It's time we visit South America and cover some Colombian history with Netflix's hit show Narcos! ● Follow us on Facebook: / historybuffslondon ● Follow us on Twitter: / historybuffs_
As a colombian I would like to say thanks for the respectful tone in the video. Some have taken Narcos as a cue to glorify and admire Escobar cause of his money, his guts and how ludicrous the things he did were. For us, for my parents, there was no glory and no guts. Only death and suffering. Only fear everyday because you didn't know if the car next to you would blow up. We've moved on from these times, we're happy our country is safer, more peaceful. Happier. Now, we continue our stride, trying to remember the victims, not the assassins, and trying not to glorify but rather shed the grim light they deserve. They weren't cool, they weren't heroes, they weren't anything but terrorists. Appreciate to see well produced, respectful content. Keep it up!
this show rubbed me the wrong way on how they tried to make Escobar seem sympathetic. The dude was a murdering scumbag. Him and his sicario thugs. I'm Mexican and sadly Mexico has an even worse narco problem right now. Drugs are a never ending story it seems. And it's not just drugs any more either. The narcos in Mexico practically control every racket you can think of. It has changed alot since Escobar's time
Such resilience and courage. I really would love to see more heroic representations of the politicians, officials and judges who didnt stand for his bullshit
History Buffs is one of the only channels on this platform that sums up the quote, “You don't know how good you have it until it's gone.” Welcome back History Buffs, we missed you and thank you for inspiring me to major in History and making my History channel
@@introvertedaf As a History content creator myself, you have to understand the amount of work it takes for us to create a quality video for our amazing viewers. Research, script writing, editing, etc. For him, it’s probably x10 because he has to deal with the legal issues regarding copyright etc. Either way, I’m okay with waiting because I know every video he uploads is quality.
HistoryBuffs and InternetHistorian are those type of RU-vidrs that take a long time to upload a single video but when they do its's always top quality content and that's what I love about them. The rare content creators that put quality over quantity.
I listened to an interview with both agents Steve Murphy and Javier Peña. They said the Narocs series is roughly 50% accurate. The one thing they specifically said was downplayed was the violence. I visited Columbia back in the 80s. I ask one of the locals why the government does not simply mobilize the army and take out the narcos. The Columbian looked at me seriously and said, "The Norcos have a better military than the government". That's when I realized how serious the problem was.
Realistically the cartels didn’t, America supported Colombia military and even the right-wing paramilitary groups had better military then the narcos because of Americans help. The problem was theirs too many senior officers/politicians that they corrupted, making it extremely hard to do anything substantial to them. The only way narco traffickers can reach these heights is with help from politicians, in many forms. Also it was extremely difficult for the gov to “invade” medillian at the time, basically everybody in that city worked for Pablo in one way or another, making pre emptive strikes nearly impossible.
I'm surprised Steve Murphy is able to stay as composed as he is considering most of the shows weakest moments involve his portrayal. Did we really need a subplot about him getting kidnapped and blackmailed by the Cali cartel? Did we really need his wife to leave and for him to develop a behavioral problem? It's like the show is uncomfortable with the agents just being hard working professionals who got the job done. The whole story is so unbelievably outlandish it's hard enough to believe on it's own. I really enjoyed the show but I feel like it would've been better without the obvious artificial drama.
@@EldritchAugur I always wondered why Murphy and Pena wanted so much publicity. Seems like it is a conflict of interest; not to mention potentially dangerous. 🤔
@@EldritchAugur I kinda enjoyed the subplots around Murphy and found them entertaining. Narcos Mexico Season 3 marital drama with the main DEA Agents wife/girlfriend? was just fucking unwatchable. I skipped every single scene. I swear, they were always at a restaurant munching out on a burger talking about their relationship problems.
Bruh. Those people are so dangerous they even harass American journalists. I worked at Spanish news station for a bit, we reported on an arrest of a member of the cartel. That person started harassing and threatening one of our Anchors just for reporting the arrest. Our anchor now has to be relocated to another news-station away from the border. Those guys are scary.
Though he may be fictional, I appreciate that Cockroach speaks Spanish with the inflections and the slang that someone from Chile uses. It's a nice detail that's appreciated as someone who was born there
My dad always complained and said this show was inaccurate. He grew up in Colombia at the time, and both him and my mother have told me stories of the constant bombings that happened. This last bit about Galan and the bombings is really hard to watch. My parents have told me everyone loved him and he was sure to bring Colombia out of the dark times. Thank you for exploring this topic, as a Colombian it means alot.
