can i really be the only person watching LA REINA DEL SUR?

it is trashy and i like it

on the run from mexcio (where her gangster bf was murdered) teresa mendoza is apparently set to become the most powerful drug trafficker in southern spain (at the moment she works in a crappy bar tho)

she is good at ugly-crying, and generally has plenty of reasons to

(season 1 is on netflix uk: season 2 is being made to be shown next year)

ok, I thought I was going crazy after reading the title and synopsis, but no: it's already been remade as an american show and is currently airing right now!

it sounds pretty cool, I have no doubt the original is probably better

except in flashbacks she's worn the same jeans and black halter-neck top combo for most of all six eps so far

haha just as i wrote this her current nemesis (female) commented on the same thing

she isn't actually in mainland spain yet, she's in mellila (which is a an autonomous spanish city on the north african coast that i only just heard of (and looked up) now

http://www.worldatlas.com/img/locator/city/014/68906-melilla-locator-map.jpg

huh, I kind of want to watch to check that out

for some reason I was researching if there's a cool over land route you can take with public transportation along the north African coast and it turns out if you want to go from Algeria to Morocco, you have to go through another country, like Spain or a neighboring island. The border situation is that contentious

she is proud and spunky

her best friend is called fatima and her nemesis (female) is -- somewhat unexpectedly -- called sheila

Voy a cantar un corrido, escuchen muy bien mis compas
Para la reina del sur, traficante muy famosa
Nacida alla en Sinaloa, la Tia Teresa Mendoza
El guero le dijo a tere te dejo mi celular
Cuando lo escuches prietita, no trates de contestar
Es porque ya me torcieron y tu tendras que escapar
El guero Davila era, piloto muy arriesgado
Al cartel de Cuidad Juarez, les hizo muchos mandados
En una avioneta cesna en la sierra lo mataron
Dijo Epifanio Vargas, Teresa vas a escapar
Tengo un amigo en Espaa, alla te puede esperar
Me debe muchos favores y te tendra que ayudar
Cuando llego a Melilla luego le cambio la suerte
Con Don Santiago Fisterra, juntaron bastante gente
Comprando y vendiendo droga para los dos continentes
Manolo Cespedes dijo Teresa es muy arriesgada
Le vende la droga a Francia, Africa, y tambien a Italia
Hasta los rusos le compran es una tia muy pesada
(Supo aprender el acento que se usa por todo Espaa
Demostro su Jerarquia como la mas noble dama
A muchos los sorprendio Teresa la mexicana)
(A veces de piel vestia de su tierra
Se acordaba con bota de cocodrilo
Y avestruz la chamarra
Usaba cinto piteado
Tequila cuando brindaba)
Era la reina del sur
Alla en su tierra natal
Teresa la mexicana, del otro lado del mar
Una mujer muy valiente, que no la van a olvidar
Un dia desaparecio, Teresa la mexicana
Dicen que que esta en la prision, otros que vive en Italia
En California o Miami, de la union Americana

^^^the lyrics to the theme tune, performed by los tigres del norte

i like the way everyone calls her "mexicana"

Is it all Spain-based Spanish speakers other than her?

character-wise there's also mexicans and americans (but they're now mostly out of the story except in flashbacks) and mainland spanish and north-african spanish speakers -- so yes, she's unusual in being (currently)* the only mexican surrounded by spaniards… i assume there's an accent difference that's really obvious to hispanic speakers, i can't hear it but my spanish is literally non-existent

*there's another 60-odd episodes to come!

it sounds pretty cool, I have no doubt the original is probably better

Both the original book and Telemundo telenovela are fantastic. Haven't seen any of the new series, but the earlier versions are well worth your time.

this is the one i'm watching --> Telemundo telenovela

(new season of same not out till next year i don't think)

run teresa run!

