I saw the entire El Patron series before I watched Narcos. In spite of a smaller production budget, El Patron is far superior to the Netflix series. I can't figure out if it was because the team behind the series was able to cover Escobar's entire life or maybe because they were able to really show the impact to his narco-terrorism. In any event this was must see TV. I'm watching the telenovela about the Cali Cartel now.
shareI tried watching Narcos but after four episodes I couldn't get past the lame DEA characters. Despite all the good reviews for Narcos, watching Pablo first spoiled me for the Narcos. I'm getting over saturated with these Spanish speaking, drug fueled, rags to riches sagas. Honorable mention, El Infierno for doing the essential dramatic arc in 150 minutes. I think I'm gonna reserve some time for the many documentaries on this subject and avoid further dramatizations.
shareI haven't finished neither yet but in the comparison so far I can say this:
Patron was almost perfect. It would take very little to make it perfect. Just removing the scenes where it felt like a telenovela, because mostly it doesn't. I loved 90% of it, then all of a sudden they could throw in some lame scene where someone got whacked. Also the scenes with americans are lame. Actors who are supposed to be american but hardly can speak enlish. With such an excellent production why not hire some real american actors to play those parts, or hire international pro's to improve the action-scenes, to make them look less telenovela-like and more like the real thing.
The cast is fantastic, and the majority of the scenes are well acted. Andres Parra is fantastic as Pablo, although his part works best on a comedic level. He's funny and likeable. His portrait of Pablo works very well and he makes him more manipulative, brave and narcisistic than scary really. A naive childish person. As I said I haven't seen it all yet but if you're to believe this show, his "success" in lack of a better word. Was more due to his abbility to speak and manipulate people than being a ruthless s.o.b.
He probably was both but so far this show is concentrating more on his intelligence than his ruthlessness.
I saw a clip on youtube where they put an interview with the real guy next to the acting of parra and you could hardly separate them. However Parra to me worked best on a comedic level. He makes a funny pablo, deliberately or by accident I don't know.
Narcos is only better with the action, but leaves out too much of the story and too many non-colombian actors that don't feel authentic. It's hard to make a talky escobar with someone who doesn't speak the language. For a non-colombian actor to portray Pablo I'd even preferred Benicio del Toro over Wagner Moura, he learned the accent much better. Although no one comes close to Parra.
Too much voice-over scenes.
So far I'd prefer "patron del mal" but with the actionscenes from narcos.
Ed Powers = Woody allen
It's a fair and telling point that Narcos has better action sequences but it is to be expected. Cool action is money well invested and shows on the screen. I find the ridicule of Narcos for laughable Spanish dialog telling also. It's taken for granted that U S audiences won't notice and those who do, don't matter.
With several quality dramatizations produced in Latin American countries the Narcos production seems pandering and insubstantial.
" For years I tried being smart. I recommend being kind"
I think it is very difficult to compare both series with each other. While El patrón del deals much more with details of Pablos Early life till "spoliler alert" death and Narcos deals with both The DEA and the rise of and fall of Pablos Ecobar and his Medellin Cartell.
I like both series and I think there are flaws in both series.
For instance do I have problems with the actor as the mature Pablo in Patron del mal, while he of course got the correct language, very close to the real look, he overacts too much and it feels like he is doing his script like an essay more than actually acting and sometimes he seems so childish and stupid, but I grew a custom on him after a while.
I really liked the actor who portrayed the young Pablo and I think Pablo aged a little too fast while his wife still was portrayed by the young actress.
I think most of the others casts were really good, expecially Marcos Herber/Carlos Lehder
The show overall is really good, sometimes a little boring but it catches the real story very good, that is of course because it got a hell of a lot more episodes than Narcos. And I really like how they showed the different places in Colombia
Narcos has a larger budget and feels of course more professional, which I think makes it much easier to catch the attention of non spanish speakers.
I can relate to those who are upset with the accent and I can relate to those who aren't.
For me Wagner Moura acts better, he seems more mature and he is not that far away of the real look.
Luiz Guzman is badass, I don't even know if the real person behind his portraying was that crazy. But it sells.
The Blond DEA is the weaker part while Pedro Pascals acting was over the top and even the rest of the casting ws really good.
The other flaw of the show is that they had to cut down a lot of the story which I think could have helped if they made two seasons Spoiler alert before the escape of Pablo. I loved that they blend in the real footage and filming of the story though and last but not least a lovely theme song.
Both shows are different from each other and some facts are fictional but hey, I love them both and I don't think you should compare them to much with each other. It is what it is.
For instance do I have problems with the actor as the mature Pablo in Patron del mal, while he of course got the correct language, very close to the real look, he overacts too much and it feels like he is doing his script like an essay more than actually acting and sometimes he seems so childish and stupid, but I grew a custom on him after a while.
Wow im shocked at what you guys are saying about el patron del Mar being better than narcos. It's like you watched a different show. I think you need to do some research because narcos is spot on as far as the details and what actually happened. El patron didn't even get the name of the guerilla group m-19 right. They called it something like mr-20. The names are wrong, the actor looks nothing like Pablo, it's just laughable that anyone could even compare the two let alone say el patron was better. Do yourselves a favor and do some research then you might actually have a clue
share"the actor looks nothing like Pablo"
You think Wagner Moura looks like Pablo? Puhleeeze...