@@n0denz from my understanding it is much better, but still pretty garbage. Third world country and all. The civil war thats been raging since the 50’s is still at a ceasefire I believe, infrastructure it’s a little better. There’s good things and bad
I think the reason that the TV show had Medellin running drugs to Miami instead of Los Angeles was because every scene in the show was filmed in Colombia, even scenes that took place in the US or Germany. It was easier to film a Miami setting in Colombia than a Los Angeles setting.
He was really a monster. My complete condolences and respect to the Columbian people who had to endure this terrible time- I sincerely hope that you and your families are healing and never have to experience such horrors again.
@@tommerker8063two wrongs don't make a right. Just because many in his time were evil, doesn't take away the fact that he's an absolute monster who murdered thousands
@@tommerker8063 then what's the point of your comment?? are you trying to sympathise with Escobar because there were other cruel leaders?? The og comment's point was that Escobar was a monster, and he is an absolute monster who didn't hesitate to kill for his own benefit. No amount of bad or worse people living at the same time as him will never justify that fact
I sometimes looked in the comment sections of Narcos clips on RU-vid and saw many people supporting and glorifying Escobar's actions. Thank you for this, and showing the courage of those who stood up against that evil man.
So easy to glorify him when you're behind a computer scene in middle of nowhere, America and you've never felt the effects. Nevermind those fools. Most people know
@@isaacster5027 exactly Pablo Escobar may have worked hard to improve his hometown, and even wanted to do so to his country But the way he did it was wrong Pablo comes off to me as a “the end justifies the means” kinda guy
@@APersonOnRU-vidX man not even that. I'd find him somewhat noble if that were solely the case. He literally just was a greedy evil person who did not care who he destroyed, with a little patriotism on the side
Yeah, I don’t remember those years fondly. As a child I did not fully understand the situation, but I could feel the fear all over, due to bombs, murders, bounties placed on police, military and judges. It also makes me sad that these people are sometimes hailed as heroes, saviors, liberators. So many dead and so many consequences, still felt today.
In George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, the Ironborn often ask "did you pay the gold price or iron price?" meaning did you pay for it or did you kill the man and take it from him? Pablo Escobar's offer of "Silver or lead?" sounds like a modern spin on that phrase.
@@KTChamberlain he's saying Pablo came up with that saying long before GRRM, so rather than Pablo's saying being a modern spin on George's it's the other way around.
@@tostadoramagic Specially when speaking with folk that speak with fluent Combian accent. Is like Al Capone actor was great but had a really strong Scandinavian accent. Is not deal breaker but is impossible to ignore.
@@Notmyday2009 Idk about impossible. Plenty of people can't hear the differences in accents be they subtle or obvious. I'm Mexican-Spanish and I can't hear Wagner's Brazilian accent as any different from his Colombian accent.
@@calebwinfield1403 none at all. I grew up in the ninenties. By then, tur medellin cartel wa gone, and de cali cartel was in its heyday. Corruption was rampant back then, even more than now, that even a president was acussed of accepttung bribe from the cartel. Far left and right militias picked up the bones of what mister escobar left. Maybe the bombings were bot so frequent, but if you lived in the colombian countryside, life was a real nightmare. Massacres were very common in those days, perpetuared by those militias. I remember one psrticularly infamous that happened on a village called el salado (the salty one) were a bunch of AUC, a right winged nilitia, came to town in force killing and publicly dismembering inocent people, gor supposedly helping left wing militias/guerrillas. That is just a tiny bit of the shit this country had to endure. Not sure if mister Hodges will cover any of it, if he makes a part 3 for the final season of narcos.
Narcos is brilliant for many reasons. The cast. The writing. The directing... but what I really like is they kept the languages. Some films or TV make situations like this asuddenly know how to speak English. Yes, Pablo and pretty much all of them could speak English but it would make sense for them to privately talk in a language that's not even their's. This was a great video!! I've become very hooked on History Buffs!! Always well done!! Thanks!
