Netflix is not a company that engages in a lot of sitting around and twiddling thumbs, with an increasingly large slate of original programming that needs constant attention. The latest release from the streaming giant, the Pablo Escobar-centric drug war drama Narcos, just became available last Friday, and Netflix is already giving it more support by officially ordering up a Season 2. And if you’re surprised by this renewal, you’ve clearly had your head in a pile of cocaine for the past couple of years.
Narcos Season 1 told its increasingly intense story over the course of ten episodes, and we can probably expect to see the same number of installments in Season 2. (Netflix is dependable in that way.) And while some casting changes will undoubtedly come before next year’s batch of episodes hits, there will be one major difference behind the scenes. Chris Brancato, who came into the project midway through as a showrunner and earned himself a co-creator label, moved on after production wrapped and joined ABC’s biblical drama Of Kings and Prophets, which switched from a fall series to a midseason one. Adam Fierro, who worked as a producer and writer on The Shield and 24, will be taking over showrunner duties in Season 2. According to THR, Fierro will also join José Padilha and Eric Newman as an executive producer.
In Season 1, Narcos told the story of Pablo Escobar’s rise to fame as a drug kingpin and liberator of Columbia, not only through watching Escobar himself (with a positively stellar performance from Wagner Moura), but also from the point of view of the DEA agents ceaselessly trying to take him down. The agents are played by Boyd Holbrook and Game of Thrones’ Pedro Pascal, and the cast also includes Luis Guzmán, Raúl Méndez and many more.
There’s a good chance that Netflix’s decision not to waste time in renewing the show is the result of almost universal praise for Narcos ever since the reviews first started pouring in. Though some nitpick by saying the characters are all kind of harsh and unsympathetic, it’s hard to argue against the quality of the writing, acting and the pacing, which remains consistent and builds to something of a fever pitch. Even though Hollywood has been telling these kinds of stories for years, Narcos isn’t limited by a 2-hour runtime or Netflix aiming for a particular audience. A huge part of the series is subtitled and the goal is for this to be an international success in ways that something like BoJack Horseman couldn’t be. Plus, the use of actual footage from the real Escobar's reign gives it an oddly appealing docu-series feel at times.
Netflix has delivered second season orders for all of its dramas so far, including the similarly amazing Bloodline, and we can expect to see Season 2 of Narcos hit next year at some point. If you haven’t started watching yet, do it here.
