La Reina Del Sur 2 Reviews

"She's a adult female in enemy territory. All women are in enemy territory for centuries, but in this case, this is particularly accentuated because the drug-dealing world is a very machista, hostile environment. Here, the survival of a woman in enemy territory is even more spectacular. That's the original challenge of the novel — to ensure that in a machista, violent world, which is the territory of men — that in such a world where the women use the weapons of men, they utilize the intelligence and penetration of a woman. The challenge is for her to do more than than what men do in those circumstances and for her to become the boss of men."
— Arturo Pérez-Reverte

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There take been ii, significantly unlike televisual adaptations of Arturo Perez-Reverte's novel, La Reina Del Sur (yous can read our review of the source material here). The first, was a Mexican telenovela that ran for 63 episodes during 2011. Nevertheless, this summer saw the premiere of an American idiot box series based on the same novel, which played on the United states Network. This covered thirteen episodes thus far, and finished its beginning run concluding month, with the network agreeing to a second flavor side by side year. Let's take a look at both shows: their similarities, differences, strengths and weaknesses, starting with the Mexican version.

La Reina Del Sur
★★★
"The reina in Spain, stays mainly in the evidently."

The impact of La Reina Del Sur probably can't be exaggerated. Right from the first episode, screened in February 2011 on Telemundo, it was a blast hit. The premiere drew the network'southward biggest ratings ever for a first episode, and mayhap surprisingly, the audience was almost every bit split up betwixt men and women. The post-obit week, viewers increased past almost 20%, and beat all English-linguistic communication stations in the 18-34 demographic. The terminal episode, on May 30th, was the most-watched program in Telemundo's 19-twelvemonth history – and over again, was watched by more men than any show on TV at the time. Though since surpassed, information technology was likewise the station'south nigh-expensive product, shot in v countries and budgeted at $ten 1000000, So if you're expecting cheesy drama, you're going to exist surprised – at to the lowest degree somewhat.

It tells the story of Teresa Mendoza, whose life is thrown upside downwardly when her fellow, El Guero, is killed by the organized law-breaking gang for which he has been flying planes. She trades his notebook to the head of the gang, Epifanio Vargas (Zurita), in commutation for her assistance escaping to Spain. There, she gets a task as a waitress in a brothel, and gradually works her way up to running the place's books. She begins a relationship with a smuggler, and learns the ropes of the trade from him, only for tragedy to strike. While trying to out-run the authorities, their boat crashes into rocks, killing him and leading to her being sent to prison.

In jail, she links up with Colombian Patricia O'Farrell (Urgel), who knows the location of a huge cocaine stash, hidden by her late boyfriend from the Russian mafia. On their release, the pair work out a risky deal with Oleg Yasikov (Jiménez) to sell it dorsum, giving them the cash to fix in the drug business, with Yasikov's help. However, this attracts unwelcome attention from two fronts. The DEA offset sniffing around, with the assist of the local cops. Potentially more lethally, Epifanio is now on the political ascension, and Teresa'southward existence represents an unwelcome loose-stop that must exist tidied upwards. Not least because the DEA are interested in getting her dorsum to Mexico to testify confronting him.

According to del Castillo, the entire series was shot in just 7 months, which is an extremely quick pace: it works out at more than ii episodes, or over an hour of new footage, every single week. At one point, the star required medical treatment for exhaustion. Arturo Pérez-Reverte, writer of the source novel (whose work also inspired Roman Polanski's The 9th Gate), helped extend the material, a very necessary task given the 63 episodes the evidence lasted. Not having read the book myself, I can't annotate on what was added, but having read Werner's scathing review, seems similar the telenovela is superior to the novel, and has certainly made its heroine a more sympathetic grapheme.

The 2 areas where information technology works best are Teresa Mendoza'south character arc, and the supporting cast. With the story unfolding over such a long period (by English-linguistic communication TV standards), the quondam kinda creeps up on you. Information technology'due south only nigh the end, when the show includes a number of flashbacks to what Teresa used to be like, that you realize how drastically she has been changed by events. The plucky nevertheless naive young adult female to whom we were initially introduced has gone, replaced by a thoroughly hard-bitten woman, She learns the hard way that trust and affection are traits that can get you – or your loved ones – killed in her chosen profession. Frankly, the trail of dead bodies left behind Teresa in 1 manner or another, is and then high, her belief she may be cursed begins to seem credible.

I also liked the groundwork characters. O'Farrell is a hard-drinking, coke-snorting, flagrantly bisexual party daughter, even so still vulnerable and insecure at her core. She'due south played by Urgel, who looks like a supermodel version of Brienne of Tarth, taller than most of the men on the show [Per Google, she's officially five'7″, but as this picture show of her, del Castillo and male person star Ivan Sanchez shows… someone's not telling the truth] Another woman Teresa meets in jail, who becomes a key part of her team is Marcela, known as "La Conejo" (the rabbit). She looks like she wouldn't say boo to a goose, but really poisoned her married man and his mother. Alberto Jiménez, as Yasikov, seems to be channeling Lee Van Cleef. Finally, DEA amanuensis Willy Rangel, shows up early, vanishes in the middle, and then comes back to be pivotal at the finish, drinking coffee from his Wedlock Jack mug.  Given this testify is a marathon, not a sprint, having these to sustain interest is probable a necessity.

