Narcos: Mexico Season 2 Review: Brilliant, Focused, And One of the Year’s Best

Two narratives drive the heart of Narcos: Mexico during its second season: power and revenge. Both are equally robust ideals, where the lust for more leads down a dark path of destruction neither instigator could have possibly seen coming.

But the beauty of both are that they create a substantial season of television that towers over the previous seasons of the show and its previous incarnation. A weight of inevitability hangs over each of these characters, the history they are about to create or lose out on. It’s here, the need for power and to be untouchable, where the show finds a remarkable talent in delivering on the promise the first season started.

While the first season is about how far someone is willing to go to gain, and keep, power, the second season is about how lonely it is at the top. A lot of its ten episodes are about Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo (played wonderfully by Diego Luna) realizing how fragile criminal enterprises can be, and how respect and fear are not the same thing.

His continuing rise is starting to reach a ceiling, and Felix refuses to stop for ceilings.

It’s the classic tale of wanting more, but with a gripping hook: in the shadows, there’s a group headed up by DEA agent Walt Breslin (Scoot McNairy) out for revenge for fellow agent Camarena’s murder from the first season.

The revenge part of the season is a masterclass in building tension, culminating through peaks of violence and gray areas that speak to how much dirt someone wants to get on their hands before they are no different than the enemy.

It’s an amazing framing for good guys who may not be so good deep down, and the show runs with it and comes out the other side with something profound to say about tit for tat vengeance.

But equally as riveting is the expansive story of the rivalries and the bad blood between the plazas, the bigger picture of those wanting a little more and what they are willing to do to get it. It’s a violent, bloody showcase, one where you get to know these characters so well as they march toward hell.

Some even up being rather emotional, as they dig deep and the performances help center the humanity within the inhuman acts.

Diego Luna takes the remarkably slippery Felix and turns him inside out, where his ambition becomes a larger theme of loss and regret that haunts him at every turn. It’s the kind of performance that finds its most power in its quietest moments, where Luna is able to take simply enjoying a cigarette in silence and turn it into a work of art, because you can feel the pain his thoughts are causing him.

Scoot McNairy is brilliant no matter the role, but on Narcos: Mexico, there’s this level of quiet judgment and pangs of sorrow that makes his Walt Breslin as strong a lead as Felix. Walt is the kind of person who doesn’t take well to authority, and while his hotheaded ways lead to him not making many friends, he’s the voice of the audience, watching the horrors of the daily drug trade and feeling like a mouse taking on an elephant.

One area the first season struggled with is having a larger presence for the women in this world, though Alyssa Diaz, as Mika Camarena, becomes a focal point near the end of that season. Here, however, the show completely changes that and has a larger arc for Teresa Ruiz’s Isabella and newcomer to the show Mayra Hermosillo’s Enedina, both adding a different but compelling perspective of women taking back their power.

There’s also Sosie Bacon, who plays a pivotal role as Mimi, allowing for a different point of view on the show that also humanizes and creates an emotional core. She exudes independence and capability in the role, and it’s an impressive part of the season.

The show starts to connect up, more and more, to its sister series Narcos, and becomes even more rewarding to the fans as everything starts to click together. This doesn’t affect those who only come to solely Narcos: Mexico, thankfully, as the show does a great job to make those familiar faces stand out on their own here, rather than relying on the past to show their formidable presences.

There’s also the inclusion of El Chapo and others that form the next generation of cartel leaders to come, which starts to open up the scale to show that no matter what, there will be others to take the place of those in the crosshairs. It’s the expanded scope where the show finds a lot of its excellence paying off.

Narcos: Mexico, with its second season, achieves what the first season set out to do, but exponentially builds into a brilliant drama that has a lot on its mind. The larger implications of government and addiction, of cruelty and mercy, and of good work going forgotten, all speak on impactful themes that grow the story while still keeping it insular, to keep it inside the hearts of its characters.

The show is about humanity, at the end of the day, about how greed and anger can push someone to the point where being content is no longer an option. It’s about flying too close to the sun, and how there must be someone there to catch you as you start to fall. Narcos: Mexico is one of the year’s best dramas, and it’s an unbelievable journey into the heart of darkness.

 

What did you think of this season of Narcos: Mexico? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Narcos: Mexico returns on February 13 on Netflix.

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