Narcos: Mexico season 3

Released in 2021, Netflix's take on the Mexican Drug War concluded with Narcos: Mexico season three, which began in 2018 as it focused on the doomed DEA agent Kiki Camarena as he pursued the leader of the Guadalajara Cartel, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo. Following the murder of Camerena and the arrest of Gallardo, and just like the final season of the Columbian Netflix series, season three shifts the focus to the remaining drug lords as the battle it out for control over Mexico. 

The story this season sees Amado Carrillo Fuentes (played by the excellent José María Yazpik) managing his new empire in the wake of Gallardo's imprisonment while the DEA continue to hunt him down with the help of Scoot McNairy's Agent Breslin. Other storylines include a newspaper trying to expose government corruption, El Chapo making a name for himself in the changing landscape, the Arrellano family's efforts to remain in power and an unexpected storyline regarding a police office investigating reports of missing women. The latter had so much potential and could have correlated with a true life case known as 'House of Death' while feeding into the main story but sits awkwardly distant from everything else where it would have been better served as its own show.

The Columbian series was a personal favourite that balanced historic facts with some creative licence making for a thrilling deep dive into the seedy world of drug trafficking but the Mexican version has never quite hit the same notes. The performances have been great all around but the directing sometimes missed the mark and unfortunately season three is an uneven conclusion exemplifying the best and worst of this series.

It starts shaky with unnecessary subplots, a new narrator without any of the gravitas we've come to expect, rushed plot points and an ending that left me unsatisfied. However, amongst this all there are plenty of great character moments and some very entertaining episodes in the middle of the season which kept me going through to the end but this season comes away feeling like a missed opportunity. 

Perhaps the showrunners hit a point where the events depicted from the 1990s into the early 2000s would require them to ease-up as so many key players here are still making headlines today, and to offer something of a ending would feel disingenuous to those impacted by the events depicted. There are still  moments that show promise this season but the overall narrative feels clunky, overly relying on the fictional Breslin to create a sense of the broader picture instead of offering a more detailed and in-depth experience. McNairy is still great as the agent but, much like season two, his character hogs the limelight for far too long when more attention could have been served focusing on the facts over the course of the limited ten episodes. 

Alas, season three is an underwhelming and forgettable conclusion to a spin-off unable to escape from the shadow of its predecessor, while sorely missing Diego Luna's charismatic performance at the centre of the story. Yazpik, Luis Gerardo Méndez and Mayra Hermosillo still keep the season alive through their performances but the direction and overall vision for this season feels hamstrung making the news that there will not be a season four all the more disappointing. Narcos fans will surely find a lot to enjoy but for everyone else, I'd suggest sticking with the original Colombian series.