# El Capo (2009)

> A Colombian telenovela-style narco drama following the most wanted drug dealer in Mexico as he hides with his family and lover while declaring war on the government and his own past.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/28808

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 226
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Gustavo Bolívar
- Network: RCN
- Cast: Marlon Moreno, Katherine Vélez, Marcela Mar, Óscar Borda, Diego Trujillo, Maria Adelaida Puerta, Juan Sebastian Aragon, Felipe Calero
- TMDB rating: 7.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1527368/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: brutal
- Tone: operatic, tense, melodramatic, gritty, intense

## What critics say

Audiences rated the series positively overall, with the first season praised and later seasons rated markedly lower.

## Synopsis

El Capo (2009-2014) is a Colombian national-television narco telenovela created by Gustavo Bolívar for RCN. Marlon Moreno plays Pedro Pablo León Jaramillo, the most wanted drug dealer in Mexico, who is nicknamed El Capo. When he is intercepted while hiding with his trusted men, his wife and his lover, Katherine Vélez plays Isabel Cristina Marín, and the chase becomes a war he declares on the government and his own past. The engine of the series is the fugitive's struggle to protect his family and his empire while the authorities close in, with episodes built from hideouts, betrayals, shootouts and tense domestic confrontations. Across three seasons and roughly two hundred and twenty-six episodes, the story runs as one continuing serialized arc rather than standalone cases. Its tone mixes operatic melodrama with gritty crime, carrying the emotional excess of a soap opera into the violent world of the drug trade. Set in contemporary Mexico, the series has a grounded, sweeping atmosphere of paranoia and loyalty. Fans of Narcos and Pablo Escobar, El Patrón del Mal will find resonance in its narco-crime engine and its heightened family drama.

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