El Señor de los Cielos
2013
Original language: Spanish
- crime
- drama
- soap
The story
Set in the 1990s, these are the life and times of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, a man who became the head of the Juárez cartel. Nicknamed “El Señor de los Cielos” (Lord of the Skies) because of the large fleet of airplanes he used to transport drugs, he was also known for washing more than $200 million through Colombia to finance his huge fleet. He is described as the most powerful drug trafficker of his time.
What it’s like
Warm, saturated telenovela colour sits over a cartel story: sunlit Mexican haciendas in terracotta and bougainvillea pink, hotel suites lit by lamps with gold shades, and night scenes in glossy, shadowed interiors where bright jewel tones pop against dark wood. The camera is mostly conventional and steady, with close two-shots in dialogue and wide establishing views of estates, runways and city streets that give the 1990s setting a dusty, lived-in feel. Music leans on swelling orchestral romance and Latin ballads, punctuated by tense percussive stings when deals go wrong. The pace is serialised and talky, with rounds of meetings, betrayals and family dinners stretched over many episodes, so it works best as a long, low-effort watch rather than a tightly edited thriller. Its vibe is glamorous, melodramatic and a little sun-drenched, the kind of show to put on for an evening of lush romance and power games. Violence is present and sometimes sudden: shootings and killings occur, usually shown briefly rather than lingered on, and there are sexual situations and some brutality tied to the trade, but the emphasis stays on melodrama. It suits viewers who enjoy operatic family rivalries, romance threaded through crime, and the stylised excess of the telenovela form, and it is not a gentle choice for anyone avoiding violence.
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