Netflix: “Griselda” starring Sofia Vergara

Bravo, Sofia Vergara! After charming the world in “Modern Family,” and hosting “America’s Got Talent,” what’s next? A role as the baddest, most powerful female narco of the 1980s, of course.

In “Griselda,” Vergara plays Griselda Blanco, the “Godmother” (la Madrina) who ruled Miami back when cocaine was king. The six-episode miniseries starts in Medellin, Colombia and follows her ruthless pursuit of power and wealth in the States, as she outwits her rivals at every turn.

For starters, Griselda employs young buxom Colombian prostitutes to fly to Miami with packets of cocaine stuffed into their brassieres. These small-ball attempts to muscle in on established Miami drug lords are met with scorn by men who doubt a woman is up to the job. She not only proves them wrong but frequently poaches their lieutenants—in one case, a man named Dario (Alberto Guerra), who became as her bodyguard and later her husband.

Griselda has ingenious ideas on how to expand her business—like prowling Miami nightclubs and suburban enclaves to create a market of affluent customers. Super-ambitious, and determined no man will rob her of what’s rightly hers, she initiates a deadly shootout at Dadeland Mall, the largest shopping center in South Florida at the time. The shooting gets national media coverage and brands Miami as home of the “Cocaine Cowboys.”

At the same time, Lieutenant Hawkins (Juliana Aidén Martinez) of the Miami PD is beginning to note the alarming increase in drug-related violence. Frustrated by a back-office job where she is sexually harassed by male colleagues, she gets a break when she is invited to join CENTAC, a special SWAT team that focuses on breaking the cartels in Miami. Through diligence bordering on obsessiveness, she determines that Griselda, a female, is the kingpin (or queenpin) behind the drug violence .

But is Griselda worried? Not at first. She lives

in a lavish Coral Gables mansion and frequently holds court in the VIP section of posh Coconut Grove nightclubs. Griselda eventually develops an addiction to crack which increases her paranoia and fear of arrest.

“Griselda” is a good, B-plus crime family movie replete with gangland-style killings, including headless corpses so consider yourself warned. On a positive note, the role is a triumph for Vergara who has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards for her earlier work. Time for a win.

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