The Gringo Hunters

This series from Ron Howard and others dives into fascinating stories of Mexican law enforcement tracking down wanted fugitives accused of committing felonies in the U. S. then fleeing.

It makes sense that there would be thousands of such cases, from organized crime, fraud, or extortion to killing or injuring a spouse or family member.

However, I find it annoying when shows rely on attention tricks like having experienced, professional women emotionally breakdown when in a stressful or life-threatening situation, or have a trained, specialized law enforcement team always violate protocol in order to make a scene more suspenseful.

An example of the first is in the "Test of Trust" episodes when gang members briefly abduct Gloria. That is also an example of the second, in that she goes solo at night into a dangerous barrio to look for a potential witness. The show repeatedly relies on officers not communicating with their team (keeping secrets even though every team member has one or more teammates they trust strongly) or going solo into dangerous situations without backup (and other breaches of safety protocol). I find these devices to be unrealistic and simply a gimmick to add suspense and emotional intrigue to hook the audience. At least in the first half of the series, Gloria is a strong, driven, and competent female officer who is a respected leader with all around her. Then later in the series she seems to fall apart, allows her criminal ex-husband to mess with her personal life, etc. Absent an addiction or other influence, the change in her character doesn't make sense to me. Archi's character is very inconsistent too- at times he's a disciplined, hard-charging officer then he almost refuses to arrest a fugitive couple because they have their kids with them (who they actually abducted). He goes from task-oriented and competent to blubbering, vacillating self-doubt!

All the team members seem to go through a psychological breakdown at the same time, often in kind of pathetic ways. Faced with attempts to sabotage the team from powerful forces, seems more likely this highly competent, tight-knit team would tend to rally and support each other not make it so easy for outside forces to pick each one off individually!

Also, sometimes characters have incongruous behaviors or comments. Example is at a team meeting, Beto goes from insisting that Ortega and the police chief are hellbent to find cause to fire each one of the team one by one, but a minute later as they wrap up he says everything is going to be just fine! There is quite a bit of that where characters seem to contradict themselves or violate their own supposed values and feelings.

Ron, you're better than that, but the subject matter is fascinating- the Mexico-U. S. border is typically portrayed as one-directional northbound re: illegal migration, but this series shows that it"s bi-directional!

As Episode 1 of "The Gringo Hunters" (2025 release from Mexico; 12 episodes ranging from 44 to 53 min each) opens, we are informed this is "Inspired by True Events". We get to know a group of Mexican cops in Tijuana who are chasing down an American guy who fled from the US to avoid arrest. After a long chase, the American is promptly turned over to US Marshalls at the border. In a parallel story, the (billionaire) Mayor if Tijuana in interviewed at a town hall about the upcoming referendum to make Tijuana into another Las Vegas. At this point we are 15 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this "inspired by true events" refers to the International Liaison Unit of the Baja California State Police, which for decades have been working, in close coordination with the FBI and other forces to track down people (mostly Americans) who have fled to Mexico to avoid punishment for crimes they have committed. But note: the series is not just about that. In fact, multiple other parallel story lines are developed over the course of the series, making this a surprisingly strong and gritty Mexican crime series that, for once, doesn't mainly focus on the Mexican drug cartels. I've now seen the first 6 episodes (halfway through the series), and I'm looking forward to watching the remainder 6 episodes.

"The Gringo Hunters" recently started airing on Netflix. I was unaware of the series, but happened to see a positive writeup about it in the UK-based weekly The Economist. That was enough for me to check it out. So glad I did. If you are in the mood for s surprisingly strong and gritty Mexican crime drama , I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Exciting new Mexican crime series developing characters as the action moves at a rapid pace, following a special force unit who track down hard criminals, mostly Americans (them gringos) who jumped over the border to avoid prosecution from their country and hide out in Tijuana. The makers of this series are also not afraid to tackle issues in their own backyard - mainly corruption - as a local billionaire wants to turn Tijuana into a Los Vegas with the help of some wealthy yanks. Hard hitting without the over-the-top telenovela dross (but it does come close in certain parts), and also fascinating to see what is occurring on the other side of that imaginary Wall...

If you love Mexican Narco world, series like Narcos or Narcos Mexico even movies like El Infierno this one is for you. The cast is superb, the script is acceptable and acting is enough convincing for a Netflix production.

First, the cast is amazing (Manuel Masalva from Narcos Mexico), for instance and several more very well know faces from similar shows or movies like El Infierno (a masterpiece).

Second, the script is too soft. Compared to Narcos or similar movies like Sicario for instance, the series is more into a soap opera level. Didn't like it. But still enjoyable.

Last, acting is not as good as other productions because of the predictable script and the most superficial characters. On the other hand, it doesn't look cheap or it does not use too much CGI, as other Netflix productions.

Anyway nothing is perfect and there is a great road of improvement just with a more twisted and risky script. The cast is there, locations are perfect. Hopefully they will do it.