Netflix review: Griselda

pgjackson · March 4

Just watched the new mini-series Griselda with Sophia Vargara. Definitely worth watching. Not much different than your typical Miami drug lord show, but the twist is that it's a woman who's in charge. Sophia is very good in this, but it is a bit strange seeing her so serious. When you watch you realize that something isn't right about her looks. That's because the producers didn't want her naturally stunning beauty to be a distraction so they gave her a prosthetic nose and teeth to **** her up a bit. She's still very attractive, but it took me a few episodes and a quick Google search to find out what was going on. Her performance is very strong and I'm sure she will be getting some Actors Guild attention and maybe some awards.

However, this is not a female-empowerment biography. This is not a story about a strong woman working herself to the top. Griselda is not a woman to celebrate. This is the story of a true murderous psychopath who is willing to do anything to get what she wants. No real spoilers here because we know what happens in the end. But Griselda is a twisted and sincerely evil person who murdered a lot of people along the way. The real hero of the story, which I'm afraid the writers kind of glossed over, is the female detective who actually was a strong, intelligent woman who fought her way to the top in a male-dominated police force and was the one responsible for breaking the Blanco organization and capturing Griselda. They should have spent more time on her, I believe.

If you are a fan of Narcos, Scarface and all the other drug lord shows, you will enjoy this. It's only 6 episodes so not a huge time investment.

wpony714 · March 4

I thought it was pretty good and Vergara did a great job. She is one of the executive producers BTW .

"Two-time Emmy Award-winning veteran prosthetics and makeup designer Todd McIntosh worked with this notion in mind. “What we were trying to do was not make her look like Griselda Blanco. We were trying to make her look, not Sofía, and a little bit more plain feature-wise and structure-wise,”

Griselda marks McIntosh’s final project (he retired at the end of the series), but he also didn’t have much prep time as he was hired four days before principal photography started. Stephen Bettles had already designed the prosthetics by then. “They were delivered to me, I put them on, and then created the rest of the makeup,” McIntosh says. Whereas Vergara had been thinking about this series for 15 years, McIntosh had to dive straight in. “I have to say if anyone were a part of this design process and were the apex of it, it would have to be Sofía,” he says. “Every nuance, every inch of the makeup, was passed by her, approved by her, talked out, adjusted. It was a long process, and she was the eye for everything.”

Blanco's son sued Vergara and Netflix "claiming the family did not authorize Netflix to use their “image, likeness and/or identity. Michael alleged that he discussed the possibility of developing a book and show about his mother’s story with producers from 2009 to 2022, as well as sat down for interviews and shared other material with them. But he said he only became aware of the limited series “through news publications” later, and claimed Netflix used his narrative and other materials for the show without crediting or compensating him for it."

The suit was dismissed.