Drug war fights losing battle in TV dramas – CNN.com – CNN

Drug dealers remain go-to bad guys in TV and movies. Dating back to David Simon's landmark HBO drama "The Wire" and miniseries "The Corner," though, television has drilled into the hopelessness of law enforcement's efforts -- depicting what amounts to a giant game of Whac-a-Mole, where cutting off from one spigot simply opens another.

The condemnation of the policy, moreover, is often conveyed more poignantly through dramas like "The Wire," which can personalize character arcs and put faces -- even if they're fictional -- on the statistics.

Another series set in that period, Netflix's "Narcos," spent two seasons tracking down Pablo Escobar, only to see new players fill the void once Colombian authorities gunned down the drug kingpin in 1993.

Skepticism about the drug war's efficacy reflects as much of a shift in the playing field for TV drama as politics. Most of the programs cited air on networks that pride themselves on offering more ambitious and nuanced storytelling than, say, standard network crime shows that slap handcuffs on a perpetrator by the hour's end.

A recurring message from such dramas is that as long as demand persists -- and with it, big money peddling contraband -- someone will always be tempted to feed it.

The drug war, of course, goes back further than the Reagan era's "Just say No" campaign. "America's War on Drugs" features President Nixon declaring drug abuse "public enemy No. 1" in the early 1970s. As DEA agent Celerino Castillo explains in the documentary, purging drugs remains an uphill battle because "America is more addicted to drug money than they are addicted to drugs."

Television remains pretty addicted to drug dealing's dramatic possibilities, creating an enticing backdrop for stories filled with money, violence and power. This month brings another in Netflix's "Ozark," starring Jason Bateman as a money manager drawn into laundering cash for a cartel.

Viewed collectively, though, these bold, nuanced dramas have reinforced questions about whether a "drug war" can ever really be won, especially when each new skirmish and declaration feels, in TV terms, like a rerun.

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Drug war fights losing battle in TV dramas - CNN.com - CNN