From the writer-producer and director duo Eric Newman and Andrés Baiz, who both brought us Netflix crime hit Narcos, comes a new limited series inspired by the notorious Colombian businesswoman turned drug lord Griselda Blanco, who created one of the most profitable cartels in history.
According to Netflix, the new show tells the story of a devoted mother with a savage streak and charming nature which just so enabled her to create one of the most successful cartels in history. Recently the first trailer for the gritty crime series dropped giving us our first glimpse at Modern Family’s Sofía Vergara in a very different role than we are used to seeing her in.
The trailer opens with cars rolling into a driveway set in what looks to be an exotic 1970’s Miami Florida. Inside we see a huddle of men dressed in colourful Columbinic clothing listening to a woman, "You’ve thought about me a lot haven't you? I hear that you like my product. We can make a lot of money together." A man pointing his cigarette asks in an ignorant manner, "Who is the one in charge?" There we see an almost unrecognisable Vergara sporting a much deeper voice and disguised with prosthetics to make her look more like the infamous drug lord.
Griselda Blanco Restrepo, also known as the Black Widow or The Godmother, was a well-known Colombian drug lord who was prominent in the underworld drug trade of Miami, Florida, from the 1970s before she was arrested in 1985. Her narcotics empire spanned right through until the early 2000s making her the first-ever female criminal to become a billionaire. Blanco was later murdered in 2012 in Colombia at the age of 69.
This is not the first time Blanco’s story has been told, her life has been explored in a number of movies and TV shows, such as the 2018 Lifetime biopic Cocaine Godmother, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, and the 2006 documentary film Cocaine Cowboys.
The cast of Griselda includes lead and co-producer Sofia Vergara, Narcos Mexico's Alberto Guerra, Vanessa Ferlito from NCIS: New Orleans, Alberto Ammann and Gabriel Sloyer from Narcos, Christian Tappan seen in The Great Heist, and many more.
Netflix’s Griselda, made up of six hour-long episodes, is set to release January 25 2024. In the meantime, check out our picks of the best Netflix shows to add to your watch list right now.
