“Don’t call me a bad guy just yet,” Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Steve Murphy, says in a voice over as he showers a nightclub with bullets, taking innocent lives in addition to those involved in the drug trade.
Throughout the first episode of Netflix’s new original series, “Narcos,” characters play with the idea of moral gray areas. The show follows the rise of Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar, in the late 1970s as told by DEA officer, Murphy.
Murphy’s narration provides the history of the cartels with a dry sense of humor and an insight into how the cocaine business affected this side of the border. He also helps keep track of who’s-who in the operation.
Escobar had been smuggling contraband such as television sets and cigarettes until a Chilean smuggler, “La Cucaracha,” introduces him to cocaine and offers to go into business with him selling around Latin American. Escobar, however, has his sight set on a much bigger market—the United States, where he begins to rake in obscene amounts of money.
“And with the money, came the violence,” Murphy says. One smuggler, responsible for taking over 3,000 lives, easily posts bail and escapes from the U.S. back to his home country. We also see the deaths of many lower ranking people from the operation such as a pregnant drug mule and a 15 year-old boy.
While watching, it can be easy to get swept away in the lavishness of the business, but moments like these help remind us of how cartels devastate innocent lives. And while it may seem humorous at first that a cartel member’s mom sews him a jacket that can hide five kilos of cocaine, it was, and still is, the reality of many people who have no other choice to survive.
“Plata o plomo,” Escobar says to police at a checkpoint. “Silver or lead.” In other words: take the bribe, or pay the consequences.
Dialogue between Latin American characters is in Spanish, which might seem like a hindrance at first, but it’s definitely worth it. Plus, you can always double your time spent watching as “practice” for Spanish class. The show is easily worthy of another Netflix binge.
Although the show has been available for streaming for less than two weeks, Netflix has already renewed it for a second season.
Melissa Aguilar is Copy Editor for The Beacon. She can be reached at aguilarm16@up.edu.
