# Narcos (2015)

> A DEA agent and his partner hunt Pablo Escobar as Colombia's cartels wage a brutal war on the state.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/56255

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 30
- Episode runtime: 51 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Chris Brancato, Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Wagner Moura, Pedro Pascal, Matias Varela, Boyd Holbrook, Damián Alcázar, Joanna Christie, Francisco Denis, Maurice Compte
- TMDB rating: 8.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2707408/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: graphic
- Tone: gritty, tense, harrowing, propulsive, morally tangled

## What critics say

Viewers broadly acclaim Narcos as a gripping, gritty chronicle of the Colombian drug war, driven by strong lead performances and tense storytelling.

## Synopsis

Narcos (2015-2017) is a Netflix crime drama series created by Chris Brancato, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard, a three-season serialized saga of ten-episode seasons. Wagner Moura plays cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar, while Pedro Pascal plays DEA agent Javier Peña, a narcotics officer who works the Colombian drug trade alongside Boyd Holbrook as Steve Murphy and Matias Varela as Jorge Salcedo. The engine of the story is the hunt: agents who must build informant networks, navigate corrupt police and politicians, and chase a trafficking empire that keeps growing faster than the state can contain it. Each season is a serialized escalation rather than a case of the week, moving through the cocaine trade with the weight of real events. Set in 1980s Colombia and the United States, the series is a gritty, tense chronicle of the drug war, with narration framing its archival-style realism. Its tone is harrowing, morally tangled and propulsive, with violence and betrayal punctuating long stretches of political maneuvering. Fans of Breaking Bad, The Wire and Sicario will find resonance in its grounded crime saga and its portrait of institutions colliding with criminal empires.

## Shows like Narcos

- [El Capo (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/28808)
- [The Last Narc (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/86129)
- [Pablo Escobar: The Drug Lord (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/39529)
- [General Naranjo (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/76106)
- [Queen of the South (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/58743)
- [Wild District (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/71042)
- [The Cartel (2008)](https://ember.film/tv/6940)
- [Iron Reign (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/158974)
- [El Chapo (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/62359)
- [En la Boca del Lobo (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/77788)

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