Narcos Season 2 Review: 8 Ups & 3 Downs

Downs

3. Steve Remains A Dull Protagonist

Narcos Boyd Holbrook
Netflix

One of the most complained-about aspects of Narcos' first season is that Boyd Holbrook's DEA agent protagonist Steve Murphy just isn't very interesting.

It's not Holbrook's fault in the slightest, but he essentially ends up becoming a supporting player in his own show, second not only to Pablo Escobar himself, but his far more compelling and charismatic partner, Javier Peña (played with delicious verve by Pedro Pascal).

The exact same issue is prevalent the second time around: he's basically just the audience character who guides us through the mayhem and little more. Functional, but not very memorable and easily lost in the shuffle with so much else going on.

If you hoped the showrunners might've listened to the criticisms from round one, sadly that's not really the case.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.