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Griselda… Griselda Blanco, to be precise.
Portrayed by Sofía Vergara (Strays), this six-part drama – beginning in the mid-’60s, even if everything looks like the ’70s – tells the tale of the real-life Ms Blanco rise to create a powerful drugs cartel after escaping from her abusive husband, who offered(!) her an indecent proposal to wipe their debt clean to dealers, and everything that followed in his wake from the Medellín Cartel. In fact, her rise was so meteoric that even Pablo Escobar was afraid of her!
When we first see her, she’s all bloodied with huge wounds but how? I won’t spoil the precise details, so you’ll have to watch to find out, but to give a flavour, this is the point when the drama fills in some backstory, as she fled to Miami, to meet old friend Carmen (Paulina Dávila), with her three sons in tow, quickly putting them straight on the “do’s and don’ts”: “Be good. No cursing, and put the fucking toilet seat down(!)”
Unbeknownst to her friend, the big G brings along a kilo of cocaine, planning to sell it to a big dealer and live off the proceeds, with the dialogue making this feel rather like she’s a character in a potential spin-off episode from GTA V (and if you use that for an idea, Rockstar, I’d like some royalties, please! 😉 )
However, drug dealers don’t tend to be very nice people and, as such, this comes across as a fairly quite opener until she starts to bite off more than she can chew, and the dealers’ henchmen have itchy trigger fingers.
So far, I’ve seen the first two episodes. Griselda is very stylish, and Sofia Vergara in the lead superb, with some great tunes of the day, including Joe Dassin’s Salut, even to the point where Netflix could put out a soundtrack album! ((and if you use that for an idea, Netflix, I’d also like some royalties, please! 😉 )
Can Ms G get away with her derring-do, or will the FBI finally wake up to what she’s up to, even if the heavies don’t? Well, that’s obviously answer to come, no doubt, but after two episodes I can see this starting to form nicely, and for the series to be one of the early hits of 2024.
Note that most of the ‘English’ version is in the characters’ native Spanish language. I had wondered if I’d ticked the wrong option at first, but no, I was correct. Yes, I know I should always watch programmes and films in the native language, but sometimes when reviewing things, it makes it easier if I can only hear English, so I can make notes without having to look up at the screen for every sentence 🙂
Griselda is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix now.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 50-60 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: January 25th 2024
Studio: Netflix
Format: 1.66:1
Director: Andrés Baiz
Producer: Tim King
Creators: Carlo Bernard, Ingrid Escajeda, Doug Miro, Eric Newman
Writers: Carlo Bernard, Ingrid Escajeda, Doug Miro, Eric Newman, Brenna Kouf, Turi Meyer, Gina Lucita Monreal, Cassie Pappas, Giovanna Sarquis, Alfredo Septién
Music: Carlos Rafael Rivera
Cast:
Griselda Blanco: Sofía Vergara
Dario: Alberto Guerra
Carmen: Paulina Dávila
June: Juliana Aidén Martinez
Rivi: Martín Rodríguez
Uber: Jose Velazquez
Dixon: Orlando Pineda
Ozzy: Martín Fajardo
Isabel: Vanessa Ferlito
Chucho Castro: Fredy Yate
Rafa Salazar: Camilo Jimenez Varon
Arturo: Christian Tappan
Marta Ochoa: Julieth Restrepo
Amilcar: José Zúñiga
Diaz: Gabriel Sloyer
German Panesso: Diego Trujillo
Papo Mejia: Maximiliano Hernández
Captain Sweetwater: Michael Reilly Burke
Carla: Karol G
Horatio: Alejandro Barrios
Estela: Aurora Cossio
Richard Bear Joseph: Terence Davis
Hiram: Dennis Mencia
Sal Magluta: Jessie Prez
Michael Corleone: Benson D Larracuente
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.