“Modern Family” star Sofía Vergara plays the mafia godmother Griselda Blanco, who even Pablo Escobar was afraid of. Despite the brutality, the series has humor.
Andrés Baiz was one of the creators of the series “Narcos” and “Narcos: Mexico” and anyone who has seen the two series knows: they are dark stories. In “Griselda” he strikes a different tone: the series is “so much fun” that it’s horrifying, the “Guardian” said, not wrongly. The title character, Griselda Blanco, wife of a drug smuggler, flees the Colombian drug stronghold of Medellín for Miami. She has hidden a kilo of pure cocaine in her 12-year-old son’s suitcase, which is supposed to pave the way for her to an independent (and middle-class) life. At the end of episode one, she doesn’t say goodbye to the drug trade at all, but actually gets into it. In contrast to the two previous series, the viewer is on the side of the criminals and watches with satisfaction as Blanco beats up a small-time dealer with a baseball bat.
The bloody story is preceded by a sentence from Pablo Escobar: “The only man I ever feared was a woman named Griselda Blanco,” he is said to have once said. Blanco’s depths only gradually become apparent. The woman initially appears defensive and vulnerable. She always has a cigarette in her hand, even when she is sitting in the room next to her sleeping sons.
Like the two previous series, this one is also based on true events. Griselda Blanco was the dominant, highly brutal mafia boss in Miami in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the six-part miniseries she is portrayed by Sofía Vergara, star of the sitcom “Modern Family”, who probably wants to clear the way for the former roles with her intense portrayal. (here)
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