Written by Avantika Bose
So you’ve seen this show called El Chapo trending on Netflix, but you’re not sure if it’s the real deal or just another Narcos wannabe? Here’s everything you need to know to about this captivating Netflix Original Series from Mexico and why you should watch it! Spoilers ahead!
You know what’s better than a weekend packed with back-to-back plans? It’s staying in for 72 hours, in your most comfortable outfit, and straight up binge-watching a TV series for three days. Thanks to the 21st century, we’re no longer restricted by TV schedules, and hence, our consuming habits have kicked into an overdrive paving the way for what, we millennials like to call, ‘binge-watching’ — which is when you watch lots of episodes of a series in a row.
And even though the common perception around binge-watching is that of a weekend-long-pj-wearing-tv-show-marathon, the majority of people have defined binge watching as watching 3-6 episodes of the same TV show in one sitting. Now, the question of the hour is, ‘why do people binge watch?’ Easy, cause it’s a cheap form of entertainment; it’s fun, it helps relieve boredom and takes your mind off pressing problems like how your life is falling apart.
So, do you find yourself constantly saying, ‘just one more episode’, when watching a TV series? Guess what, you’re addicted to ‘binge-watching’. Rather than watching the same series all over again, how about setting your sights on watching a new series in its entirety?
A good show to binge is ideally one in which you’re tearing your hair out waiting for the next episode, or worse next season to come out. Netflix has done it time and again, and the show we’re talking about is the Netflix Original Series, El Chapo, that covers the beginning of Joaquín Guzmán’s reign of drugs and terror throughout the 1980s.
The show takes its cue from real-life criminal kingpin Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, better known by his nickname El Chapo which means “shorty”. It portrays his early days in the Sinaloa cartel, his eventual rise to the head of the cartel, and like all drug lords, his inevitable fall. He was born into a poor family in a rural community in La Tuna, Sinaloa and started cultivating a marijuana plantation at the age of 15, and this was his first step into the narco world. He left his hometown in his 20’s to pursue a life of organised crime.
Starting his life of crime in the 70s, it was in the 80s that he was recruited by Miguel Angel Feliz Gallardo, the prominent leader of a Guadalajara based cartel. When Gallardo was arrested, Guzman took over the Sinaloa Cartel, which in the following years, moved billions of dollars worth of marijuana, cocaine, and heroin amid countless acts of violence.
Here are eight reasons why you should watch El Chapo right away!
1. It’s the story of the most notorious Mexican drug lord who had been repeatedly named as one of the most powerful in the world by Forbes Magazine.
2. The series, unlike Narcos, is spoken entirely in Spanish. It is available in an English dubbed version and also with English subtitles.
3. It keeps you on your toes with plot twists and turns, which makes it even more intriguing than you ever thought could be possible.
4. In 2015, Chapo escaped a maximum-security prison in Mexico through an underground tunnel, riding a motorbike on rails. How much more thrill do you require?
5. It tells of the massive drug trafficking problem faced by the US from its southern neighbours.
6. Chapo’s real life has been so drama-filled that there was little need for exaggeration or embellishment in the series.
7. You will learn to what extent the Mexican Government along with the US DEA Agents were involved with the Narco Lords.
8. It tells the story of how Chapo created the biggest drug cartel in the world.
This series is addictive, period. There are just so many odd and intriguing elements to Guzmán’s story that it’s kind of amazing that this dramatisation wasn’t made sooner, especially given our appetite for drug-related TV shows. I can’t help but root for Chapo (no matter how morally torn it makes me), and I couldn’t help but finish off the entire series in 4 days!
