(CNN) "Narcos" wrapped up its Pablo Escobar storyline in two terrific seasons, raising the question of what the show could possibly do for an encore without Wagner Moura in that role. The answer, it turns out, was to splendidly hit the reset button, with Pedro Pascal moving to the center and a quartet of Cali Cartel kingpins filling the void.

Boyd Holbrook's character has moved on, leaving Pascal, as DEA agent Javier Pena, to take over the narration chores. Yet with the horde of characters to track, even he plays a relatively modest role, as the show traces a criminal enterprise that Pena labels "the pinnacle of trafficking evolution; apex drug dealers."

Pena is actually somewhat uncomfortable due to his sort-of celebrity in helping to stop Escobar, but the Cali threat in the 1990s raises a new set of issues. For starters, the cartel's leader Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela (Damian Alcazar) is determined to go legit, in a move that raises the specter of "The Godfather" sequels.

As in those movies, transferring Cali's clout into respectable businesses isn't as simple as it sounds. And while the show starts somewhat slowly, the violence comes later in explosive and grisly fashion, as the Cali heavyweights prove every bit as ruthless and sadistic, albeit in somewhat different fashion.

" allowfullscreen>

The array of characters is particularly strong, with Alberto Ammann as an openly gay leader of the cartel, who -- despite the time and place -- is completely accepted for who he is; Matias Varela as a family man trying to navigate the fine line between the DEA and his bosses; and Andrea Londo as the wife of a drug lord forced to seek the patronage to Gilberto's brother Miguel (Francisco Denis) to survive.

Read More