One inaccuracy to note: the Chilean soldiers (2:32 onward) are wearing VSR-93 camouflage which wasn’t developed until the late 80s. I don’t think anybody really cares about camouflage history but it’s an error nonetheless
Accurate. This video has my colombian approval. Can’t wait for the second season video. I never watched Narcos, I appreciate the work to make it authentic and the use of Colombian and Latin American actors, but I couldn’t get over the fact that Pablo had a foreign accent. You can tell he is really trying but there’s no way he can fool a Colombian. For the pieces I saw of Javier Barden, I think he did a better job with “paisa” accent (Medellin’s accent) even putting it over his dialogues in English, something that people from Medellin actually do, coz “paisa” is a very strong and musical accent.
i couldnt stand javier's voice though. Andrés Parra has hands down the best pablo esobar voice and possibly performance (Wagner's was also outstanding) out of them all.
Understand that it's show business. Netflix wanted a name and a great actor. And they got one in Wagner Moura. I'm pretty sure they made the show for the US market, not the Colombian market
@@malachiw392 Same. Andrés is Colombian (Caleño) that’s why his accent was the closest. I agree with you he was the best Pablo! Javier bring from Spain and Wagner is Brazilian, his first language is Portuguese!
I don’t know this dude’s gonna do a review on #NarcosMexico but what I can tell you is that I might be related to one of the people that actually work with one of the real life people in that series either way the rabbit hole goes much deeper than that. 😎 But trust me my friend #Mexico plays a much different ballgame than #Columbia !!! 😎
I've always heard about Pablo Escobar in passing, but I've never heard about his deeds in detail until now. The man was a monster and a nation-less warlord. I'm amazed that he would have had so many followers to carry out his killings for him.
@@gamesjuegos9567 it was a Scarface reference. But yes I agree obviously he was evil. Just saying evil needs a face so the people behind the real evil can point a finger
Love the content. One note. According to George Jung, he did not meet Pablo Escobar in 1974. In Blow, the book, he not only discusses this, but also the insanity with smuggling before he got into cocaine.
@@ThatUmbrellaGuy Fantastic, to be honest I've never delved into books on organized crime before but I heard about this show and I was curious. I'm reading a book by Dan Jones it's called The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England, it's fascinating but then again ever since I was a kid I've always been fascinated by history. Do you have any recommendations regarding books on organized crime?
Wagner Moura was a "fun to watch" interpretation of Pablo, but if you want one that is scarily authentic, watch Andrés Parra in "Pablo Escobar, el patrón del mal". The production is cheaper, but the show spends a lot more time on establishing everything, and Parra has Escobar's mannerisms down to every little detail. Also, no constant _narración gringa,_ if you know what I mean.
@@owenlindkvist5355 not exactly a slur but it’s a term to refer to people non-native to Mexico. It can work as a slur but it’s usually a general term used for Americans.
please never stop making videos Nick. You're the reason I keep checking my subscriptions often to see if there are new History buffs videos. Thanks for your contribution mate!
I live in Baton Rouge, and have parked in the exact spot Seal was in when he was ambushed. Across from my Mom's house on the Amite River in a town called Port Vincent, there is a field he used as a landing strip coming back from Colombia. A lot of folks have a Barry Seal story in Baton Rouge Not exactly a local boy makes good tale though.
I darn right love your channel and content, I missed your videos!! So happy you posted another one! I absolutely enjoyed your lecture on this. I never watched the show because I knew it’d be dramatized, but happy that you have your video on it. Highly enjoyed ☺️
History Buffs is the only channel I have notifications for and can't wait to get home to watch the newest video, actually going out of my way learning about history bores me but it being presented like this is just interesting...
I'm glad that Pablo's early arrest, as well as the deaths of the arresting officers, was not all in vein. I hope they got to look down at him and his people scrambling to buy all the newspapers covering the arrest.
So just watched on Nebula and damn I thought Bezos had a ridiculous amount of money. The fact that he had his own prison and an AA gun is shocking. Now I kind of want to get the seasons and watch it since the only information of Escobar that I vaguely remember is the actual operation that took him down from when the History Channel was still about history. Can't wait for Season 2.
@@richardsantanna5398 agree. Only difference is Escobar actually spent it on utterly ridiculous things during his early years, but I bet a mission to fucking space wasn't in his plans.
The ''Gentlemen of Cali'', Pablo's competitors who took over pretty much the entire cocaine production/ trafficking, after his death, were even more rich. It is said that if cocaine was a legal business, the Cali Cartel would have been as big as Coca Cola or Microsoft.
