Yankee

This isn't to the standard or "Breaking Bad" or "Narcos". The acting is sub-par at best and the plot is very limited, and weak. It's a series to put in your queue when there is nothing else to watch.

Malcolm Moriarty is a Spanish speaking American living in Arizona; he plays a small part in the local drug trade. Following a confrontation that puts a police officer in hospital with life threatening injuries he uses his contacts to make his way to Mexico. Here he quickly needs to prove his worth; he comes up with an idea to improve the movement of drugs over the border... this impresses some in the cartel but others are less keen on this interloper from north of the border. It isn't long before tensions are rising and even more people start dying. As well as the Cartel he has to worry about US law enforcement determined to bring him to justice for the assault on an officer.

It must be stated that this is fairly light-weight fare; certainly not in the league of 'Narcos: Mexico' or 'Breaking Bad'. That said I found it a fun way to pass the time. There are plenty of clichés; Moriarty, nick-named 'Yankee', gets to high levels in the cartel unrealistically quickly; most law enforcement officers on both sides of the border appear to be corrupt to some degree and Moriarty seems to survive a surprising number of attacks... at least he gets hurt, sometimes seriously. The acting is decent enough, at least to this non Spanish speaking viewer. There is a decent amount of fairly exciting action. Overall I wouldn't call this a must see series but it passes the time well if you enjoy the genre; if a second season is made I'd watch it..

These comments are based on watching the series in Spanish with English subtitles.

I watch anything to do with drug wars, especially Netflix box sets and even 160 episode tele-novellas! This is by far the worst yet.

Despite good acting and decent characters / central story, the individual episodes and plot just aren't believable - so it's been ruined by bad script writing making it like watching paint dry. Half way through, not sure if I can bear the rest - might watch the picture test card instead!

Look.. its not breaking bad good.. but its still has a very interesting story. I could watch up til 5 seasons of this. ITS WATCHABLE. Its perfect if you dont have huge expectations and just looking for an classic netflix series that you want to finish in one day

So for those of you that come across this show in 2024, there are few things I'd like to say about this show.

I don't hate it but god this show is so cheesy at times, if you like these type of Crimenovelas genre then I don't see a reason why you wouldn't enjoy it, they really filmed the Mexican parts very well.

As for the US plotline, I can't say the same. Why on earth Latino networks can't cast proper American actors for their shows is beyond me, almost every, 90% of these shows cast American-looking lat dude (same as Yankee main character, he does not look one bit like an American lol) with a cartoonish accent that stings in your ear because of what really, can't find a proper gringo across the border? I don't think there is a shortage of actors in the US, even if they are going in a spanish-speaking character that was born and raised in the states. Moreover they speak English only 5% of the time, the "gringa" wife of Malcolm, reminding you, a 100% Americana, speaks Doulingo English with a First Day in The USA accent The ICE agents (again, casting actors by skin pigment, not language skills, or acting for that matter) have very weird accents too (White US government agents with noticeably foreign try-hard accent, good job), and so on, you get my point.

People may think it's a small issue, and I may be missing the point here but trust me, when you see you'll know what I'm talking about. I get it, they had targeted the series for a specific audience that may not notice the difference but come on

As for the plot, can't say nothing bad about it, sure, you may think HOW on earth does one become a cartel jefe just by flying drones (His organization consists of 15-year-old teenagers), but some of the storyline well written in my opinion, the street violence, the authenticity of the gritty Mexico life, hence why I started watching it in the first place. You'll make up your mind within 2 episodes, and if you are a fan of Narco-dramas you may love that show as well, some parts of the series for sure.

The acting on the Mexican side is outstanding in my opinion, Sebastian Ferrat (Carasucia) especially, but like I said earlier it's not all sunshine and palm trees the Americans sucked lol I can't stress this enough, it looks as if they picked a random white dude off the streets and payed him some pesos to act the part, try not to get irritated

However, like many similar titles I don't feel like re-watching it, nope, it's a common problem with these kind of series, it's really a vibe thing, I feel as if I did my deed by finishing it and that's about it really. Something just doesn't work with these shows, notice how many of them got cancelled after the first season, Coyote, The Inmate, Yankee, etc', maybe it's a budget thing or poor production but this is something that's been going on for a while now, and that's a shame as some of them have real potential to improve in my opinion but they had their shot and results verify that it probably wasn't meant to be 🤷‍♂️