There have been 2 episodes so far, one in Las Vegas at
a show for women's gun carrying apparel, and one on
clothing and corruption in Liberia. The show has a great way of summarizing 20 years of conflict in a country in a five minute narrative by Haley that makes you feel like you read a history book on it. Liberia is a very sad place still, struggling to recover from its civil war, rampant corruption and from the Ebola nightmare that killed more than 40,000 Liberians. Many American born Liberians are now returning to jumpstart the economy, and the show focuses on the two from Florida who are running this year's Fashion Week show. Haley Gates is terrific. Next week she will tackle France and the Burkini.
Next week, another season of Big Brother begins.
I'm primarily interested in Season 5 of Senor de los Cielos which begins tonight. If you haven't seen it before, you may want to watch the 2 hour prelude which recaps the first four seasons (Telemundo, 7 pm MT, probably different in other time zones.) Subtitles should be available (in some places they are on "CC3", on Comcast it is either "secondary language" or "Service 3." At 9 pm (MT), Season 5 will start. This show has some of the best sets -- every piece of furniture, every "objet", the rooms in the gorgeous homes, and the clothes and makeup are meticulously presented. The same goes when they are not in homes but fighting, either in the jungles of Venezuela and Colombia, or filming MS-13 fighting in the streets. Yes, it's violent, but it's much more stylized than in American shows.
These shows do not glamorize drug traffickers. Who would want to emulate someone who is doomed to die a violent death, lose their families and other loved ones to revenge kidnappings and killings, be separated from their kids, etc. Not one big Narco in these series rides off safely to the sunset (except in the original La Reina del Sur, which does have a happy ending.)Everyone else ends up dead or with a tortured soul. In real life, many end up in prison for decades.
Senor de los Cielos is very loosely based on the life of real life trafficker Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who is supposedly dead. (Many believe he is still alive being protected by the CIA. See the 2010 sentencing comments a a TX lawyer in a federal case where he was defending a corrupt police official.
MR. HILL: Amado Carillo is not dead. Everybody thinks he's the Lord of the Skies, that guy? He's not dead. He has CIA protection. Everybody knows that. I mean, you know, third-graders know that.
THE COURT: Is he still in Mexico?
MR. HILL: No, ma'am. He's here.
THE COURT: In the United States?
MR. HILL: Yes, ma'am, with $13 billion.
Update: I have the chips and guacamole ready, with a bottle of Patron. Xfinity subtitles are under "secondary language" not "Service 3." The 2 hr recap is of Season 4, but that's probably all you'll need to catch up for the main event (premiere of Season 5) -- 10 pm ET, 9 pm CT and MT.
This is an open thread, all topics welcome, TV related or not.