Off The Coast Of Galicia" width="978" height="652" />Off The Coast Of Galicia" width="978" height="652" />
Are you a fan of Narcos? Then you might want to catch Cocaine Coast, a Spanish miniseries about the players in the drug trade off the Galician coast in the 1980s. Will it hold your interest, or is it drug dealing overload?
Opening Shot: Documentary footage of the 1980s drug trade off the Spanish coastal region of Galicia.
The Gist: After a scene that takes place in 1990, when detective Dario Castro (Tristán Ulloa) has finally been able to round up the big players of the Galician drug trade… Everyone except the biggest of bigwigs, Sito Miñanco (Javier Rey).
We then cut back to 1981. Sito and his father are making small change doing some illegal fishing overnight, but Sito always wants more. During a fishing expedition, he inadvertently interrupts a hand-off of illegal American cigarettes in the miles away from the coast. The next day, he is asked to meet local smuggling bigwig Vincente Otero, otherwise known as Terito (Manuel Lourenzo), who, despite the fact that Sito inadvertently broke up their operation, likes the way the kid drives a boat. To get him even, he recruits Sito to drive a boat on the next job.
Sito does great and loves the excitement and especially the money, so Terito offers him a regular gig running a speedboat out to make the handoff. He gets so good, that he and two of his buddies decide to go in business for himself. Terito is reluctant to let him join his smuggling cooperative, but finally agrees.
One of Terito’s subordinates, Manuel Charlin (Antonio Durán ‘Morris’) is trying to collect money that’s owed to him, but his two idiot sons can’t close the deal. But his daughter Pilar (Isabel Naveira) has an idea: start smuggling hash into Galicia. Charlin starts to warm to the idea when he realizes the money that’s in it, but Terito doesn’t want to do it. He figures they are in a good position, and smuggling tobacco only incurs a fine, not jail time.
Sito and his buddies want to launder their newfound income, so they fly to where a lot of money gets laundered: Panama. There, Sito meets a beautiful woman named Camilia Reyes (Jana Pérez) who introduces him to a man who deals cocaine and wants to make his way into the European market. Sito and his buddy agree to do it, but the man wants his buddy to stay behind as collateral.
Our Take: To say that Cocaine Coast (called “Fariña” in its original Spanish version) is an epic miniseries is an understatement. Each episode covers one year in the drug empire Sito is building, all the way from 1981 to 1990.
As much of Netflix’s international offerings have been proving, Peak TV quality isn’t just limited to North America or the UK. The scenic vistas of the show’s location shoots are stunning, and the cinematography is fantastic, using light and the lack of it to set how foreboding the crime ring is despite Galicia’s sunny idyllic shore vibe.
The performances, especially from Ulloa and Rey are fantastic. The story, based on actual events from the era where cocaine was traded off the Galician coast, is a bit hard to follow, especially given the 1-plus-hour length of the pilot. But once you realize the structure of the crime syndicate in the area, with Terito being the big boss, and Sito trying to circumvent him, everything makes sense.
Sex and Skin: After Sito and Camilia meet in an airport casino, we cut to them having sex, but that’s oddly the only nudity in the entire first episode.
Parting Shot: The man that Charlin’s sons beat up, who owes the family money, shows up bloodied and with a broken arm at Castro’s police station. Castro asks him if he wants to flip on the Charlin family — the man worked as a smuggler for the Charlins. He says yes.
