Griselda: Review
By Sioph Leal
Griselda is a fictionalised drama inspired by Griselda Blanco, a savvy and ambitious woman who created one of the most powerful cartels in history with Sofía Vergara taking the pivotal role of Griselda Blanco. Set between the 1970s and 1980s Miami, Griselda has a lethal blend of charm and savagery that aids in her navigating between her business and her family. Griselda shows how the titular character became known as “The Godmother” with her powerful cartel.
Better known for her role of Gloria in Modern Family, Sofía Vergara’s performance will shock people in a role that is worlds apart from her previous family-friendly project. While many viewers will note the physical differences in Vergara’s performance, that doesn’t outshine her previously underused acting talent. Vergara perfectly captures the subdued yet powerful manner of Griselda, proving that she is more than her previous acting work. Griselda offers Vergara a perfect chance to show her range, from being visibly furious to being paralysed by paranoia and emotionally vulnerable to being in complete control. Vergara overshadows everything in the show, and while her performance is one of her career's best, everything else in Griselda cannot hit the same bar as Vergara.
With shows like Griselda, it will no doubt draw comparisons to Netflix’s other shows, such as Narcos and Narcos: Mexico and follows a similar style to them which is helped by having director Andrés Baiz return for all the episodes. The main difference that fans of Narcos may note is the lack of real-life footage to parallel the fictional scenes. In all honesty, that footage isn’t really needed for Griselda, as Vergara’s performance is enough to keep viewers entertained.
While Vergara makes a career-changing performance, the show in its entirety does nothing different from media of the same genre. While it does focus on Griselda Blanco, the time jumps do the show a disservice as they don’t allow potentially strong sub-plots to find their footing. Had the series taken longer than six hours to understand the complexity of Griselda, it may have been a stronger limited series.
Griselda is an interesting watch, but it may feel like it is trying to mimic the success of other shows with a similar genre. The main selling point of the series is that viewers will finally be able to see Sofía Vergara in all her fantastic acting glory. No longer is she the trophy wife with an accent; she is marvellous in this series, but that is just about enough to erase the show’s pacing issues.