aside from being a bit muddling -- lots fo lashbacks and recaps -- LRDS has no unexciting moments so far (tho some of the catfights are a bit kitschy)

i mean flashbacks

so (as many know but perhaps not non-mexican speaking ILX):

kate del castillo, the actress who plays teresa mendoza la reina del sur, was who putting sean penn in the same room as EL CHAPO, hence semi-responsible for EC's subsequent capture

inadvertently: she seems to approve of what she sees as EC's robin-hood-like ways (penn she now rather despises, she says his rolling stone piece is full of fibs abt her)

el chapo apparently took to kate del castillo
(a) bcz she tweeted something approving (see above) and
(b) bcz he greatly enjoyed la reina del sur (the correct response) and
(c) felt he could trust the character KdC was playing, hence the actress too (flawed critical praxis IMO, will never commission a TV column from him)

meanwhile lRdS itself is currently exploring the ethics (and otherwise) of people-trafficking and generally looking more closely at the dynamics of migrancy in the med than a great deal of much fancier TV

putting s/b put

been compulsively watching this with my niece for a few weeks and it's at once amazing and sometimes silly. thx for rec! have abt 10 more eps to go and shit is getting really real. and i keep falling in love. first it was Soraya, then Veronica. (so many great characters, too - Batman, Pote, Oleg, Fati)

I liked the sound of this and thought I was downloading a torrent of it. Boo! It turned out to be the poxy American remake. Another series that doesn't get mentioned on here is Gomorrah, which is an ultra-violent trashy crime series, with a cast of some impeccably dressed thugs amongst the ruin pron of the crumbling housing projects in Naples. And the death count is ridiculously high - between S1 and s2 more than half the cast are already in the ground. It is good fun though.

episode 19 plot summary: "teresa loses again"

her boyfs are all gorgeous, also dicks

some eps set in a women's prison: assuming dickish and/or dead boys not an issue for a while

"Lieut.O'Farrell is pure oligarchy, honey"

(also not a lieut., i didn't get that bit)

it is more o/g cell block h than orange is the new, that's for sure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHnemDkHvgA

actually a better version, fond as i am etc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng-eYklcmEM

paty: "where i walk the grass stops growing"

(self-hate rather than threat)

I wish someone would upload an English subtitles rip of this in t0rrentland, it sounds awesome.

tbh the subtitles on netflix are intermittent AND wayward

lol, there's more time displacement in this soap than in inland empire

i predict paty too will die :{

http://68.media.tumblr.com/a92ef861f1c2056ae6a16aa7e8adc7ec/tumblr_inline_mlxzsjMhxw1qz4rgp.gif

we regret to inform you i am back on my* bullshit

*actually kate del castillo's obv

lol she just had her michael corleone MASS-REVENGE moment: "la mexicana says HI"

^^^this ended p badly (tho we are not yet half way thru the 63 eps of the first series)

love the way the only person who actually gets the depth of her UNSPOKEN SOULFULNESS is the top russian gangster

the full name of this character -- usually referred too as pote or el pote -- is POTEMKINE GALVEZ

"if blood has to rain from the sky, we will open our umbrellas"

"it's the beginning of the end for teresa mendoza"

we are on ep 38 of 63, so i guess "… but perhaps the end of the beginning" applies here

pati getting very meta in her jealousy: "what shall we call this telenovella? love in the time of narcotraffic?"

(wd watch, obviously) (am watching)

"you're as mad as a goat, tesa!"

oleg pleased that teresa is happy (for once) but also worried

lots of TV crime dramas and policiers are about migrancy peripherally -- its "problems" as significant plot-driving element etc -- but i've never watched one that centres it the way lRdS does

lol at me being taken aback when the chief russian gangster turns out to have beef with communists -- i'm like "i like him, how can he be a czarist?"

he is in fact a murderous drug smuggler albeit one who likes and more importantly understands teresa mendoza (also a gangster)

every three or four eps someone is sure to say "it's the beginning of the end for teresa mendoza"

s1 still has 18 eps to go

"my aztec version of the count of monte cristo"

paty is drunk and sad at a party

"gentlemen, the end of teresa mendoza has started"

lol ambushed by unexpected disappointment every time oleg* disses soviet socialism

*why, bcz he is a GANGSTER

repeat plot point: that a character is desperately in lust w/someone merely bcz they resemble teresa mendoza physically

"you're a victim of cocaine!"
"i'm a victim of YOU and your LIES!"

