Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Griselda’ On Netflix, Where Sofia Vergara Plays Real-Life Drug Queenpin Griselda Blanco

We used to be shocked when an actor previously known for comedic roles pulls off a dramatic performance. But it’s happened so many times now, we agree with the people who think that most comedic actors can do drama, but not necessarily vice versa. Since Sofia Vergara burst on our screens in the late 2000s, she’s been known for comedic roles, cemented by her 11 years on Modern Family. But in a new Netflix limited series, she plays a real-life Miami drug magnate, and she’s terrific in the role.

GRISELDA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A quote from Pablo Escobar: “The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco.”

The Gist: “Medellin, Colombia, 1978.” Griselda Blanco (Sofia Vergara) stumbles into her house, and slaps a maxi-pad on a gaping wound on her hip. She calls up her friend Carmen (Vanessa Ferlito) in Miami and asks if she can bring her boys up to stay with her. After a dispute with her husband Alberto Bravo (Alberto Ammann), she knows it’s time to escape and start a new life, like Carmen did. She hustles her teen sons Uber (Jose Velazquez) and Dixon (Orlando Pineda) and preteen son Ozzy (Martin Fajardo) onto a flight, telling them that she’s leaving their stepfather.

In Miami, Carmen helps her get on her feet by offering her a job in her travel agency, but Griselda has another plan: She managed to smuggle a kilo of cocaine in her kids’ luggage. She calls Arturo Mesa (Christian Tappan), a confidante back in Colombia, to find out where their Miami contact used to sell their supply.

Back in Medellin, Griselda and Alberto built a smuggling empire together, but after a couple of shipments went south, Alberto was in debt to his brother for about a half a million dollars. When they pull into the mansion where Alberto’s brother lives, he tells her what they can do to erase the debt: She has to sleep with his brother.

In Miami, Griselda goes to the club Atruro told her about and finds Darío Sepúlveda (Alberto Guerra), after hitting on a subordinate named Johnny (Wilmer Calderon). Dario refuses to even try her coke, even though Johnny has and endorses it as some pretty strong stuff; Darío deals in volume, not single bricks. Johnny is so pissed that he pulls a gun on Griselda and steals the kilo out of her car.

Griselda is determined to sell that kilo in order to set her and her kids up in Miami. She follows Johnny, beats him with a bat, takes her kilo back and demands a meeting with the Cuban contact he was meeting with. She hires a fellow Colombian named Chucha (Fredy Yate), a dishwasher at a local coffee shop, to be her muscle. She has the meeting with the quirky dealer and holds her own, telling him that his kilo can be cut many more times than the usual stuff he buys. Right after money is exchanged, though, Darío’s men bust in, in an effort to expand their turf. Griselda is spared their wrath, but sees it as an opening to make a deal with Darío.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Griselda has the feeling of Narcos, which makes sense, given that Narcos’ Doug Miro, Carlo Benard and Eric Newman created the show along with Ingrid Escajeda (Vergara is one of the executive producers, as well).

Our Take: Griselda is the fictionalized story of real-life Miami drug queenpin Griselda Blanco, and it’s highlighted by Vergara’s remarkable performance in the title role.

We’re done being surprised at the ability of comedic actors to perform drama, because we’ve seen the phenomenon too many times to count. But in the case of Vergara, she immediately makes us forget about her 11 years as Gloria on Modern Family, and not just because she’s wearing some prosthetics to change her look. From her first moments on screen, when Griselda is slapping a maxi pad on her gunshot wound, Vergara projects how steely tough Griselda is, and she also projects exactly how much more intelligent and determined she is than the people she’s dealing with in Miami.

What we appreciated the most about the first episode of Griselda, besides Vergara’s performance, is that it’s not trying to mess around with its viewers. We watched the episode after another show we were reviewing that purposely held everything from viewers for dramatic purposes, which frustrated the hell out of us. Griselda, on the other hand, puts its cards on the table immediately.

Even though the first episode bounces back and forth between her first days in Miami and final days in Medellin, by the end of it we know exactly how Griselda got that wound and what prompted her to run to Miami. The scene that shows what happened between Griselda and Alberto also highlights Vergara’s ability to show Griselda’s intensity; she’s never going to be someone else’s arm candy, no matter what they say, and the scene where she escapes her husband’s clutches showed that.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode, but we’re not discounting that there may be some along the way.

Parting Shot: Griselda, covered in blood, confidently strides out of the club after making the deal with Darío.

Sleeper Star: Christian Tappan’s character Arturo is going to be Griselda’s connection in Colombia, feeding her the primo cocaine that she tells Darío she can supply. He’s certainly a confidante, and he’ll likely be instrumental in keeping Alberto’s brother at bay, given how Griselda left Colombia.

Most Pilot-y Line: While we always like hearing Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff”, the song came out in 1979, not 1978, which is when the scene it’s in took place. Besides, it’s almost too much on the nose as a needle drop for the scene it was in.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While there are parts of Griselda that feel like a generic cartel drama, Sofia Vergara’s fierce performance in the title role demands our attention, as well as helping the show move along at a confident pace.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.