Griselda

I had high hopes for this miniseries. Coming from the producers and directors of 'Narcos', I figured this would be just as committed to accuracy and unflinching in its handling of the violence. It seems the producers felt, since this was a woman narco, they had to pull punches. The result is a series that could play on the Lifetime Channel with very little editing.

The REAL Griselda Blanco was an unrepentant mass murder. She was directly investigated for 40 murders and believed to be responsible for 250, total. This miniseries glazes over that. There is only a tiny fraction of The Black Widow's hits shown and a lot of the murders take place off camera.

Also, the first two episodes seem to be devoted to cementing Griselda Blanco as some sort of feminist icon. I mean why not? She's a 'woman' murdering drug dealer but she's being being picked on by all the 'male' murdering drug dealers. I consider myself a feminist and almost always support the connected causes. Griselda wasn't a 'feminist' any more than Pablo Escobar was a 'humanitarian'.

She was a total psychopath who murdered both husbands and an incredible number of people some of whom only had tenuous connections to the drug business. Her assassins didn't care what the collateral damage was and neither did she. Among these were woman and children. Her lifestyle led to death of three of her children. She was a monster and a black hole of a person who swallowed up people whole. She should have been portrayed that way. She is not.

While all gangster movies play with the likability of the leading mobster they also show the sides of them that make them horrible. Every good film about the Mob shows its destructiveness.

By the time Season 2 of 'Narcos' was over it was quite clear what a monster Pablo Escobar was. By the end of the final episode I think everybody watching feels, 'He got what he deserved'.

The 'Griselda' series soft handling of the bad side of Griselda Blanco makes this portrayal feel very dishonest. I found the final scene especially egregious.

I really didn't think I was going to write this long of a review. It's just the more I think about this series the less I like it and the message it seems to want to send.

We quite enjoyed this once we got past thinking of the real life character. We have seen documentaries, this woman was a complete monster. Humanizing her and almost trying to gain sympathy for her plight was jarring. It's just goes too easy on her and almost has you thinking well who could blame her? I thought Sofia was really good, much better than i expected. Just as something to watch it's good, but if you're looking to get a genuine picture of just how awful the real woman was, don't bother! It glossed over or didn't include at all so many major things which is a shame, I feel like it was a wasted opportunity.

This was decent. Pretty good acting and filmed on a decent budget but they absolutely butchered the real story of this woman. They tried so hard to find some kind of humanity in this completely unredeemable woman that it took away from the story of how psychopathic and sociopathic the real Griselda Blanco actually was.

This is a really nice drama to watch but not much more. It's like diet Narcos that's been kept at room temperature. Sofia Vergara does a fairly good job with that she is given but the character is written as an animal backed into a corner, rather than the ruthless sociopath that was the real Griselda.

It was better than ok... But only just.

Griselda is even better than I expected. I love this genre and Griselda Blanco is narco legend. It may start a little slow for some but stick with it because it picks up in a hurry. It's based off a true story and from what I read they do a pretty good job sticking to it. Obviously, with any Hollywood adaptation they change a few of the facts around and add a few things that might not have happened but that's just to make the show more watchable and exciting. My biggest worry was buying Sofia Vergara as a head of the cartel. Well, don't worry...she was great. After a while you forget it's Sofia. I wouldn't be surprised to see her get some award nominations for her job on this. While this isn't quite as good as Narcos or Queen of the South, the show never gets boring and is an easy binge at only 6 episodes.

Very loosely based on the real and very evil life of Griselda Blanco who was a notorious drug lord in 80s Miami. She was murderous, psychopathic, and paranoid among other verifiable facts. The series however portrays her as an affectionate and somewhat naive character navigating the misogynistic world of male-dominated cartels.

Sofia Vergara's acting skills are not up to par for a role like this given the grittiness, depth, and ugliness of Griselda. The makeup and facial prosthetics were also extremely visible and distracting. We've seen countless male actors completely transform their bodies and physical appearance for roles yet here the female lead did not even look like a distant relative of Griselda. In my opinion a miscast, but understandable for show marketing purposes.

The cinematography, pacing, and other actors were alright but you just can't shake off the feeling that the series was half-baked and rushed. We've seen many excellent true crime shows produced over the years that makes this one ultimately forgettable.