The South Korean show is based on a true story, and it follows a businessman, named Kang In-gu in the show (Ha Jung-woo), who goes undercover to try and catch drug lord Jeon Yo-han (Hwang Jung-min) in Suriname, South America.
Netflix viewers may feel the show’s title brings to mind another franchise, Narcos. Here is everything you need to know about the new show.
Is Netflix’s ‘Narco-Saints’ Connected to the ‘Narcos’ Franchise?
In Narco-Saints, Jeon is operating his illegal drug trade under the guise of a priest and Kang is sent undercover on behalf of the National Intelligence Service to target the kingpin, after an initial encounter with Jeon landed him in prison with no choice but to accept the position.
The Narcos franchise, meanwhile, consists of two shows, Narcos and Narcos: Mexico. The first follows the investigation into cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura) in Colombia and his successors in the Cali Cartel.
And Narcos: Mexico explores the origins of the Mexican drug war and the rise of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna), whose illegal drug trade began with the production of marijuana and then escalated into the distribution of cocaine.
Narco-Saints is not directly connected to either of these shows, though, and even though it follows a drug lord who distributes cocaine from South America to South Korea, it does not have any ties to the iconic Netflix franchise.
In fact, Narco-Saints is only based on a true story and the names of the characters have been changed from their real-life counterparts, and some of the events that take place in Narco-Saints have also been dramatized for the purpose of the show.
While Narcos and Narcos: Mexico also features some dramatization, the names and events that took place are meant to reflect the events they are based on and both shows chart key historical moments, such as Escobar’s death.
The similarity between the shows’ titles appears to just be incidental or, potentially, Narco-Saints was named as such in order to entice viewers to tune in because it brings to mind Netflix’s Narcos series.
Directed by Yoon Jong-bin, the show will certainly appeal to any fans of the filmmaker’s previous work, such as The Spy Gone North which also stars Narco-Saints actor Hwang, this time as the hero rather than the villain.
Narco-Saints is full of action and features a tense game of cat-and-mouse between Hwang’s drug lord and Ha’s businessman-turned-spy, so the show will certainly appeal to fans of crime dramas like Narcos and Narcos: Mexico even if they’re not directly connected to one another.
Narco-Saints is out on Netflix in full now.
