Griselda Blanco is the role Sofía Vergara was born to play. Both Colombian women, Blanco made her reputation as "The Godmother of Cocaine" in the '70s and '80s in Medellín and Miami and, of course, Vergara co-starred as Gloria on 11 seasons of the Emmy Award winning Modern Family.
She's teamed up with Narcos director Andrés Baiz, who's also Colombian, on the six-part miniseries Griselda, now streaming on Netflix. Fans of the six seasons of Narcos will not be disappointed.
The story picks up in Colombia in 1978 when Griselda has a disagreement with her husband that leads to his death. She flees to Miami with her three sons and plans to take over the city's underground cocaine market that's already dominated by male rivals like the Ochoas. But she pushes ahead, building a small organization with prostiitutes smuggling packages of cocaine sewn into their bras. Griselda proudly brags she has the best coca powder and makes deals with the local players.
In the epic fifth episode, Griselda hits the crack pipe and all hell breaks loose.
Impulsive yet shrewd, she's quick to send out hit man Dario (Alberto Guerra) to handle any problems that arise. Ruthless like her contemporary Pablo Escobar, he once said about her: "The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco." There's a significant death toll in Griselda.
As in Narcos, investgators are hot on the trail; in this case, it's June Hawkins (Juliana Aidén Martinez), a pesky agent with Miami's CENTAC unit who doggedly pursues Blanco, especially after she's implicated in the murder of a six-year old.
Vergara inhabits the role with equal parts grace and menace. Like The Godfather's Michael Corleone, who Griselda named her youngest son after, she's isolated, often seen smoking cigarettes by herself, lost in a revery that's never quite explained. Perhaps it's all the years that passed, from her time working in brothels to rising to the top of the drug trade.
In the epic fifth episode, Griselda hits the crack pipe and all hell breaks loose. A series of sloppy mistakes allows the authorities to close in.
It will be interesting to see if there's a sequel to Griselda. The story of Michael Corleone would make a fascinating followup.
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