Diego Luna and Michael Peña Made This Netflix Spinoff Must-Watch TV

Ever since Netflix launched as the first major streaming service offering original content, the Narcos franchise felt like the type of project that the studio was most interested in making; it was a highly expensive, compulsively watchable show that provided bingeable entertainment, yet never really touched the aura of “prestige” that defined the service’s clear high-water marks. The high viewership of shows like Narcos allowed Netflix to invest in auteur projects like Maniac and Mindhunter that pushed the boundaries of the medium and allowed them to invest in more complex passion projects from filmmakers like Alfonso Cuaron, the Coen Brothers, Martin Scorsese, and Noah Baumbach. Narcos was never “bad,” but it took a change of location and the star power of Diego Luna and Michael Peña to turn it into prestige television.

The first three seasons of Narcos aren’t bad television by any stretch of the imagination, and compared to some of the nonsense that Netflix has greenlit recently, it’s fairly extraordinary in its competence and execution. Early seasons of Narcos focused on the rise and fall of the legendary Columbian drug dealer, cartel leader, and politician Pablo Escobar, played in a star-making performance by Wagner Moura. The interchangeable cast created an uneven level of quality throughout. DEA agent Steve McMurphy (Boyd Holbrook) was a perfectly adequate, likable character in the first season, but the series got a major boost of charisma when Holbrook got to play off of Pedro Pascal, who joined the second season as DEA agent Javier Peña. While Pascal boosted the quality of Season 2, the show failed to give him a compelling antagonist to face off against in the third season when Moura had to exit for obvious reasons (is it a spoiler to cite history?).

However, the series finally solved its character problem with the 2018 spinoff series Narcos: Mexico, which focused on the rise of the Mexican drug cartel in tandem with the Columbian exploits. While Narcos: Mexico featured just as many great 1980s music cues, graphic violence, and stylized exposition as its sister series, it felt all the more political and relevant. Narcos: Mexico turned the franchise from being a fun crime series into serious entertainment that examined the ramifications of the drug trade on the political, social, and economic development of Mexico during one of the most pivotal moments in the nation’s history. It also didn’t hurt to have two of the most charismatic actors on the planet playing characters with real dramatic potential.

RELATED: How Much of ‘Narcos: Mexico’ Is True? Separating Fact from Fiction in Netflix’s Gripping True Crime Drama

Michael Peña Is a Complex Hero in ‘Narcos: Mexico’

While the first season of Narcos delivered most of its exposition through expositional chunks spoken by Murphy or told in flashback, Narcos: Mexico didn’t reveal its narrator until a cool twist at the end that introduced a new character. The story is primarily told through the perspective of two men of ambition who are called upon to defend their families and countries by the only means they know how; they’re as much mirrors of each other as they are nemeses. It’s easy to compare any modern crime drama to Heat, but if there are any actors of this generation that can live up to the precedent of what Robert De Niro and Al Pacino accomplished in Michael Mann’s iconic 1995 classic, it’s Peña and Luna.

Peña stars as Kiki Camarena, the real DEA agent who was sent in to investigate the rise of the cocaine trade in Mexico during the rise of Escobar’s cartel. While the original series didn’t necessarily glamorize the DEA, it presented Holbrook and Pascal as fairly flawless heroes that were there to enact justice and stop the spread of addiction and violence. In comparison, Narcos: Mexico examined a more complex political state through Kiki. How would an investigation into the Mexican drug cartel affect the local economic markets, and who would be blamed if a police investigation revealed the Guadalajara Cartel’s influence? Kiki has seen through personal experience that when the cops are involved, there’s often more arrests and violence, but little actual change.

The pregnancy of Kiki’s wife Mika (Alyssa Diaz) also puts pressure on his decisions throughout the season; Kiki has to imagine what version of his country he wants to leave behind for his child, and he knows that any second he spends away from Mika will only contribute to her stress level. At the same time, Kiki is called upon to make a change, as he knows that if he doesn’t speak up for the perspective of the native population in the DEA meetings, no one else will. Do the ends justify the means? It’s a question Kiki is faced with throughout the season, and Peña’s excellent performance makes his decisions seem like the only rational ones.

Diego Luna Isn’t a Standard Antagonist in ‘Narcos: Mexico’

It’s incredible to see how only a few years after playing Cassian Andor for the first time in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Luna could transform into a charismatic drug kingpin worthy of Pacino in Scarface. However, calling Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo a straight-up antagonist seems like an odd way to characterize Luna’s role in Narcos: Mexico. Like Kiki, he’s a family man in search of a way to earn respect; Kimi is just looking to save his family, but Miguel has the future of his country and family on his shoulders. He faces internal pressure from his fellow cartel leaders as he tries to make a name for himself.

Sadly, like its predecessor, Narcos: Mexico had to deal with the constraints of historical fact as it concluded its run. Due to the real-life fates of both characters, Peña exited the series after the end of the first season, and Luna departed after the end of the second before the third season let Scoot McNairy wrap up the story. That means that overall, there are six seasons of the Narcos franchise available to binge for any subscriber; if you’re only looking to watch one, the beginning of Narcos: Mexico couldn’t be a better start.