Wasn't sure I'd enjoy this - but the first season especially, was great. The actor who played Javier Pena was very good.
Yeah, I mentioned it. Great & very original show. Only two seasons so it does not require large time investment to watch. JK Simmonds is a tour de force of acting in that, getting to not only play two very different characters (hence the title) but also getting to play the two very different characters pretending to be the other character. I found the storyline with the pandemic/plague to be eerily prescient of our current situation. Wonder if our world has been intentionally infected by our own counterparts!
This may have been mentioned already & I was going to check it out but I forgot (?). What I'm learning now makes me think I will dig this. If I understand it right the story starts as the series called "Narcos" for three seasons then continues/reboots with a name change of Narcos: Mexico for another couple seasons?
Definitely agree about JK Simmons - just watching the switch between the characters was entertainment enough. I never had the feeling the writers were sacrificing the complexity of the story in order to retain the audience either, which is refreshing. In ways, it reminded me somewhat of Westword, which I felt was the same way until about half-way through season two.
I believe the origin story begins in Colombia, with Pablo Escobar - then moves to Mexico. Parts of the story are happening concurrently in each place during the third season, which serves to fill in some blanks.
I liked Westworld but it drove me crazy with all the bizarre twists some of which made zero sense to me and time jumps (which were not disclosed as such). I never got past Season 2 although up until a few weeks ago I thought that was the last season. I only learned that there was a S3 recently but have yet to try to watch that. Maybe someday but I would first need to rewatch S1/S2...
I enjoyed it and found it difficult to follow. I had to read an online wiki to pick up the thread of it, mostly due to the undisclosed time jumps you mentioned. I never made it past season two either.
The way that S2 ended it sure seemed like it was wrapped up & over. Am totally surprised they found a way to keep going.
Is anyone into the Scandinavian or French TV noir that seems to be popular? I've watched a few of each and have enjoyed them. The acting seems to me better than much of what American TV has to offer - and the plot lines aren't so easily given away, though that could be due to the language translation barrier.
I saved an article that was in the NY Times a couple weeks/months ago called "A Guide to Nordic TV, Noir and Otherwise" intending to check some of those shows out someday. The writeup covers shows called "All the Sins" (some kind of crime/murder mystery thriller), "Arctic Circle" (medical-conspiracy thriller), "Ragnarok" (Scandanvian spin on teenage superhero story with balance between mordant humor and Gothic drama), and "Twin" (with a setup that is legitimately noir as straightforward drama with elements of fish out of water comedy). Have you seen any of those?
Oh cool, always nice to see "Pinkman" in something. I will have to get back to that series eventually.
I have not. I have seen Bordertown, Black Spot, The Forest, and Fortitude. Bordortown is Nordic - Black Spot and The Forest are French - Fortitude is a mash up, that has an international cast that includes Dennis Quaid and Stanley Tucci. All are subtitled - which I also enjoy - with the exception of Fortitude which was excellent I thought. The pacing for the shows is very different.
There’s a new Amazon original miniseries called The Last Narc. It’s a documentary about the real life agents from Narcos: Mexico. It’s very much worth watching. Amazing that the agents agreed to be interviewed!
I’ll have to check it out. The history starting back with Escobar was actually pretty interesting. Seems like one of the lead DEA agents wrote a book maybe - I remember a reference to it in Breaking Bad so I don’t know if it was true.
Ah yes there is a book by one of DEA agents called Manhunters from 2019 (great book) but it’s not the book that was mentioned in Breaking Bad. I believe that was a different book about Escobar.
After Narcos: Mexico you have to watch El Chapo. 3 seasons on Netflix. It’s the same story as Narcos: Mexico except it focuses on the rise of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Is that by the same production team as the Narcos series(es) or something by another group coincidentally related?
No it’s a completely different production team. Gets confusing watching 2 shows telling the same story.
