Griselda

A limited Series from Netflix

A little warning if you have had struggles before with addiction please be careful  about watching this series. 

This was recommended by the BBC team and ine of my favorite preseters Nikki Beddi. She hosted Sofia Vergera on the one hour show so i decided to watch it. 

Sofia Vergera needs no introduction. She starts in shows where viewers get to appreciate her accent a little like what Panelope Cruz does or Antonio Banderas. She also likes the idea that some if not all the men that interview her often cannot help but look at her bust. 

But this time around she devotes her skills on tackling an important subject-the Colombian drug trade. There is however a spin on this where the film presents the perspective of a female drug lord nicknamed The God Mother. 

The series starts with a quote in which Pablo Writes that the only man he ever feared was actually a woman called Griselda Blanco. 

So the viewer is taken through a journey that helps you makes sense of her journey in a complex life at the helm of the trade in drugs in Miami, Florida. 

What i find interesting is the idea that most of the motivations that drive people into tough decisions are often centered around past pain points. Secondly, we will resort to the default settings and do that which we are most comfortable with especially when it comes to the desire to survive and protect those we love. 

Third is the fact that when we are trying to survive, and change our settings or plight, what is right and what is wrong are often not very clear. 

There is a link between the message in another popular series Peaky Blinders which seems to place the lives and struggles of Gypsies (they prefer to be referred to as Romani people) on one hand and the perceptions and treatments as well as restrictions they face by others on another. In Griselda’s struggle, we see her as a champion of often under represented people from Cuba who cross by boat into the US in search for greener pastures. In both moving pictures, the protagonists are forced to navigate a world of crime as they make their place in a world that is against them. 

Griselda has a few interesting characters and ideas that play out through the series. There is the challenge of glass ceilings even in the ‘elicit’ trade of drugs as Griselda struggles to gain the confidence of a predominantly male dominated space. There are also some lessons about leadership and the value of lifting others up and the value of gifts. 

It is also notable to see how Griselda engages with the men in her life.