In the first five episodes that have aired so far, it's the resourceful female characters' struggles to be seen as something more than single-use that give Queen of the South its moderate surprises and satisfactions.
"Queen of the South" is far from the best modern TV has to offer. But for all its amped up aesthetics, I'm not sure it even wants to be part of the club.
Alice Braga crushes Queen of the South's broken, beaten, yet tenacious lead role, but the story surrounding her is compiled of nothing you haven't seen, heard, or gasped at 100 times before in a dozen better shows.
It's hard to tell just how smoothly this cultural exchange will run from week to week, but the decision to arrange it between these two particular countries has placed Queen Of The South in the perfect position to continue to tell her story.
The show sells us on the idea that pretty, wide-smiling Teresa can become a capable, even vicious, defender of her own hide when threatened, and that Queen of the South might be able to tell a familiar story in a fresh way.
There's nothing that sets it apart from, well, most shows, and any attempt to break out of the typical drama structure comes off as forced and unnecessary.
The action is choreographed with kinetic propulsion; Alejandro Martinez's photography colourfully presents an adventure in wild places; and the trajectory of the complex plot, with its different story arcs, is impossible to guess.
