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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
36
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Aug 31, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The show could do better with its shallow portrayal of its female characters, but fans of mob dramas should otherwise find everything they want. The narrative picks up its pace as the season progresses into a final run of episodes that feature the most suspenseful sequences Narcos has ever had.
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Aug 27, 2016
Season 2 Review:
Where season 1 spanned 10 years, season 2 captures Escobar's last days on the loose. Each tightly packed episode moves quickly without sacrificing richness, chronicling the uneasy alliances and gross tactics employed to Snare Escobar. [2 Sept 2016, p.48]
Aug 31, 2017
Aug 30, 2017
Season 3 Review:
Narcos uses the downfall of the Cali syndicate in the late 1990s to rectify some of the first and second season’s more significant flaws while indulging in other over-the-top tendencies that make it a mainstay of the gangster drama genre. ... Pascal grants Javier a tangible earnestness and common grit Holbrook’s cowboy lacks, immediately making him a more captivating guide.
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Sep 2, 2016
Aug 31, 2015
Season 1 Review:
Finding out how Escobar rose in power and status to become a murderous megalomaniacal drug lord is as fascinating as it is frightening. This is due in large part to the masterful performance Brazilian actor Wagner Moura delivers as Escobar. Menacing but never melodramatic, Moura is exceptionally convincing and subtle.... Murphy is a man who wants to “do good” and nearly ruins the series because it. Compounding the issue, Murphy’s voice-over commentary is excessive, occasionally states the obvious and at its worse, takes you out of the moment.
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Aug 19, 2015
Season 1 Review:
The series begins to find its pacing not long after, and we see the strength of Moura’s acting, which to his credit never races, in the early going, toward over-the-top menace or the drug-lord cliches we're all used to at this point. Credit also the fact that Padilha brings a documentary feel to Narcos.
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Aug 18, 2017
Aug 28, 2015
Season 1 Review:
The new Netflix drama is burdened with so much annoying voice-over narration, the series at times falls somewhere between an audiobook and one of the more grittier Investigation Discovery crime shows. This dramatization of the rise of Pablo Escobar into the most notorious and lethal drug kingpin of South America is nonetheless compelling, and the story moves briskly, making it a great bingeworthy treat.
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Aug 25, 2015
Season 1 Review:
Virtually every performance is equal to the quality of the script, but Moura is especially compelling as he manipulates the seeming incongruities of Escobar’s character to heighten his aura of unpredictable menace.... Brancato does make one significant misstep by having the entire series heavily narrated by Murphy.
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The Daily BeastAug 30, 2017
Season 3 Review:
As with so many Netflix series these days, the season builds urgency at a slow pace that’s borderline alienating. Fortunately, employing its tried-and-true aesthetic--a docudrama visual approach; portentous narration; real-life documentary footage inserted into key moments--it hits its stride in Episode 4.
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Sep 2, 2016
Season 2 Review:
Your engagement with Narcos is going to depend on how much you can become concerned about Escobar and his fate, how much you can look past the series’ easy melodrama to savor its more subtle and moving moments of political intrigue, and the small, vivid subplots about the Escobar gang’s individual lives.
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Aug 27, 2015
Season 1 Review:
Show creators Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Miro want to tell two parallel tales: The DEA investigation and hunt for Escobar, and Escobar’s point of view in his ever-increasing ambition, power, and ruthlessness. Narcos is superb at delineating the latter: You really get an understanding of how a poor, not especially charismatic man rose from the rabble to become one of the richest, most feared men in the world.... In contrast to this, the efforts of Murphy and Pena to defeat Escobar are, of necessity, more hit-or-miss.
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IndieWireAug 28, 2015
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