Griselda

It's a magnetic performance [from Sofia Vergara] that elevates the familiar storytelling and makes Griselda a must-watch for any fans of gritty crime dramas.

Even though the attempt at a makeover is an unfortunate distraction, the former “Modern Family” star goes full Pacino-in-“Scarface” mode and delivers a robust, screen-rattling, suitably over-the-top performance in this blood-soaked series from the creators of “Narcos” that plays like an extended B-movie. .... One of the strengths of the series is the supporting ensemble, with a myriad of terrific actors playing colorful and often violent assorted drug lords, hired muscle and mules.

“Griselda” doesn’t necessarily elevate the bar for drug-running dramas — except for Vergara’s performance, Knut Loewe’s exceptional production design and the dead-on costume designs and hairstyles. But its mission is accomplished with such ferocity and clarity of purpose. Dig out that old pair of angels flight pants and just enjoy.

Griselda is far more interesting every time it focuses on this push-and-pull of her internal dilemmas. It gives Vergara the fantastic opportunity to display her range, going from emotionally fragile to in control, from seething with rage to being crippled by paranoia.

Griselda doesn’t always meet Vergara’s ambitions, often settling for being a fairly standard drug trade tale with little in the way of a tangible style or legitimate surprises beyond a few unexpected kills. But the actress elevates the material into something much more absorbing than what’s on the surface.

While there are parts of Griselda that feels like a generic cartel drama, Sofia Vergara’s fierce performance in the title role demands our attention, as well as helping the show move along at a confident pace.

Despite its occasional shortcomings, however, the Netflix series offers a fascinating look into a figure both controversial and intriguing — and is ruled over by Vergara, in perhaps the last role anyone ever expected her to play.

Overall, Netflix’s Griselda delivers another absorbing crime ballad about a Colombian drug kingpin with style, dedication, and a stellar cast that likely won’t disappoint fans of the genre. Though it’s no Narcos, it’s pretty close—and that’s high praise any TV show should be proud of.

Even though it’s based on a real person, the limited series’ beats are visible from miles away, and it’s the rare show that feels like it could’ve used two extra episodes if only to avoid an abrupt ending.

Those who enjoyed “Narcos” and “Sons of Anarchy” will find plenty here to entertain them on the surface, but in terms of larger social commentary or insights on the state of Latinidad, it’s an empty vessel. Ultimately, “Griselda” is a high that leaves you a little worse for wear.

Thanks largely to Sofia Vergara’s impressive performance, Griselda is a satisfying, if formulaic, exploration of murder, drugs, and the corrupting properties of power.

Vergara's job is to convey the darkness while also commanding enough sympathy for the character to carry the series. Which she does. She is the reason to watch.

But for all its focus on Blanco bringing a fresh and female angle to the business of criminal-empire-building (international drug smuggling was apparently crying out for a woman’s touch), Griselda can’t escape that being corrupted by power is a well-trodden TV path – and one no less predictable for being walked in heels.

The title might be “Griselda” and the promotion all about Sofia Vergara, but this limited series devoted to a real-life drug kingpin could easily be dubbed “Narcos,” Season 4. Having a female protagonist in the 1970s and ‘80s does filter the narrative through a misogynistic prism, but despite being generally watchable, the story of a woman nicknamed “The Godmother” feels like one of those offers you can refuse.

As dramatically shoddy as Griselda increasingly becomes, Vergara keeps it watchable.

Despite Vergara’s estimable efforts to give the character depth, Griselda is a disappointingly predictable rise-and-fall narrative that flattens her into little more than Scarface with a girlboss makeover.

The six-episode Netflix biopic series “Griselda,” starring Sofía Vergara, doesn’t celebrate her achievements so much as find them inordinately fascinating: What if Scarface were a woman? (When she picks up a gold-plated automatic rifle, high and out of her mind, you half expect the words “Say hello to my little friend” to come tumbling out.) But a more basic question is left unanswered: Why is this story interesting?