Narcos: Messico

'Narcos' told the story of the rise and fall of the Colombian cartels this, as the name suggests, does the same for Mexico. As the story starts a keen DEA agent, Kiki Camarena, gets a posting to Guadalajara in Mexico. At the same time Félix Gallardo, a cop turned marijuana producer from Sinaloa is moving his operation to Guadalajara along with his friend Rafa, who has produced a superior strain of the plant which needs to be grown away from other plants. Félix works to unite the various regional crime syndicates, the 'Plazas'. Inevitably his operations attract the attention of the DEA. There is frequent violence but nothing compared to the level after he decides to shift the operation to smuggling cocaine for the Colombians. Inevitably there are various power struggles and some arrests despite the corruption in the local police.

The first two seasons only get us to 1989 so there is still a tragically large amount of the story to cover. I didn't know much about the events being shown so had little idea of which characters would survive. The story is gripping from start to finish; the way it intertwines the stories of the traffickers and their DEA opponents keeps things interesting. The characters, on both sides of the law, are interesting to watch and are depicted in a fairly non-judgemental way... their actions speak loudly enough without the need to make them more villainous. The cast does a great job bringing the various characters to life; most notably Diego Luna as Félix Gallardo; Michael Peña as Kiki Camarena; and Scoot McNairy as DEA Agent Walt Breslin. Given the subject matter it isn't surprising that there is a fair amount of violence, some of it quite shocking. As season two come to an end one chapter of the story clearly comes to an end but there is far more to tell; I look forward to future seasons.