In my opinion, "El Patrón del mal" is much better than "Narcos". More realistic and accurate to real facts. If you are from a Spanish speaking country, or if you are familiar with this language, you will realize that, no doubt.
In "El Patrón..." all actors are Colombian; you feel like you are there with them, at the times and places the events are happening. The main actor, Andrés Parra, really looks like Pablo here, talks like him, moves like him... And this is also the case with most of the other main characters (even if the names are changed sometimes, for instance Carlos Lehder is here "Marcos Herber", and so on).
Some have critized that this series are like a "telenovela", but I don´t agree. Maybe the structure is similar, but the main thing in the plot are not the love stories and the romantic misunderstandings of the characters (like it is the case in telenovelas), but the recent Colombian history, seen from different perspectives: Pablo and the Medellín Cartel on one side, and the authorities fighting against crime on the other.
Some have critized that this series glorifies Escobar, but I do not agree with that either. One of the scriptwriters is actually Camilo Cano, a grandson of Guillermo Cano, the director of an important newspaper who was killed by Escobar. And the script is based on a book written by a former mayor of Medellín.
By the way, there´s a book out there about this series written by a fan, it is a guide for the episodes of the series. As far as I know it is only in Spanish for now, but if you speak this language, love this series and/or are interested in the story of Pablo and the Medellín Cartel it could be interesting for you. The book´s name is "Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal (Guía de todos los episodios)" and you can find it in Amazon (ebook and paperback).
