Grit & Glamour: Netflix's Hit Show Griselda

The hit drama makers at Netflix have shifted their attention to a frightening female drug lord, resulting in a stylish and thrilling experience. However, considering the real-life harm and pain she caused, it might be too enjoyable. 

Image via Deadline

A quote attributed to Pablo Escobar is displayed on screen, stating that he was only ever afraid of a woman named Griselda Blanco. Given this, it seems only fitting that her story be told. The team responsible for creating the popular series Narcos - writer Doug Miro, producer Eric Newman, and director Andrés Baiz - saw an opportunity to explore her tale and have created a new six-part Netflix miniseries entitled Griselda. The show features Sofía Vergara in the lead role, who also serves as an executive producer. She portrays the figure who would become a notorious drug lord, known as the Cocaine Godmother. This is the kind of challenging, dynamic, and dramatic role that Vergara has likely been eager to tackle, having previously demonstrated her comedic talents in Modern Family. 

Miro's portrayal of Griselda's life takes some liberties with the truth. At the beginning of the first episode, it is 1978, and Griselda is recovering from an injury. She is gathering her three sons to escape her husband, who is involved in drug dealing in Medellín, Colombia. They move to Miami, Florida, where Carmen (Vanessa Ferlito), a friend who had made a similar journey herself a few years prior, offers them shelter. Griselda is given a job at Carmen's travel agency, but on the condition that she leaves behind her old life in the cartel and starts anew. Although she agreed to make a change, the contents of Griselda's bag suggest a different narrative, one where she aims to improve her family's income by means beyond what a receptionist's salary could offer. After fleeing Colombia with a kilo of uncut cocaine. 

Netflix depicts this storyline, but the actual Griselda came to Miami in an attempt to evade federal charges. She had previously operated a highly successful drug business in New York City for 10 years. However, the story has been altered to create an underdog narrative that is more appealing.  

As the viewer, you will soon become invested in the story, regardless of how much of it is true or not. Griselda is a stylised, semi-fictionalised, and fast-paced pulp narrative, the direction of the show is flashy but still falls on the right side of the spectrum. Despite the fact that Griselda and her team cause immense suffering and destruction during the three years covered in the six intense hours, it is still an incredibly entertaining show. While Griselda attempts to sell her brick in a new town, she finds herself facing numerous challenges that make her journey anything but easy. Every step of the way, she is met with a pervasive machoism that seeks to undermine her efforts, and she must struggle to overcome these obstacles in order to succeed. 

With the help of other women from Medellin, (who would come to a Miami motel with their bras stuffed with coke ready to be sliced out, adding to a pile ready to be distributed across the city) as she aimed to establish herself as a dealer in Miami. Proving that she was capable of achieving her goals without the assistance of a man. Additionally, the collaboration fostered a sense of sisterhood among the women without being cliche whom Griselda knows from working alongside them in a brothel prior to her marriage. 

The portrayal of sexism in the Netflix series is indicative of its prevalence in the workplace during that time period. Juno (Juliana Aidén Martinez), a female police officer of Latin American origin, was quick to pick up on the probability that a new player was involved. Unfortunately, her attempts to be heard were drowned out by the sea of hilarious pranks that her fellow officers played on her. These pranks included turning up the air conditioning so that her shirt would become see-through, as well as filling her office with crumpled copies of the memo she sent around about the new woman. 

Episodes later in the series had the potential to differentiate it from other drug cartel films and dramas, but they failed to do so. Instead, the series became too focused on portraying Griselda's pursuit of power and the horrific actions she took to expand her empire. Although the story of her rise and fall follows the same beats and tropes we have seen before, the series is still enjoyable, well-paced, and visually stunning. Every performance is strong, and it serves as a great showcase for Vergara's talents. The series also reminds us of the biases and expectations that exist for women, comedy actors, and beautiful people, and how it can be satisfying to see them overturned, even if it means sacrificing bras and lives in the process.