Category: Television

Griselda is, pretty much watered down Medellín. Sure it was brought to us from the team that gave Netflix “Narcos,” but it is pretty much PG13. In terms of violence, sex, nudity, et al; it fails to deliver. Narcos had more grit and violence per screen inch than all of this retelling about the “Godmother” of coke tale.

Sofia Vergara stars as the coke queen and she acts her little cotton socks off. The problem here is the way the Netflix represents this “legend” from south of the border. Where Narcos had plenty of focus on Pablo Escobar as the light and dark sides of a coin. AKA a bad boy who liked to play Robin Hood to gain more influence in the streets. Griselda is painted as the underdog.

One can watch many documentaries about the real Griselda Blanco. Starting from her meteoric rise to the top of the slag heap in New York to her fall from said heap in flames whilst residing in southern California. Two of these factual recounting of the Cocaine Cowboys in Miami features added information from the award winning Miami Herald journalist Edna Buchanan. * On a side note here, this is one journo I would give my right arm to meet and share a coke with. No pun intended.*

This Netflix offering about Griselda never once mentions her beginnings in New York. Six full episodes and not one reference, oblique or otherwise, about the Big Apple. The special offering instead shows a victim of domestic violence. A woman who must turn to crime in order to survive and nurture her three sons.

Reality Sucks

Sofia Vergara knocks this one out of the park. However, reality does indeed suck. The real boss lady was heavier and despite the “ugly” makeup Vergara wore for the series, she does not remotely resemble the real deal.

The show itself also showed a lighter side to the cocaine Godmother. The body count was very low, at a best guess law enforcement put her murder victims in the hundreds. We are not going keep harping on the real Griselda Blanco and her long list of homicidal exploits. There are a host of other websites doing that already.

We will point out the insanity of trying to knock the glam off of Vergara to play a part that she clearly felt born to play. Netflix also follows a skimpy formula in terms of the escalated violence levels that the Columbians brought to the table. As Buchanan says herself the cops in the Miami Dade area were shell-shocked. They had never seen this level of brutality.

It was the O.K.Corral on speed.

The netflix touch

The Netflix series focuses on Griselda fighting against a misogynistic “man’s world.” How she is underestimated at every turn. An underdog. A woman not afraid to take chances but still loves her sons with the heart of a lion. A female villain who looks like a thug.

Here then is another problem with this retelling of the myth. Vergara was never going to look like Griselda. Perhaps the donning of prosthetics, to fatten those model cheeks? Or, at the very minimum, a fat suit. Sofia is too lean and mean to fit that mold.

Her sons, in the six part series, were all children for way too long. An effort to make their inevitable deaths more disturbing. Any of the many documentaries that do not offer watered down the facts, show otherwise. These guys were grown and working in the business that would eventually kill Mama Coke.

The facts have been watered down and, for lack of a better phrase, “Hollywood-ised.” The series hits lightly on everything. The violence, the money, the glitz and glamor and finally the excessive amount of death.

But.

Netflix does so lightly but with good intentions. There are only a few scenes that brush up against the inhumanity of Griselda Blanco and the killing of innocents that she ordered. This decision did no one any favours. In making Griselda more palatable, the essence of the woman was lost.

The female of the species

The series does tell a good story. While this can be seen as a revelation about the rise and fall of a woman in the cocaine trade on the east coast it is, by no means, an anomaly.

Queen of the South, starring Alice Braga is about the real life drug queen Sandra Ávila Beltrán. Both women were, apparently, equally violent.Each capable of cold blooded murder and they were indeed deadlier than the male.

The Netflix series does do a good job of introducing the viewer to Griselda Blanco. Although this is a toned down vision presented to the audience. One where this woman, in fighting against spousal abuse, rises to the top. This plot device, while being commendable for nodding to modern standards of equality, hide much of the truth. Griselda was never a shrinking violet.

Griselda is streaming on Netflix and is well worth watching. Despite its tendency to serve up watered down facts, it is a binge worthy show. Go and check it out.