptation they change a few of the facts around and add a few things that might not have happened but that's just to make the show more watchable and exciting. My biggest worry was buying Sofia Vergara as a head of the cartel. Well, don't worry...she was great. After a while you forget it's Sofia. I wouldn't be surprised to see her get some award nominations for her job on this. While this isn't quite as good as Narcos or Queen of the South, the show never gets boring and is an easy binge at only 6 episodes.