Shows that feel likeEl Chapo (2017–2018)
If you loved El Chapo, the closest series we have are Power (2014), Pablo Escobar: The Drug Lord (2012) and Narcos (2015). All three share El Chapo's contemplative and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.
Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Godfather of Harlem (2019).
If El Chapo hit the spot, these will too
A kingpin's climb where every ally is a future threat
The difference: Fictional and glossy — nightclub soap over biography
A real kingpin's life story told at full biographical length
The difference: Telenovela-length commitment — well over seventy episodes
The drug war's chess game told from both sides of the chase
The difference: DEA narration frames it — the kingpin isn't the lens
Cartel money warping an ordinary family into criminals
The difference: Fiction about the money men — the kingpin stays offscreen
Both are built on the same subject: drugs
Cartel history told from inside, in Spanish, without gloss
The difference: Confined to prison walls — the rise is already over
A true-crime descent told with unnerving patience
The difference: Intimate domestic horror — no cartels, no empire, one house
Border trafficking where loyalty is enforced in blood
The difference: A fictional club drama — myth-making over biography
A crime boss rebuilding his territory move by careful move
The difference: 1960s Harlem swagger — style counts as much as history
Watching a man cross lines he swore he never would
The difference: A parent's moral collapse — courtroom dread, not cartel scope
Real criminal history restaged with prestige-drama care
The difference: American courtrooms and media circuses — not the drug trade
A true story told plainly, trusting the facts to devastate
The difference: Survivors and detectives centered — criminals barely seen
In the mood for more contemplative?
all contemplative shows →The best-reviewed series that share El Chapo’s defining feeling.