Would like to commend Wagner Moura's performance in this show. In particular, the scene where he is called out for being a criminal in the Congress meeting, taking off his tie as he's told he must leave. Even knowing how truly evil and wretched Pablo was, when he stands up, tears barely held back in his eyes, in embarrassment, and fury, the absolutely DEVASTATED look on his face made me actually feel bad for him and had sympathy at how he must have been feeling watching his dream die. Always liked Wagner as an actor, but this show amazed me at his talent. 👏
Hey Nick, big fan of your work. Even though Simon Bolivar was indeed Venezuelan, he was himself in irony exiled from Venezuela during his final years. Colombia adopted him and allowed him to stay there during his final year as he had yellow fever and would die one year later from this events. As one of the several countries forming the "Great Colombia", which was a country that Bolivar wanted to form with Bogota as a capital; using Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador as territory, the plan failed as Venezuelan patriots would not support it and there was a lot of bad blood between then president of Venezuela, Jose Antonio Paez and Colombian president Francisco de Paula Santander. Bolivar did see himself as Venezuelan, Columbian, Peruvian, Ecuadorian... and a son to any country he helped liberate, so your mistake really is very fitting.
@@slimdiddyd No way someone with his money doesn’t have at least a million + hidden away. Most was probably seized but he HAS to have a nice nest somewhere.
His an old fart and is sick, his daughter was trying to get him to Germany so he can live there. He’s got no money hidden as far as I can tell, because all he had was taken by the government or other drug lords. He gets nothing
Thank you Nic for all your efforts you put in to give us a more detailed story behind the scenes... May you be blessed for many years to come... Keep up the good work.......
As a Colombian, all I can say is well done! You really took the time to examine and explain the painful history of my country at the time which is often glamourized by foreigners, I can't wait for part 2. Also, if you wan't another show that covers the entire history of Pablo Escobar, I recomend a Colombian show called "El Patron del Mal", it's made by Colombians, for Colombians. Though it leans a bit much into soap-opera drama on many occations, it also covers in greater detail many historical events that Narcos glosses over (or atributes to the fucking DEA!). Also (something that I really apreciate) is that it shows the narcos for the monsters that they truly are, and dosen't just glamorize the wealth and power.
I don't want to point fingers but when I went to Medellin I saw Pablo on walls and t shirts alike and none of these looked foreign to me. I know what you mean tho, a lot of people everywhere glamorize his lifestyle. Same with Che or Mao who'd be turning in their graves if they knew how much merch was sold on their neck 😅
i liked that this show had the right motorcycle sounds 'most' of the time in the first season. sometimes even the timing is right. but bothering to use the right type of motorcycle for the sounds you'd think would be easy but this is like the first show I've seen that has got it right even partially.
Honestly, seeing how rich the history of Pro Wrestling and Lucha Libre especially is, I’d love to see Nick cover a video on it! The sanctity of Lucha masks, the background of promotions like CMLL or AAA, legends like El Santo, Blue Demon or the Guerrero Family… It’d make for a great episode!
What especially worries me is that we all know that RU-vid is infamous for how it treats certain topics like History and knowing Narcos and it’s subject matter, I’m worried that RU-vid will probably either Age-Restrict or outright delete this Video for stupid reasons
Bookmarked. I'll watch and enjoy this 40-minute video when I get home from work. Narcos is one of my all time favorite. And History Buffs is well known for making quality content. I won't be disappointed.
One thing I liked about this series and especially the Mexico spin off is that it doesn't shy away from showing how dirty the DEA fought at times even doing some really horrible things
As a latino one thing that i would have to point out is Pablo’s actor was Brazilian and has a thick accent and it distracts a lot specially since the medellin accent is very particular. Its kind of having a Russian to play a southern accent
Glad to see History Buffs back! I am personally disgusted by people of this kind and also the arguably even worst people that idolize them, but, sadly, there's things we have to know and study even if they make us sick.
Be fair as a American before I heard the history had only heard the ledgend version of the man so in not supirsed most poeple only know the ledgend version of the man but even the ledgends I was told is that he was a coke smuggler and made bank off of it and did alot of stupid shit with money and of course he had a few poeple killed here and there just part of the bidness. No one did say anything about him going to war with the government and becoming basically a terrorist.
