Griselda – A bump

My rating: 5.5/10
Moment of the review: 03/02/2024 – We finished Griselda one week ago

What is Griselda about

We follow Griselda, a woman who had to flee her country, Columbia, with her children after shooting her husband who sold her out to his brother to erase some drug-related debts. However, she didn’t forget to stole 1 kg of pure cocaïne on her way out and tries to get the most money out of it by selling it to a Miami drug boss. Of course, as a foreigner woman in the 70’s/80’s, she is not taken seriously but with perseverance, violence and ruse she is able to secure a drug deal.

Her first idea is to go for a target that has not been reached before: the white rich upper class, always up for new thrills but too afraid to go get the drugs themselves. Her business is flourishing using girls to import drugs from Columbia in their underwear and their charm to seduce potential big clients.

Threaten by local and international enemies, we see Griselda Blanco using different strategies to stay at the top: money, murders, deals and lies.

The more and more we advance in her story, the more violent she gets but the more alone (and lonely) she finds herself.

Griselda is a story of a mother and a woman ready for anything to give the best life possible to her children but that looses herself in greed and ego.

Our review of Griselda

We didn’t watch Narcos so we thought that having Griselda coming our way was a way from the series Gods to give us a new chance at a south american drug dealer series which would be a good change from white (pharmaceutical) ones like Painkillers for example.

Let’s start with the positive which is for us the 70’s and 80’s era reproduce by the show in a very real way between the clothing, the music, the cars, the misoginy, … Another positive point for us was the acting from some supporting roles like Alberto Guerra, playing the role of Dario, the body guard then lover then husband of Griselda, and Vanessa Ferlito, the best friend of Griselda.

Now let’s face the two reasons for which we rated this show at 5.5 and not more.

Reason 2: believe it or not, we are no expert in drug dealing history so if you are Netflix and promise us a series about one of the most dangerous criminal that every existed, we want to see it and we will have expectations. Griselda was supposed to give the story of a woman who was not scared to resort to violence and murders to get what she wants. Well, except a mistake where a baby is killed, there is a total of what seems to be 6 murders in the show. We just don’t understand why we didn’t see more of the violent side of Griselda which would have help to make a bigger contrast to her devoted mother side.

Reason 1: for this one if your name is Sofia Vergara, please stop reading. Of course we know Sofia Vergara from Modern Family and then just from her presence on social media and public appearances. She is a funny woman who knows her strengths so of course we were excited to see her in a completely different role for her to showcase her repertoire. And here we go: we didn’t get it. We thought that the character was very one note. In her happiest momens, her angriest moments, in her saddest moments, she would give the same facial expressions. We remember a scene when she learns that another drug lord betrayed her. The camera zooms in her face and we know that on the script, it was written ‘we want to see rage in her eyes’. But nothing happens. We really like Sofia but there was definitely more to do with this role.

What the internet says

We clearly don’t have the same opinions than imdb users and theirs 7.7/10: 
«The ‘Griselda’ series soft handling of the bad side of Griselda Blanco makes this portrayal feel very dishonest.»
«It was amazing to see Sofia as a serious dramatic actress. She nailed it.»
« The real story would have made for far interesting and riveting storytelling than this cheap sell out.»

Disappointment is clearly what comes to mind after watching Griselda

If you like Griselda, you might want to watch

To advice something different than Narcos and if you want to see a master class of strong lead actress leading some mafia, stay on Netflix and watch The Brothers Sun with Michelle Yeoh: our review is available here.

See our other reviews:

Palm Royale – The disappointment of the season

«I felt like I was being promised something great… eventually… and it never shows up.»

Baby Reindeer – Keep the curtains up

We were impressed by the story but then our jaw dropped on the floor when we learned that the main actor was actually the person who the story happened to.

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