While House of Cards was the series that first established Netflix as a major contender in the award season races and proved that the streaming service should be taken seriously as a producer of original content, it was the 2015 series Narcos that made Netflix the most popular distributor for prestige television. Narcos represented the sort of genre show that would have aired on AMC or FX several years earlier, but the scale, production design, and performances felt like they were similar in quality to a film. The epic crime drama series explored true historical events relating to the rise of the drug cartels throughout the 1980s; it was Wagner Moura’s charismatic performance as Pablo Escobar that made Narcos more complex than a typical action series.
The first season of Narcos explored Escobar’s rise to power, and introduced Boyd Holbrook as the American DEA agent Steve Murphy. Murphy tries to use the limited resources at his disposal to shut down Escobar’s empire, and in Season 2, he is joined by fellow agent Javier Pena (Pedro Pascal) to bring peace to the region. While both Moura and Holbrook left the series at the end of Season 2, Pascal returned for a third season that explored Pena’s investigation into the Cali cartel.
Instead of renewing the series for a fourth season, Netflix opted to change directions with the spinoff Narcos: Mexico in 2018. The spinoff explored the efforts by the DEA agents Kiki Camarena (Michael Peña) and Walt Breslin (Scoot McNairy) to stop the Mexican drug empire from growing under Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna). Luna doesn’t appear in the final season, which takes place amidst the Mexican drug war and follows the perspective of both Breslin and the journalist Andrea Nuñez (Luisa Rubino).
Both Narcos and Narcos: Mexico continue to be among Netflix’s most popular original shows; while the Narcos: Mexico star Diego Calva criticized the series by saying that “there’s a lot of truth and that’s amazing, but there’s a lot of lies, too,” the show was ranked by The AV Clubas one of the greatest Netflix original shows of all-time. Here are all six seasons of Narcos and Narcos: Mexico, ranked worst to best.
6 Narcos Season 3
While Pascal is by far the best aspect of Season 2 of Narcos, the loss of both Holbrook and Moura made Season 3 decidedly less interesting. Without the intriguing hook of Escobar and his impact on the Columbian political scene, Narcos felt like just another crime show. It was a good decision to prematurely end the core series and change countries for a spinoff that could take the franchise in new directions.
5 Narcos: Mexico Season 3
Similar to the original series, Narcos: Mexico petered out in quality by the time it hit its third season due to the lack of a charismatic personality. Luna had been so instrumental to making the show work, and despite McNairy’s best efforts, he wasn’t as interesting of a hero if he didn’t have a truly complex antagonist to chase after.
Narcos: Mexico Season 3 ranks slightly higher than the end of the original Narcos because there are some interesting episodes that feature Breslin’s spycraft as he prepares for the NAFTA investigation. Additionally, the perspective of a journalist was an interesting wrinkle to add to the story that showed that the series wasn’t purely focused on just the “cops and criminals.”
4 Narcos Season 1
The first season of Narcos features a lot of narration from Holbrook’s character, and much of it felt like exposition that was meant to educate viewers on the state of Columbia’s politics and why Escobar was so impactful. There is an intriguing hook with Murphy, as he struggles to adjust his family’s life to Columbia, but this was something that was expanded upon in Season 2.
What elevates it above a typical crime show is the complex portrayal of Escobar’s family life; however, this was a storyline that grew richer in the subsequent seasons once the groundwork had already been laid.
3 Narcos: Mexico Season 2
Season 2 of Narcos: Mexico had to deal with the absence of Pena, as Kiki is tragically killed at the end of the first season. While his absence is disappointing, Pena’s performance continued to have ramifications on the narrative as Breslin and his team try to avenge their former partner by finding his killers responsible and convicting them. McNairy proved to be a suitable replacement for Pena, as Breslin faces similar familial hardships when his marriage crumbles.
2 Narcos: Mexico Season 1
The first season of Narcos: Mexico essentially felt like Heat. The cat-and-mouse game that emerged between Gallardo and Kiki was absolutely electrifying, as the viewer had reason to invest in both characters’ family lives. Kiki is an outsider who is trying to make his country a safer place, and Gallardo sees the value in uniting the Mexican drug clans to form a single empire. Rather than feeling like a Wikipedia page adapted for television, Narcos: Mexico felt like it was analyzing the systemic issues with the drug war that are still consequential today.
It didn’t feel like the show was lionizing the efforts of the DEA either; while Narcos was willing to criticize the failures of the Ronald Reagan administration, Narcos: Mexico went further in its efforts to examine how the botched “drug war” only intensified conflict in the region.
1 Narcos Season 2
While Narcos: Mexico was arguably a more nuanced series that was tackling more complex social, political, and economic issues, bringing Escobar to life remains the greatest achievement of either show. Moura brought more insight into Escobar’s life story in the second season as his political career crumbles, and he eventually meets the fate that history determined.
While there have been countless films, shows, and documentaries about Escobar, Narcos remains the definitive version of his story onscreen. In many ways, the show can be used as an educational tool to learn about this period in history.
