The miniseries received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for Vergara's performance. In the first week after its release, it debuted at number one in 90 countries and topped Netflix's Global Weekly Top 10 TV (English).
Plot
The story follows Griselda Blanco, a prominent crime boss, and her rise in the Miami drug scene and pursuit of power and wealth. Drug use, paranoia, and betrayal lead to her downfall, with her actions resulting in multiple deaths, including that of a child. To escape retaliation from the cartel, Griselda turns herself in to the police but faces unexpected consequences. Despite serving time in prison, tragedy strikes when most of her children are murdered. The series ends with Griselda imagining a peaceful beach scene with her children. The show serves as a cautionary tale about the destructive pursuit of power. Griselda was assassinated in 2012 in Medellín, Colombia.
Cast and characters
Main
Sofía Vergara as Griselda Blanco, a prominent Colombian drug lord in the cocaine-based drug trade and underworld of Miami, Florida, in the 1980s, also known as the "Godmother of Cocaine"[3]
Alberto Guerra as Darío Sepúlveda, Griselda's third husband.
Martin Rodriguez as Jorge Ayala, Griselda's top hitman.
Filming for the miniseries began on January 17, 2022, in Los Angeles.[11]
Release
The series was released on Netflix on January 25, 2024.[2]
On January 17, members of Griselda Blanco's family filed a lawsuit for unauthorized use of likenesses and called on a judge to halt the release of the show.[12][13]
Reception
Audience viewership
During its debut week, Griselda debuted at number one in 90 countries and topped the Netflix Global Weekly Top 10 TV (English) chart, just three days after its release, with a total of 20.6 million viewers and 113.8 million hours viewed.[14][15] It maintained the position in the following week, garnering 114.1 million viewing hours.[16][17]
Griselda was met with generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for Vergara's performance, though some historical inaccuracies received criticism.[18] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 52 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Sofía Vergara impressively disappears into the role of Griselda Blanco in this propulsive gangster saga, which plays loose with the facts but achieves genuine grit."[19]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the show a score of 64 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[20]
TVLine named Sofía Vergara their performer of the week, for the week of January 27, 2024, specifically for her performance in episode five, "Paradise Lost". The site deemed it a "career-defining" performance, writing that "Vergara's unwavering commitment and out-of-left-field gravitas elevates Griselda to one of those rare edge-of-your-seat TV experiences".[21]
Some in Colombia have challenged aspects of the production for "glorif[ying] ... a bygone era of rampant violence and drugs" and Griselda as a heroine. Diego Cortes, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Oregon, "said the series was regurgitating tired stereotypes" but was also highlighting the role of North Americans in "their role in the drug trafficking industry ... [as] cocaine customers" whom Griselda identified as a market.
Michael Corleone Blanco, the real life son of Blanco, and his wife, Marie, sued Netflix, Vergara, and others over the series due to alleged unauthorized usage of the family's "image, likeness, and/or identity" without consent or compensation in January 2024. The suit was dismissed with prejudice in February 2024.[24][25][26]
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