Ever since Netflix launched as the first major streaming service offering original content, the Narcos franchise felt like the type of project that the studio was most interested in making; it was a highly expensive, compulsively watchable show that provided bingeable entertainment, yet never really touched the aura of “prestige” that defined the service’s clear high-water marks.
The high viewership of shows like Narcos allowed Netflix to invest in auteur projects like Maniac and Mindhunter that pushed the boundaries of the medium and allowed them to invest in more complex passion projects from filmmakers like Alfonso Cuaron, the Coen Brothers, Martin Scorsese, and Noah Baumbach.
Narcos was never “bad,” but it took a change of location and the star power of Diego Luna and Michael Peña to turn it into prestige television.
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