Narcos Season 3 Review

'Narcos' season 3

Year: 2017

Episodes: 10

Run time: 40-60 minutes per episode

Genre: Action/Crime

Category: Big Budget series

Cast: Pedro Pascal, Damián Alcazar, Alberto Ammann, Fransisco Denis, Pêpê Rapazote, Matias Varela,

Showrunners: Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro

Plot (spoilers for seasons 1 and 2): After the death of Pablo Escobar, the rivals of the Medellin Cartel, the Cali Cartel are now the biggest drug trafficking association the world has ever seen. Agent Murphy has left, and agent Peña is now the leder of the DEA in Colombia, tracking down the Cali druglords. But surpsirsingly, the Cali Cartel promises to surrender within 6 months, giving them the opportunity to be as prolific and violent as they can before they turn themselves in.

Critique: Objectively, the show's individual components, such as plot, character, soundtrack, directing and cinematography, are good enough as to make the show deserve a great reveiw. Nonetheless, despite being a great show, it doesn't quite stand up to the show's first and second season.

The show's script is very good. Action is always coming and coming, and despite sporadic information dumps, which might be necessary to explain the historical context of the series, by the time an episode ends, it is hard to believe how much has happened in a single hour. Dialogue is great, flows and feels very natural; even the scenes when characters speak in spanish, which usually are a torment for latino viewers.

Talking about the characters is hard in Narcos. Damian Alcazar (La Ley de Herodes, El Infierno, La Delgada Linea Amarilla), does a solid work as one of the main antagonists. Annmann (who plays Pacho) delivers exciting scenes 100% of the time, even when only sitting down and talking. Rapazote (who plays Chepe) also gives frightening performances in every scene he appears in.

https://youtu.be/-uCG286qrdE

Varela (who plays Salcedo) is one of the driving forces of the series, despite being at the mercy of the cartel's will. He quickly becomes the most interesting character in the season. Commendations to him.

You may have noticed I didn't talk about Pascal (who plays Peña), even though he's the main character. At least we're told he's the main character, and his constant narration tries to confirm it. Still, secondary character get more screen time than him. We only see him barely reacting to his environment. The drug lords and Salcedo are the true protagonists of this series, but stating Peña is the main character creates confusion. I'd rather have more of those character and nothing of Peña; it's not like we'd be missing a lot anyway.

The show's soundtrack is excellent, creating the right atmosfere at the best of moments. Pedro Brofman's soundtrack is available on Spotify, and I recommend it to everyone interested in OSTs. Nonetheless, the most brilliant uses of music and cinematography in recent times comes almost at the end of episode 1, when Pacho dances Dos Gardenias by Angel Canales with a male partner. I couldn't find any HQ samples of the scene, so just go watch it.

The directing is solid. Moments such as the dance scene mentioned above and Salcedo's fingers trembling by anxiety are excellent in making the audience feel. The editing, however, is not as good.

As a standard action series, the editing is quick-paced during action sequences. This is acceptable, standard practice, but by itself feels meaningless and forced; one can't see any creativity behind the cuts. But, this has less to do with the editing and more with the fact that Hollywood action sequences tend to be non-interesting.

Finally, the photography is also standard, but there are moments in the series where it feels just quite plain. Very few interesting things to look at in stills taken from the series.

Al of the above mix together for a decent TV show, but one can't help to compare it with previous seasons. What made the previous so interesting and enjoyable that this season doesn't have? Intimacy. As an example: the first intro featured lots of pictures and videos of Pablo Escobar and other people, making it feel personal and real. Now, the intro's just maps and magazines everyone has access to, more like a procedural and less like a world of people. Look at these two stills. ¿Which one feels more relatable? ¿Which one connects more? ¿Which one feels more human?

Now, all shots and scenes are less carefully crafted and filmed. We no longer have a story of family, or transformation. No adapting to the rough conditions of Colombia. Intimate, personal moments take the backseat.

Yes, Narcos still entertains us by showing us surprising sides of human beings of all kinds. But having left a great theme to concentrate on the basics, it just feels we had more of a great show in the past.

Grading: