Netflix’s Griselda is the latest series to join its exlusive group of narco dramas, but is a major disappointment to the genre. The grip that Narcos has over the genre is still unbreakable, despite Griselda coming from the same producers. The show seemed promising as it tells the story of the biggest female narco there was, but paints her as a completely different woman.
Griselda follows the life of Griselda Blanco, who ran the Miami drug trafficking network for the longest amount of time. The series focuses on her duration in Miami, from when she establishes herself as drug queenpin to her eventual arrest in the 90s. Being a narco drama, it has its usual dose of craziness, violence, drug-snorting and spewing of foul language. The problem with Griselda, however, is it brings nothing new to the table.
Most of Blanco’s life still remains elusive to us, despite a Netflix show in her name. The idea of a woman establishing herself as a ruler of a man’s world is understood, but focused on quite a lot. The series doesn’t do the one thing it was supposed to do – live up to the name of Griselda Blanco. The show opens with a quote from Pablo Escobar, saying that the only “man” he ever feared was Blanco. When Escobar is scared of someone, they surely mean business. Netflix’s Griselda, however, has very little to match this idea.
In real life, Blanco unleashed her own reign of terror in Miami, that resembled a lot of Escobar’s. Her name was one that was feared immensely in the town. Blanco was known to have been involved in a huge number of murders as well, the numbers ranging between 40 to 250. She was ruthless in her work, and is also claimed to have entered into crime when she was a child. Only a semblance of all of this finds mention in Griselda.
In the series, Blanco is painted as a woman done wrong as she fights her way through men, in a world that wasn’t hers. Drug trades see very few female operators, and more simply as eye candy or in similar jobs. Blanco builds her network from the ground up, hiring scores of women to be her employees. After establishing a steady territory in the richer locales of Miami, she later hires a whole army of Marielitos (Cuban immigrants in the USA), and solidifies her turf more, becoming a saint to these people.
Creators Andres Baiz pictures Blanco as an affectionate mother, and much more effeminate than real life. They spin Griselda as a story that deals with women empowerment, to an extent that it seemed unnecessary to put so much effort on. She is also fierce as a mother, who always kept her sons in priority. Despite being meant for a strong drama on women, Griselda shows Blanco constantly having to be reassured by men, and often have ideas suggested to her by them.
Griselda sees Blanco thinking twice when it came to killing people, and even fails to do it once herself. In real life however, Blanco had no remorse when it came to murders. A scene that is taken from reality shows Blanco conflicted after having accidentally killed a target’s 2-year old son. She is actually reported to have been happy that the boy died, because that meant more suffering for the intended target. Grisleda dilutes the true legacy of Blanco, who was for more vicious than her on-screen portrayal.
The series pits a female detective against Blanco, which is the only good part of the film. Detective June Hawkins serves as the freshest element of the story, who was crucial in getting Blanco arrested. Hawkins too, fights gallantly against the current of her profession, where her colleagues put her down for her gender. But she has the last laugh, because the only person that got to Blanco was a woman. Griselda also equates the two women on this front, who have has to rely on nothing but their own abilities to make a name for themselves.
Sofia Vergara’s talent could have been used in a far better way. Because the series doesn’t quite match up to the terror that Blanco actually unleashed, Vergara’s rendition of Blanco during the beginning seems very forced. The last two episodes is where Vergara lets loose, also aligning with Blanco’s state of mind at the time. Equally commendable is Juliana Aiden Martinez as June Hawkins.
Griselda fails the very woman who it wants to glorify. Overall, the series seems like a forced continuation of narco dramas, when it had potential to be so much more. There are barely any strong points that pulls Griselda through, and Vergara can only do so much. Perhaps if the story was looked at with a different perspective, Griselda could have stood out in the genre it belongs, much like Blanco.