People are attracted to rouges, thieves, and mobsters. It’s because people like Escobar oozed charisma and that in turns makes him a popular figure in pop culture. It’s the same reason people are attracted to people like Al Capone, Bonnie & Clyde, Black Beard, and countless others.
Ahhhh!!! I just found your channel a week ago and binged EVERY VIDEO! I noticed you hadn't posted in a really long time, so I thought maybe the channel was dead and was SO UPSET! And then I seen this!! IM SO EXCITED YOU'RE STILL MAKING VIDEOS!!!! 😁😁
What a coincidence! As soon as I finished watching the last episode I got hit by the RU-vid notification telling me History Buffs made video about the series!!!!!
I really enjoyed this format of your videos; where the story was presented contentiously while you are pointing out historical discrepancies or inaccuracies along the way.
He voices Death in the Puss in Boots sequel (coincidentally all the antagonists in that movie are voiced by non-Hispanic actors: British, American and Brazilian respectively)
I'm sure anyone who watches Narcos would know that everything that happens in the show is presented in a dramatic fashion and wouldn't take a genius to know that most of it didn't happen that way, but i'm glad you decided to break it down regardless.
Oh this is gonna be awesome I love this show. I got so into this stuff I watched the “el patron de mal” series which is probably more realistic but was like 60 - 1 hour episodes.
El Patrón del Mal is more like a latino "telenovela" format. It's been produced to air several days at week. Whatever, the Pablo Escobar of there (Andrés Parra) is waaaay more realistic that Wagner Moura's Escobar.
I am watching this on nebula but since there is no commenting, I have to come here and say how awesome it is to have your content back and on a show I obsessively looked up accuracy for. 😀
This one was a great video, my man. I thought it would be a more generic and basic double down on the show for inaccuracies but it was more complex and intriging, well done. The cartel wars were an embarrassing period for our people here in Colombia. Its really devasting and depressing how even today a lot of local folks glorify the criminal that was Escobar, selling merch with his face and stuff depite everything he did to his own people. Hell, even the drug lords that are in control today act like the leftovers of his reign of terror.
Thank you SO MUCH for this one 🙌🏾 I love this show and trivia but I really struggled to put the pieces of who is who together. Carillo was my biggest mystery!
One of my many gripes with Narcos (and I have a bunch) is the complete and utter lack of research the production team did into the firearms. In the 80s, there were NO 1913 rails, no ACOGs....there were so many inaccuracies it was painful. It would be like watching Ben-Hur and seeing an English carriage rolling down the street.
Yeah I think I even saw some 2010's special forces AR15 carbines and Galil ACE rifles in some scenes in season 3 which do not fit into 1994/5 at all. And in the first episode of Narcos Mexico there is a close up shot of a dude holding a rubber rifle meant to look like a M16A1 but the carry handle looks half melted and doesn't even contain the sight.
They are just telling the story in a dramatized fashion and succeeded in that endeavor. The specifics of firearms don't really matter for most people, it would be great if they cared about it but the fact that they didn't does not take away from the overall quality of the show
@@odd-eyes6363 I disagree. A lack of accuracy when there's literally no reason for it other than laziness absolutely detracts from what you're watching. A conscious decision to make an inaccuracy for dramatic reasons (for example) is far more acceptable.
Hell yeah. Can't wait for part 2. I'd love to see something about the "characters" of Deadwood & how the show differs from history. I know a lot of it is fictionalized but there's gotta be some truth in there!
I did not know how much I needed this. I'm sitting here working 16 hours a day and you upload a video of one of my favorite shows. Hope to see the Season 2 soon!
I'm loving the video so far, but have a small note; Simón Bolívar, the liberator of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Perú and Bolivia, was Venezuelan, born and raised. He did die in Colombia, and was a controversial figure given his methods and the systems he implemented after winning the war against the Spanish.
@@Elrich272 I now, but he liberated that territory, you could also say that he didn't free Colombia because at the time it was called Nueva Granada, it's just for simplicity's sake.
Thank you so much. While I loved the show, I always felt some things were off, and would not always add up. With your efforts, I can now enjoy the series, and understand the actual happenings.
That judge that did that to Barry seal should be put in prison, bro. His actions directly led to his death, all because he didn’t like the guy. Impartial my ass.
