Season two of “Narcos” opens with higher stakes than ever: Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura) is on the run, President Gaviria (Raúl Méndez) and law enforcement are desperate to bring him to justice and new gangs are hoping to push Escobar out of the drug smuggling business. The second season offers the same suspense and intensity fans loved in the first season, but on a whole new level.
As a function of increasingly desperate attempts to capture or assassinate Escobar, the action reaches a new level of intensity and horror. The struggle between Escobar and the various branches of law enforcement pursuing him has become even more complex. When police murder children, Drug Enforcement Administration agents partner with known drug cartels and the President refuses to denounce a terrorist group, who can viewers root for?
On the other side of the conflict, there’s Escobar, who is always brooding, plotting his schemes with a quiet intensity. With so much of the season centered around his family, constantly on the run, it’s impossible to ignore his hypocrisies — the contradictions between his playful interactions and casual viciousness. One moment he’s ordering mass killing and the next he’s dancing with his beloved wife.
The complicated path to justice, the rapidly escalating conflicts and the shocking juxtaposition of innocence and brutality all benefit from more of season one’s excellent writing and well-worked plotlines.
This season explores new themes, while staying true to popular aspects of the first season. The earlier installment introduced a set of fascinating characters, all with different ideas of how to go about ending the struggle between the narcos and the police. This season, viewers learn even more about what is at stake for them, especially in the cases of Javier Peña (Pedro Pascal) and Steve Murphy (Boyd Holbrook). Again, the same powerful writing fans loved in the first season is still on display, but now allows viewers to delve deeper into the complexities of these characters.
“Narcos” established its excellence in suspenseful storytelling with its first season. Now, the show is going even further, expertly exploring the blurred lines between crime and justice.
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