MovieChat Forums > Narcos (2015) Discussion > The american cop is the WORST character ...

The american cop is the WORST character of the show


Agent Murphy, the self-righteous american cop, here to save the day.

With his smug face and his perfect respect of human rights... because, you know, that's what americans are famous for around the world, especially in South America, LOL.

That's a terrible character, he's not realistic as a tough guy either. His voice as a narrator reminds me of Don Lafontaine, the action movie trailers guy.

Also, i don't care about he and his wife subplot. All around terrible.

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Agreed. This guy can eat a fat dick effing American.

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lol, stay away from cheap action flics with roid monsters.

A legit badass or tough guy does not neccesarily look like one. And if you think he has "perfect respect for human rights" you either did not watch the show or you are too stupid to understand it.

Also, i don't care about he and his wife subplot. All around terrible.


Really? You do not care about background and character development? What a shocker...

...but they hung him anyway.
Hanged, Ami. Your father was not a tapestry.

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Sounds to me like he's doing a Ray Liotta impression from Goodfellas with the narration, right?

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I liked Murphy and Peña both of whom are American (well, in the show at least, the actor who plays Peña is originally from Chile).

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I agree. He's not believable at all, except for the typical American self-righteous attitude he has, in spite of the fact he's the biggest idiot in the country.

I get the impression he cooperated with them making the show and therefore, they couldn't, likely legally, make him look bad. But come on, we know he probably did a lot of bad stuff too.

He's absolutely the most expendable character though. It's almost like Pedro Pascal was meant to be the star but Netflix overruled that and added the white guy to get American viewers.

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Really? I think he was portrayed as as cynical as any of them. He didn't fall in with the Crazy Brothers but that was not because he was so "righteous"...he just knew it would lead to trouble for him, as it did for Javier Pena.

The most "noble" characters IMO were the Colonel and his son, and to some degree, Javi. Not Murphy. He was almost portrayed as an observer, a witness. Note how they distinguished him from the Columbian cops during the raid scene. They were all dark-haired soldiers in olive green...and he was the Gringo in a red shirt with blonde hair. He was meant to be "Other."

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Exactly the post I was looking for OP, I've been hating on Murphy and his voice-over the whole show, having read Killing Pablo I don't see why he was necessary at all.

Talks in the beginning about Pinochet having the right idea against Narcos - Whaaaa.....?

Oh and wanting to be the loving family guy (misunderstanding wife) but with a duty to higher purpose (in this case law enforcement and killing Escobar to solve Colombia violence) - cliche much? I mean no disrespect to the real Murphy who's efforts may have saved lives but the show Murphy is like Poochy.

"Sicarios were supposed to be tough guys... except when their own ass is on the line." I mean lets make a list of tough guy credits for Murphy which would include..
1. Beating up some Wall Street jerks in an airport restroom
2. Pistol whipping Qica while 10 machine guns are already aimed at the sicario

feel free to add more...

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I dont know what show you were watching.

BOTH American cops were shown as extremely flawed.

They had to include them in the show because this was based on a true story.

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It was an American show, meant to appeal to an American audience that no longer expects stories to be entirely black and white. And some of the details about the American involvement in hunting down Escobar was fabricated to tell a story. Look under 'Goofs' and it says that, for example, the American agents depicted did not come to Columbia until 1988, even though they are shown being there in 1980. I really enjoyed the series, but make no mistake -- it's not meant to be anything more than it is -- a good story.

This is historical fiction. It's loosely based on historical events. But you should not mistake it for a documentary.

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I've come to like this show because pretty much all the characters are flawed, it looks pretty realistic, I love its documentary feel and look, and the actors are all so natural in their roles. (Like the Spanish theme song,too---it's pretty.) One of the funniest scenes I've seen so far is when the DEA cop and his wife are held up at the airport and put through the bureaucratic grind because of their pet cat---I cracked up when the official said in Spanish that had no way of verifying that the cat was even American or not. I mean, come on---Escobar's running drugs in and out of the country, and this couple's getting put through the grind because of one dang cat? LOL---there was a real reason behind that, though, if you wtched tha episode. The cop's narration of the story is also both cynical and funny,too---another reason I like this show so far. I don't think the cop is the worst character in the show at all---hes just doing his job, and dealing with the roadblocks and the hassles he and his partner have to go through to even get near this Escobar dude. I thought NARCOS was just going to be like the movie SICARIO, which is about U.S. agents going after the Mexican cartels, but its completely different. I will continue to watch,since it's getting more interesting with each episode so far. And yeah, it did seem like the actor playing Escobar was supposed to be the star, but, of course, the white boy was thrown in (which in this case, is okay, because the actor who plays the main DEA cop has been in a couple of films I liked already---A Walk Among The Tombstones, and Run All Night---both good films, btw---he played the bad guy in both.)

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I've seen at least the first five episodes of the show, and I'm hooked. Whats different about the show is that there's only 3 white main characters--Murphy,his spouse, and the ambassador--and that most of the cast is Latino---which is refreshing. A regular TV show would have had more white characters dominating the narrative as usual. It's not always about all about Murphy---he practically nearly disappears in the 4th episode--it's mostly about Pena and other Colombians trying to get at Escobar.

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