Series cast summary: | |||
Veronica Falcón | ... |
Camila Vargas
(13 episodes, 2016)
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Adolfo Alvarez | ... |
Tony Parra
(12 episodes, 2016)
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Annabelle Jones | ... |
Mule Girl
/ ...
(12 episodes, 2016)
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Alexandra Nicole Piland | ... |
Pedestrian
/ ...
(12 episodes, 2016)
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Abby Glantz | ... |
Warehouse Girl
(11 episodes, 2016)
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Alice Braga | ... |
Teresa Mendoza
(10 episodes, 2016)
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Gerardo Taracena | ... |
Cesar 'Batman' Guemes
/ ...
(10 episodes, 2016)
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Joaquim de Almeida | ... |
Don Epifanio Vargas
/ ...
(10 episodes, 2016)
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Justina Machado | ... |
Brenda Parra
/ ...
(9 episodes, 2016)
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Pete O. Partida | ... |
Tonto
(9 episodes, 2016)
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Juan Felipe Barrientos | ... |
The Charger
(9 episodes, 2016)
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Peter Gadiot | ... |
James
(8 episodes, 2016)
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Hemky Madera | ... |
Pote
/ ...
(8 episodes, 2016)
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Kady Lin | ... |
Bus passenger
/ ...
(8 episodes, 2016)
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Ronald Joe Vasquez | ... |
Airport Traveler
/ ...
(8 episodes, 2016)
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Rick Lee | ... |
Bouncer
/ ...
(6 episodes, 2016)
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Queen of the South tells the powerful story of Teresa Mendoza, a woman who is forced to run and seek refuge in America after her drug-dealing boyfriend is unexpectedly murdered in Mexico. In the process, she teams up with an unlikely figure from her past to bring down the leader of the very drug trafficking ring that has her on the run.
...which had its strong as well as weak points, you might like this drama. It's not as convincingly bilingual as The Bridge was -- even in Mexico, the characters speak English an awful lot (and awfully well) with each other -- but overall this series has, in addition to an outstanding cast, the gritty, nauseating look and feel of a blood-and-guts narcodrama worthy of the reality of drugs and money, as they might almost be, north and south of the border.
I say "almost" because, considering the lead and supporting actors cast here, the face of day-to-day narcotics trafficking is made rather too pretty, well-spoken and glamorous to be believable.
Maybe in real life the glamour king and queens benefit from the business -- but those who have their sleeves rolled up and bloody hands tend not to be so cultured, well-spoken or good looking, I'm afraid. They are, mostly pura paisa or pura gentecita -- but with millions and billions of dollars.
In real life there's nothing too slick or fanciful about those narcotraficante, sicario folks at all, except maybe some of those Cali cartel guys. It's all business and nouveau-riche, lowbrow pleasure with them. One can scarcely expect TV to show them quite as really are, since it's too camp and boring. Like Arendt's 'banality of evil', only campesino style. (Though they have succeeded in that style of depiction in "Narcos".)
I'll follow this series with interest and hope they ramp the cinema verite up a bit -- they've got Mexican Narco-film-noir down pat!