"i had to pretend i was in love with you but i fell into my own trap!"

from now on all all scenes of angrily recrimination between loves must take place in a sportscar being driven at high wild speed along a cliff-top road by someone coked out of her head and weeping uncontrollably

during the extremely long word-dump recap the approaching threat has once again been the sexy assassin on a bike but the recap-reveal is so detailed that it feels like she's motored across the whole of mexico

oh no

i kind of knew this was on the weay bcz i spoilered myself looking up something abt what else the actress in question had done

don't forget totzi :(

is there no one else in this airport?

anyway lol it's GLOVES OFF now

"there's a reason they call her QUEEN OF THE SOUTH"

thats right

https://radical.town/media/radical-town-media/accounts/avatars/000/000/008/static/d986e9e06e7521c7.png

ok so who ELSE is inexplicably alive and requires fill-in backstory to firm up this fact unconvincingly

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

not that i care, this is exactly what i watch this insane show for

it is effective that -- in this tangled war between very bad gangsters doing murders and stuff -- the overarching baddie who allows us to withhold full judgment is washington, behaving very much more badly

this is a documentary

haha this US agency is out-of-the-box evil

and it's not even the CIA

(well it might be but i *think* it's the DEA)

not helping that i started watching this series 1 x yrs ago, binged like 40eps, stopped for 10 months for various reasons inc 🦠🦠🦠🦠 and am back again and bingeing again -- some of these callbacks are p mysterious to me, like who is this young tied-up man suddenly

(last week he was skateboarding in front of congress in washington and he's kira's nephew but how does he have a plot role, i just entirely forgot)

mexican all-woman shoot-out near the washington monument, we love too see it

¡finally! circled back to this (starting at e54)

lol i have no idea who this young angry grieving goth lady is any more, there is a downside to my very punctuated bingeing style

"sit near the river and you will see your enemy's body float by"

this is also my motto

my enemy is ned raggett

a funny thing abt this show is that they present the DEA as a kind of more focused CIA, all plots and plans and overthrowing the rightful mexican government (a gangster)

teresa has a low opinion of gringos

literally no one is ever dead in this show

i see from five yrs ago i was commenting on the unending interwoven flashbacks, that hasn't slowed down at all

lee harvey batman

this ep has an escape from jail by helicopter as a mere passing element for some minor characters

(i mean i'm sure they'll have a role shortly but in any other show an escape from jail by helicopter would be climactic for a bigwig)

(just checked and s3 of his marvellous show is all ready to run)

o fuk that's eric roberts (as the corrupt and murderous head of the DEA)

season three begun broadcasting 1 x week ago: 6 eps so far tho i have not found them anywhere yet

i keep reading that it's on netflix but it's not on netflix uk yet 😔

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7yh9KOrQpE

https://68.media.tumblr.com/a92ef861f1c2056ae6a16aa7e8adc7ec/tumblr_inline_mlxzsjMhxw1qz4rgp.gif

loooool amazing gif

ok i am SO BACK on my bullshit (= s3 of this marvel), only 32 months late!!

🎵 traficante muy famosa! 🎶

we open very much otherwhere than we closed s2, with teresa IN JAIL IN THE USA

in solitary and losing her mind 😞

tho actually we start with an INSANE credit sequence featuring eagles and mountains and LoTR-music* (apparently a lot of it is set in bolivia and peru, which have mystical resonance to mexicans also, it looks like -- anyway a wild castaneda vibe promises much) (to me, an idiot who learned everything i know abt the andes from tintin and chariots of the gods)

*not los tigres del norte (sadly) but orchestral motion-picture slop, sorry if this offends, it's garbage (but p funny garbage in context)

ps all tv shd happen as fast as this and also be a telenovela, as the story fast-cuts between locations in mexico, spain, bolivia, colombia and the US

mother & daughter both already in unrelated new life-threatening pickles just 2 eps in, they will be out of them by e3 but into others

best repeat characters assemble:

sofia, rocio and paloma, the fake oleg (now a widower and an alcoholic), batman and sheila, plus president epifanio vargas!

