
Shows that feel likePablo Escobar: The Drug Lord (2012)
If you loved Pablo Escobar: The Drug Lord, the closest series we have are Rosario Tijeras (2010), El Capo (2009) and Mayans M.C. (2018). All three share Pablo Escobar: The Drug Lord's gritty and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.
Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Power (2014).
If Pablo Escobar: The Drug Lord hit the spot, these will too

Colombian violence told at full telenovela pitch
The difference: A woman's revenge story, romance-led rather than empire-led

A kingpin cornered, declaring war on the state that wants him gone
The difference: Invented rather than a real life retold, and tighter around the manhunt

The border trade seen from the men who do its dirty work
The difference: A prospect at the bottom of a club, not a boss building an empire

A criminal family business where loyalty and bloodshed run together
The difference: American bikers across seven seasons — gun-running, not a cocaine empire

One man's climb from errand boy to kingpin, and the cost of staying up
The difference: Mexican cartels, and a cooler, more procedural telling of the story

A nobody rising through trafficking into something like a legend
The difference: Follows a woman across continents, glossier and more fugitive thriller

Class rage and violence told at telenovela pitch, night after night
The difference: A woman's revenge story in Mexico, romance-led rather than empire-led

A businessman running an empire he can never admit to owning
The difference: Slick New York nightclubs and betrayals — no politics, no real history

That Colombian rise and reckoning, cocaine and politics entwined
The difference: Told largely through American agents in English, and far more polished

A criminal's climb, and the family always in the blast radius
The difference: Comic-book Gotham, tightly plotted and invented

The same preoccupation in both: organized crime

Common ground: telenovela
The difference: Leans further into action & adventure
In the mood for more gritty?
all gritty shows →The best-reviewed series that share Pablo Escobar: The Drug Lord’s defining feeling.









