How Does The Netflix Series, A Lifetime Movie, and A Tubi Doc Portray Griselda Blanco?

I didn’t know anything about Griselda Blanco. I wasn’t even familiar with the name. When the official trailer for the Netflix limited series Griselda dropped at the end of November 2023, I only glanced over it with no intention of seeing the show when it was released. At least not right away.

Created by Carlo Bernard, Ingrid Escajeda, Doug Miro, and Eric Newman, Griselda stars Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara in the titular role. All six episodes premiered on Thursday, January 25, and followed the rise and fall of the ruthless drug cartel queen during the height of the cocaine drug wars in Miami during the 1980s. Alberto Guerra, Juliana Aidén Martinez, Martín Rodríguez, Jose Velazquez, Orlando Pineda, Martín Fajardo, Vanessa Ferlito, Fredy Yate, José Zúñiga, Gabriel Sloyer, Christian Tappan, Camilo Jimenez Varon, Julieth Restrepo, and Diego Trujillo would have key roles in the series to tell Griselda’s story.

So before the limited series came out I was scrolling through Twitter, yes Twitter because who really wants to call it something else, and I saw someone tweet about being excited about the Netflix show because a Colombian actress would be taking on the role of Griselda Blanco, then I did a little Google search to see who played her before and I stumbled on the 2017 Lifetime movie “Cocaine Godmother.” (You can watch on Hulu and on Prime Video with the Lifetime add-on)

With the teleplay by David McKenna and Molly McAlpine and directed by Guillermo Navarro, Catherine Zeta-Jones starred in the film as Griselda Blanco. If you grew up watching Lifetime movies, then you know how chaotic and interesting they can be. To get ready for the Netflix show and see if I would even be interested in the subject matter, I watched the Lifetime movie and from the start, I became fascinated with Griselda’s life. I know these true crime biopics like to add embellishments to give the drama for TV, so I searched for a documentary to verify what I saw in the Lifetime movie and conveniently there was one available on Tubi called “Queen of Cocaine.” Now I was all set for Griselda on Netflix, but after watching three versions of Griselda’s life I have some thoughts about it.

Catherine Zeta-Jones as Griselda Blanco in ‘Cocaine Godmother.’ Photo: Lifetime

In the Lifetime movie viewers can watch Griselda from a child all the way through her *spoiler alert* murder while the Netflix show drops viewers right into the mayhem of Griselda’s life with her running home to self-bandage a bullet wound and making one of her many escapes from those trying to take her down. I preferred watching the complete rise of Griselda in the film. There you could see just how innovative and smart she was when it came to the drug game while the Netflix show alluded to the fact amid it happening and other aspects of her upbringing.

Regarding performances from the lead actresses, I didn’t mind either portrayal because Catherine and Sofia did it in different ways. In the Netflix show Griselda is seen as more vulnerable showcasing Sofia in a contrasting way than what people are used to seeing her as which was captivating. Griselda was constantly taking losses because she was a woman trying to establish a name in the cocaine game and the men did not respect that. In the film, the plot didn’t focus much on other cartels Griselda had to endure but on how she rose to power and how violent she had to be. They showed Griselda getting her hands dirty much more in the Lifetime movie than in the Netflix series, so the film showed the more ruthless Griselda. Also the the Netflix show had the actors speaking in Spanish for about 80% of the program; which could have been more authentic to Griselda’s real life.

Sofia Vergara as Griselda Blanco in ‘Griselda.’ Photo: Elizabeth Morris/Netflix

The true crime Tubi doc touched on Griselda’s upbringing, the scams she did until becoming a cartel queen, and her violent reign as people who worked on the case to take her down were interviewed along with scholars, a fellow female drug dealer who visited her while incarcerated, and her last living son, Michael Corleone Blanco. The Lifetime movie and the Netflix show seemed to take bits and pieces from accounts in the doc to create narratives that were in the same book, but different chapters. One annoying bit about the limited series was that it focused too much on the investigation of Griselda and way too much on the personal life of the one female officer June (Juliana Aidén Martinez). Maybe it was to show the parallels of females trying to distinguish themselves in male-dominated spaces, but it was the least interesting part of the show, and for it to be called GRISELDA…I didn’t care about them.

In the movie, Griselda had a prolonged romantic relationship with a woman while being married, but the limited series made it seem she only dabbled in relations with women for fun. Also, there were discrepancies in the ages of her sons. In the show they were much younger while Griselda was running the cocaine scene but, in the movie, they were old enough to partake in the “family business” and often involved with her violent antics.

Overall, the story of Griselda Blanco was the biggest takeaway for me. I don’t condone her behavior, but watching three iterations of her rise you can’t help but be in awe of her tactics to becoming a notorious narcotics figure and building a cocaine empire as a female.

Did you watch Griselda yet on Netflix? Are you interested in knowing her story? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Photo: Netflix