(sofia is a young adult now, everyone else looks older, except epifanio who looks the same if not younger lol) (also his power-horny sex life is as relentless as ever, no one does it like him)

isabella sierra (sofia) is such fun as an actress — there is tons of evident affection on this set among the returning cast, with everyone older trying to get her to laugh more than she was quite meant to in the script (and often succeeding)

plot notes so far

teresa mendoza: “so what’s the escape plan?
guy she’s never met: *hands TM a copy of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO*
(plan is indeed a version of TCOMC, well sorta kinda anyway, not that she actually reads it at any point)

I enjoy the low regard this show has for americans (mostly cops & prison guards).
always bracing also how much more corruptly gangsterish pols and police are than teresa the honourable retired crimelord

obviously sofia was going to run into her mum sooner rather than later, why is it in an ethnic colombian theme village (with panpipes and manicured lawns and such)?

deeper peruvian mysticism keeps being hinted at, I want it to involve eagles, aliens or an eclipse (ideally all three) — a real tintin-esque flight 718 shift from political gangsterism into full-on crystal skull stuff

the version of google they use in this show is called TLIMP, is this an irl thing? (google not helping, maybe I need to use TLIMP)

flashback scene in LONDON, where the DEA are apparently allowed to swarm armed: also i have never seen a less English-looking interior, it looks more like something out of naked lunch

the DEA agent they have to track down in la paz is called THE BLACK RIDER so maybe the LoTR callbacks in the credits are already paying off (nice lampshade hanging from epifanio, who says an agent being called the black rider is goofy bullshit)

plus a character called FATHER GONZO has just been referenced, very much hoping to meet him (“teresa mendoza did NOT die”)

translation notes

president of mexico to henchman: “no, compadre!”
subtitle: “no mate”

👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

a grizzled & dodgy villain ending a phone call to similar: “hugs!”
the other villain, replying: “hugs!” (translating “a gracio” I think?)

lol

this is like reading LRB - no need to actually watch the show with reviews like this!

watch the show tracer!

i started this season but didn't finish it for some reason. was having trouble deciding if i thought it was great or just too silly

https://i.imgur.com/WWYqacp.png

back on the very best bullshit after a few weeks pause

to report that we are back in some kind of london for reasons not yet clear -- might be more oleg backstory? -- and there's a gang of london thugs with ATTEMPTED COCKNEY ACCENTS

meanwhile teresa, oleg et al are scoping out bolivia & peru supposedly to meet up with the so-called "black rider", by pretending to be mexican documentary-makers -- tho so far sadly they are kind of dancing round the wild made-up folkloric feast real documentarians wd surely be making a bee line for (needs more nazca lines, traces of aliens etc) but i have HIGH HOPES (tbf they have been dwelling on women's wrestling, in historical costumes)

contempt for US shenanigans in mexico is as intense as ever -- they will not leave the lizard alone -- while president epifanio vargas remains the greatest ever to do it (have sex non-stop every ep with difft beautiful young women), he is such a complete bastard god i love this show

a nice thing (if perhaps unstartling in long-running melodramas) is that her nemesis as first mentioned in post 3 back in July 2017 (jesus) aka the implausibly named sheila (she's spanish), is now her inseparable wise buddy, in trouble last ep for filming herself and her boyf (the legendary batman, see also upthread tho not so far) having extremely talkative sex atop the official documentary van on the official documentary tapes which the colombian police just examined (bcz official van turned out to be stolen, tho not by anyone in the story)

ok ppl we got there, teresa is now a prisoner of the sun (= the "black rider", who smuggles girls and also tin ! and plus runs the lady wrestling shows)

https://cdn001.tintin.com/public/tintin/img/static/prisoners-of-the-sun/C13_Temple-p45-c3-color.png

they teased it but we haven't had more than a couple of sentences yet: i *think* the worst attempted london accent in the history of television (that ive watched anyway)