Less than a week after the Netflix premiere of hard-hitting drug crime drama Narcos, the streaming network has announced the show’s renewal for a second season.
The series, which dropped its first 10-episode season on Netflix last Friday, revolves around the saga of Colombia’s Medellin Cartel in the drug-fueled wars of the 1970s and 80s. The series follows Wagner Moura as the Medellin Cartel’s bloodthirsty leader, Pablo Escobar, as he pulls the strings of his dangerous empire while evading capture by a D.E.A. team headed by his ultimate rival, Javier Pena (Pedro Pascal).
The series has already won rave reviews a week after its release, for its heart-pounding attention to detail, startling action, and, most notably, its authenticity – the series’ commitment to keeping a good portion of the dialogue in Spanish brought Narcos acclaim from even The New York Times.
“Subtitled shows are thought to be less appealing to American audiences,” Jeremy Egner of The Times pointed out in a review of the show. “But Netflix didn’t balk at the Spanish dialogue in “Narcos,” said Cindy Holland, the company’s vice president for original series, because ‘we know the audience exists’ for such fare based on viewership of the service’s foreign films.”
As Netflix continues to diversify its offerings and churn out quality originals, and Narcos continues to climb up its list of most successful shows, renewing the series for a second season so soon after its premiere seems like quite the wise business decision, indeed.