It is disappointingly easygoing in terms of activeness: Teresa's first boyfriend teaches her to shoot, as shown to a higher place. Simply afterward using information technology to escape early peril, she doesn't burn down another round until the final battle. To exist honest, even the efforts at generating tension are only sporadically successful, and this is more than drama-than thriller-inclined. There are some moments of plotting which don't ring truthful either. Apparently, in Spain, police procedure means than when someone confesses to having hired a hitman, you then let them wander off upstairs on their own to, oh I dunno, tidy up or something. Such mis-steps are probable inevitable at some point though. All told, I found it passably entertaining, with a lot less time spent on torrid romance than I expected, and anchored by del Castillo's sound performance.

Finally, in a baroque element of life imitating art, Kate del Castillo later on became involved with notorious fugitive Mexican drug-lord El Chapo, after Tweeting about him in 2012. Turns out he was a fan of La Reina Del Sur, telling her, "That series that you made, I saw information technology and I loved it. I've seen it many times—you're a great actress in it." He authorized Kate to begin work on a film version of his life story, before his break-out from jail in July 2015. Subsequently, she traveled to Mexico, forth with Sean Penn, to run across El Chapo, a trip which Penn subsequently chronicled in a heavily-criticized article for Rolling Stone. The relationship brought del Castillo scrutiny by the Mexican government, including an investigation for involvement in money-laundering. As of July, this was nevertheless ongoing…

Star: Kate del Castillo, Cristina Urgel, Humberto Zurita, Alberto Jiménez

Queen of the S
★★★★
"Don't mess with Tex-Mexicans."

I'll likely take less to say about the American version, because thus far, it has run barely 20% of the length of its predecessor, and tells far from a completed story. It is, however, radically different to this bespeak in a number of means. The nearly obvious is the shift in Teresa's destination from Kingdom of spain to the Us. This has caused some complaints among fans of the series and the novel, yet seems entirely understandable, given this is aimed squarely at the mainstream American market. While she's all the same running from her boyfriend'due south old employer, with a book containing a wealth of incriminating testify, that information plays a more significant part here, condign the McGuffin which drives the final 3rd of the first season.

The other major difference is ane of focus. Teresa (Braga) has, to this point, not risen very loftier at all upwards the ladder of the drug business. In that location's some obvious foreshadowing that she will, in that her "spirit animal" is an impeccably-dressed version of herself. But that appears well off into the future. For at present, the real "Queen of the South" so far is Camila Vargas (Falcon). She's the separated wife of Epifanio Vargas (de Almeida), who runs the American side of the business. She seizes an opportunity presented by Epifanio's political campaign, and is working on going into business entirely on her ain, dealing directly with the Colombian cartels. Needless to say, this does not sit well with her former husband, and when she discovers he is also after Teresa – no more than a low-level runner in her Dallas, Texas system – her interest is inevitably piqued.

So far, it has not been at all interested in romance, unlike LRdS, where Teresa'due south various boyfriends and entanglements were a significant part of the prove. This may develop downwards the road: for now, US Teresa has been too busy trying to survive. Likely as a consequence, she has as well directly slain more people than Mexi-Teresa at the same point. The beginning came as the event of a drug bargain/heist gone bad, and yous could make a adept case for self-defense. The killings in the final episode, however? Not so much. I sense she'due south going to exist considerably more than "hands on" than LRdS, where Teresa delegated all the muddy work to her minions [I may be wrong, only I don't recall her killing anyone personally until the shoot-out in the final episodes]

Where Queen actually scores, however, is in its product values. Despite the solidity of the performances, Reina ever felt similar a lather-opera: largely enclosed in its sets and constrained by a budget that, while unprecendented past telenovela standards, was still low by comparing to American Telly. That isn't the case here: at its best, this even goes beyond television and has a cinematic feel, comparable with the likes of Traffic or Sicario. I peculiarly liked the use of music, which was certainly a lot more advisable than the jaunty Norteño awfulness which permeated LRdS. [I should point out, my tolerance for land & western is equally depression!] The electronic beats used here instead, felt a bit reminiscent of Miami Vice, or perhaps Giorgio Moroder'due south work for Scarface, both of which are certainly relevant.

It's a grittier version of the drug life too. In LRdS, you largely felt one or more degrees of separation from the harsh realities involved, with the drugs nigh an abstract construct. At that place'due south no such escape here, right from the opening episode when a drug mule has the packages she's carrying outburst in her stomach, with fatal results. But the biggest ace the show has then far is Vargas – a character not present at all in Reina, and neither in the book as far as I can tell. She's function chess actor, part grim reaper, with a voice which sounds like beloved being slowly poured over sopapillas. She's a fascinating, circuitous creation, beautifully portrayed by Falcon, and we'd have happily watched an entire series focused entirely on her.

Certainly, it'll be interesting to run into where the story develops from hither. The beginning season ended with Epifanio ascending to the governorship of Sinaloa, and immediately exercising his new-institute ability, calling in the military against the cartel his ex-wife had only taken from him. Meanwhile, Teresa suffers a heart-breaking personal loss, yet rises above it to tell Camila, "I don't work for you any more than." And, to nobody'southward great surprise, at that place was a shock final twist, revealing something which wasn't all that much of a shock, Reina having prepped me for information technology (albeit, a lot afterward there than in episode #13).  None of which diminished my interest in the adjacent season, slated for summer 2017. While fans of the telenovela may cull to differ, I think any neutral would likely concord that this is a more polished and effective rendition of the story.

Star: Alice Braga, Veronica Falcon, Peter Gadiot, Joaquim de Almeida

Source: https://girlswithguns.org/queen-of-the-south-la-reina-del-sur/

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