'Narcos: Mexico' season two: why the foreign spin-off still connects with such a huge global audience

Actor Alberto Zeni had to audition seven times to be part of the hit show

The companion series to the hit show explores how Pablo Escobar and then the Cali Cartel trafficked drugs from Colombia into the United States. Courtesy of Netflix

Narcos: Mexico had an awful lot to live up to when it premiered back in November, 2018.

Over the course of three seasons, the companion series to the show, which was simply entitled Narcos, explored how the infamous Pablo Escobar and then the Cali Cartel trafficked drugs from Colombia into the United States throughout the 1980s and early 1990s in an increasingly criminal and murderous fashion. Thankfully, viewers were just as entranced with the first ten episodes of the Mexican incarnation, which gave the Guadalajara Cartel of the 1980s the same treatment.

But after so much bloodshed and depravity how has the second season of Narcos: Mexico raised the bar even further?

By leveling the playing field and allowing the Drug Enforcement Administration to be a lot more underhanded.

That's according to Alberto Zeni, the latest addition to the Narcos: Mexico ensemble. Zeni plays Amat Palacios, a former Mexican cop with close ties to the US.

"This is the first time that you have the two teams that are on opposite sides being as ruthless, as strong, and as dynamic as each other," the 39-year-old actor tells The National.

“Before, it was difficult for the DEA to catch the narcos, because they only had one or two guys who were trying to follow protocol against people that were willing to do anything they had to do to survive.”

In the second season of Narcos: Mexico, the rogue team comes into Mexico illegally before then teaming up with local police to wreak havoc. "They have no rules," continues Zeni. "That makes it a free for all. It is really exciting."

Zeni's understandable excitement over his involvement in the second season of Narcos: Mexico has been a long time coming. That's because he originally auditioned for a part in Narcos five years ago, when they were casting the very first season of the show. But this didn't just happen once, or twice, or three times.

Zeni actually auditioned on seven different occasions. “Every year I thought I was going to join the show,” he admits. “I kept on being called back, but the roles kept on being given to people with a bigger name, a better career, and things like that. Whatever it was, I just didn’t have what they were looking for.”

When he was called back for the seventh time, Zeni admits that he was so frustrated by constantly being rejected that he went into his latest attempt with a completely different attitude.

“I said, ‘I don’t care if I get it this time.’ So I just went in and had fun,” he recalls. “I wanted to enjoy the process of auditioning again. Because you have a small, private audience that can’t go anywhere. They have to see me. So I just did it my way.”

And so it was lucky number seven.

Zeni's repeated attempts to join the cast of Narcos makes it all the more surprising that he was originally extremely hesitant about watching the show when it premiered, as he was born and raised in Monterrey and had already grown up hearing these stories.

But Zeni quickly realised just how impressive the style, tone, detail, and production values of Narcos were. "It was so undeniable," he adds. "I immediately just wanted to be part of it."

Over the years, Narcos hasn't been without its controversy, though. Critics have denounced its depiction of Colombians and Mexicans, as well as Netflix's profiteering off a drug war that destroyed so many lives, particularly after the murder of a Netflix location scout back in September, 2017.

But despite these concerns, Zeni believes it is still integral that shows like Narcos: Mexico are made and allowed to tell the stories that actually "already happened".

"They are part of Mexican and Colombian history," continues Zeni. "They are not making anything new. They are not proclaiming, 'this is the life you should live, or that this is what you should do'. It's a depiction of history. I don't think people watch these shows and then go and commit criminal acts."

Narcos: Mexico isn't the first show, and won't be the last, to explore such terrain, too, with Zeni explaining that audiences have always had an innate interest about how such criminals have lived. "That's why mafia movies and war movies are so fascinating to audiences."

Instead, Zeni would rather focus on the fact that, despite being 80 per cent in Spanish, Narcos: Mexico has still managed to connect with such a huge global audience.

“That just makes it even more unique. It didn’t matter what language it was. It just had its own sensibilities and this human story of success and development and self-finding, and the idea that the US government created the platform for all of this stuff that is still going on today, and how everyone got a piece of the pie. All of it has connected with a large audience from all over the world.”

Narcos: Mexico looks as though it will soon add to these stories in the near future, too, with Zeni confirming that a third season should be released next year. Before then, though, make sure to check out all ten episodes of Narcos: Mexico's second season when they premiere on Netflix on February 13.