The critically acclaimed series has met with anger and laughter in Colombia over its portrayal of recent history and foreign actors’ struggles with the local twang

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Netflix drama Narcos has won critical acclaim for its unflinching depiction of the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, and its generally sympathetic depiction of the police officers and politicians who dared to take on the world’s most famous drug lord.

The documentary-style series was praised as “devastatingly addictive” by the Telegraph, while Slate called it “exactly the portrayal of the drug war we needed”, and the Hollywood Reporter mused that it could be the “critically acclaimed international breakthrough” that Netflix has long sought.

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But the reception has been much cooler in Colombia, where audiences have been bemused by the stars’ ropey accents, irritated by its portrayal of the country’s recent history, and – in some cases – simply bored by yet another narco-drama.



Much of the show’s dialogue is in Spanish, but the cast has been drawn from across North and South America, and the actors’ attempts to adopt a Colombian accent have not always been successful.

Colombian audiences have been irritated and amused by the show’s hodgepodge of accents. A character based on Escobar’s wife is played by Paulina Gaitán (Mexican) , his partner Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha by Luís Guzmán (Puerto Rican), while his rival Jorge Ochoa is played by André Mattos (Brazilian).

Escobar himself is played by Brazilian actor Warner Moura, who speaks with a distinctly Brazilian accent – unforgivable for Colombians who expected to hear the distinctive lilt of the people of Antioquia, known as Paisas.



To a non-native speaker, the accents may not make a difference: the actors speak Spanish and you can read the subtitles. But many Colombians have felt their teeth set on edge by the sound of Escobar offering the choice of “plata o plomo” – silver or lead – with a strong Brazilian accent.



“It’s like having someone with a strong southern American accent play Sherlock Holmes,” said Orlando González, a Bogotá interior designer who watched the first episode.



Tamara Cervantes (@tamaraaax0) Is it only me or does it bother anyone else that the guy that plays Pablo Escobar in Narcos has a fake ass Colombian accent...

Stephy Camila (@Stephy_Camiii) If you're Colombian and you're ok with Pablo's accent in Narcos then I don't wanna know you 😂😴

The decision to have Spanish-speakers in the show speak Spanish came three months before the first shoot, and Moura is reported to have moved to Medellín in order to perfect his accent.

Colombian TV critic Omar Rincón was unconvinced by the result. “He tries hard but neither his role not his accent are similar to Escobar or other local narcos,” Rincón wrote in a review of the series, which he concludes offers a worldview not far from that of US presidential candidate Donald Trump.

“Narcos is the Miami and US vision of NarColombia – something like Trump’s idea of us: the good guys are the gringos … and the narcos are comically dysfunctional or primitives with bad taste.”

“Narcos may do well outside Colombia,” he concludes. “But here it produces anger and laughter.”



Many Colombians say they are simply fed up of yet another semi-fictional retread of the country’s bloody and painful recent past. Narco-soap operas have become a staple genre of television production in the country, detailing the ins and outs of the drug trade.

Previous series have included El Capo and “El Patrón del Mal (The Boss of Evil”) a 2012 Telemundo production which starred Colombian actor Andrés Parra, as a thoroughly convincing Escobar (and is also available on Netflix).

Paula Benítez, a chemical engineer, says she’s had enough and has no interest in seeing Narcos. “They’re all sort of the same and show the ugliest part of our country,” she says. “I’d rather watch something more uplifting.”