Drama
The Rainmaker
This adaptation may lack the depth of its source material, but it isn’t a bad option if you’re itching for a new legal drama.
Have you ever wondered how the drug trade expanded in Mexico? It can all be traced back to the hippies and stoners of the 70s and 80s and their love of marijuana.
Most believed they were simply getting a high and enjoying life when, in reality, they were consuming a true “gateway” drug—if not a gateway to harder substances, at least a drug that opened the door for massive trade from Mexico to the United States. That led to bloody drug wars south of the border. And as the demand for narcotics increased, so did the death toll. And the dollar signs.
The Mexican government quickly caught on that poor Mexican farmers, specifically those in the state of Sinaloa, were profiting from growing their own marijuana. And in an order to prevent them from raking in untaxable cash, the government began to take some for themselves and burn every cannabis field and arrest every known accomplice.
It seemed to be under control. But the thing about drug dealers is that when you kill one, hundreds more multiply in their place. Like some sort of disease, they spread and claw their way to the top until only the most powerful sits on the throne.
And we see it all here—in Netflix’s living, and dying, color.
Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico veers away from the original series, which was focused in Columbia, and concentrates on how drug dealers rose to power in Mexico in the 1980s.
It begins with a lowly ex-policeman, Ángel Gallardo, who rises to power and eventually becomes the head of the Guadalajara cartel. But he’s soon outsmarted by his own driver, the future El Chapo. What ensues are bloody, violent cartel wars and eager Drug Enforcement Agents trying to collapse the entire system in the pursuit of skewed justice.
It’s not so different from the original Narcos, minus the main plot. You can think of both not so much as one big series, or series and sequel, but of two distinct stories in the same shared, all-too-real universe. Heavy drug production and consumption are front and center as well as excessive drinking. Scantily clad men and women are seen on screen and sex and sexual innuendo appear as well.
The goal of the creators, I’m sure, is to make this show as “real” as possible. And while watching, you will certainly get a taste of the brutal violence and corruption that is the drug cartel. But that doesn’t mean you’ll want to make this MA-rated show your addiction.
After U.S. D.E.A. agent Kiki Camarena is tortured and killed in Mexico, his teammates kidnap the doctor partially responsible for his death and inflict some torture of their own. Drug lord Ángel Gallardo plans to buy out a Columbian drug operation to preserve his own empire.
A doctor is punched in the face and threatened multiple times. We hear screams of pain as a man is tortured. Multiple men are killed in a shootout. A man makes a reference to suicide. Angry citizens protest amidst public beatings. Bloody, historical paintings hang on a wall.
Corrupt government officials lie to the people of Mexico. An earthquake leaves thousands of people without food or resources. We hear a man urinating outside.
A couple kisses and it’s insinuated that they have sex. A man makes a graphic reference to oral sex. Women wear revealing outfits. Men and women alike snort cocaine, smoke cigarettes and consume hard liquor, beer, wine, champagne and mixed drinks, and many people get drunk at a wild party.
Jesus’ name is misused twice, and God’s name is misused a few times, paired with “d–n.” The f-word is heard nearly 50 times and the s-word is used nearly 15 times. Other profanity includes multiple utterances of “a–,” “a–hole,” “d–n,” “son of a b–ch,” “b–tards” and “p-ssy.”
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
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