

Around the world they think of Colombia in terms of drugs and, if we are lucky, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and soccer players," he says. "There is a resistance to the narco image of Colombia, of course, and I understand why that happens. "If you meet a Colombian, maybe don't say to them, 'Colombia - oh, Escobar!' If you're from the United States, you don't want to hear someone say, 'US - Bin Laden, right? Nine-eleven?'" he suggests.Įxecutive producer Andi Baiz, who has directed many episodes including every season finale, is one of the many Colombians working on the show who defend its efforts to be fair to the country. Stahl-David, 34, admits he had a "stereotyped, outdated" impression of a "super-dangerous" country before he arrived, but he soon realized he could travel freely and says he was moved by the generosity and warmth of the locals. "It's a controversial show here but there was never hostility at us for doing it, they just don't necessarily want to watch it." "There were mixed feelings," he admitted of filming in the heavily forested Valle del Cauca department, where Escobar's sworn enemies in the Cali cartel emerged as the world's top cocaine trafficking operation in the early 1990s. He was speaking ahead of last week's global premiere for the show's third season. Michael Stahl-David, who plays US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent Chris Feistl, told journalists in Bogota last week that he took pains to show his Instagram followers the country's many attractions. "Narcos," striving for authenticity, is filmed almost entirely on the real front lines of Colombia's drug wars and its cast and crew are all too aware of the balancing act of making an entertaining show without disrespecting its hosts. "People have to realize that Pablo Escobar was killed over (two) decades ago, and the violence, while it does still occur, is nowhere near as bad as what happened back then." "All of those comments had to do with drugs and violence," he complained on an internet forum in a remark which appeared to typify the online reaction to the show in Colombia.

One of the streaming platform's most talked-about shows, "Narcos" is responsible for creating hundreds of jobs and helping open up Colombia's natural beauty and acting talent to the world.īut it is yet another depiction of Colombia as the benighted hostage of murderous drug barons, corrupt politicians and a civil conflict that has left 260,000 dead and seven million displaced.ĭomestic critics, while recognising the quality of the drama, have scorned the accents of the non-Colombian actors and complained that their country is being sold short.Ĭolombian viewer Daniel Lara-Agudelo, whose parents lived in Escobar's home town of Medellin when his campaign of narco-terrorism was at its peak, says he has faced negative comments about his nationality since he was young.
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So crime series "Narcos," which Netflix created as its entry into the potentially lucrative Latin American market, debuting its third season on Friday, was always going to be a hard sell at home. Talk to locals among the Art Deco squares and Baroque churches of Bogota's La Candelaria and you will likely find they'd rather discuss the economy, football or Shakira's latest pop record.

Escobar's family said the drug kingpin had said he would shoot himself if he ever found himself surrounded.It's not that she doesn't understand the interest in one of history's most infamous underworld figures, the 25-year-old explains carefully, it's just that Colombians are so over Pablo Escobar. He was shot in the leg and torso and died from the fatal shot in his ear. The Hollywood Reporter said: "While the Search Bloc is credited with killing the drug lord, the identity of the person who fired the final shot to Escobar's head has never been confirmed." We have our interpretation… Narcos doesn't believe. "You'll get so many different answers in terms of who fired the shot. He said: "How he dies, who kills him, is a mystery. Pascal spoke to CBS This Morning about how accurate the death scene was.

The police officers then gathered around Escobar's dead body for a trophy photo, and this actually happened when the real Escobar died.
