Curtice Scully

The first 10 seconds with the quote from Pablo Escobar drew me in. Set the tone for the series. Vergara shows off her incredible versatility with this crime drama role that she absolutely excels in. The dialogue is well written, and it captures the relationship she has with her kids as well as countless surrounding male characters. Pilot episode has Blanco navigate her new home in Miami, and her fearlessness in this pilot sets up her motivations and concerns for herself and her family. Griselda strikes me as a more serious Tony Soprano, partly because the pacing of Griselda is much faster than anything The Sopranos ever produces. She has some similarities to Walter White as well, making it a true anti-hero crime series. That being said, we get a perspective from an entirely different woman in this series. June Hawkins, a homicide detective for the Miami PD, plays a huge role in the opposite side of this crime story. Hawkins is played by Juliana Aiden Martinez. Both Vergara and Martinez portray women who can be seen as pioneers in their respective fields, and this series brings to light the power of women in the Miami drug scene. There is something to be said about the parallel between Blanco and Hawkins and their attempts to dominate fields who were priorly dominated by men. The themes often ubiquitous in drug related dramas, of betrayal and violence, are instantly realized between the initial interactions between characters and are built on throughout the series. What strikes me as great about this series though, is the emphasis on family. We’ve seen The Sopranos and Tony’s relationship with his immediate family and his crime family. But Griselda, being a mother, emphasizes the theme of family, and she is found using the rationale of “protecting her family” while dealing with the emotions that come along with being a greedy, murderous drug lord. Griselda is a perfected adaptation of Miami during the late 70s and 80s, and the truth behind these scenes strike viewers with a different kind of suspense than one would not receive in any old fictional series. Acting, dialogue and character development set Griselda over the edge for me, in which I believe, is the best mini-series Netflix has done yet. Bravo.