Netflix's 'Narcos' zeroes in on Pablo Escobar for Season 2

Get ready for "Narcos" to drill deeper.

While the freshman round of the fact-inspired Netflix drama series played out on a large canvas that covered a 10-year span, the 10-episode Season 2 - which begins streaming in its entirety Friday, Sept. 2 - gets more personal in the case of Pablo Escobar, the Colombian cocaine kingpin played by Wagner Moura, who earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for his first-year portrayal (along with the show's bid for best television series, drama). Boyd Holbrook and Pedro Pascal return as DEA agents on Escobar's trail, but political and military factions also continue their bids to get a grip on the drug trade.

Holding to the facts of the saga it depicts, the second "Narcos" season ultimately deals with Escobar's downfall, and actor Moura cites his alter ego as having "a very inner world."

"I think that Pablo was a genius of the criminal world," Moura says. "And these people, they have their particular world. I'm sure he has a lot of doubts, but he keeps it to himself because he can't share much of what he's thinking. What he thinks is pretty much ahead of people that are surrounding him. He has a lot of confidence."

Even so, Moura admits to "a very bad energy" while playing Escobar.

"I've been learning to take care and to protect myself because of this inner world that is pretty much inside his head ... and, of course, inside mine," he says.

Co-star Pascal believes that "a huge appeal of the show is actually how clinical it is about history, and how respectful it is to every perspective. And I don't think that there's anything wrong in terms of examining the grayness of all of it.

"There is a moment," Pascal notes, "where (Escobar) is pretty sort of sensational, and there are moments where he is a monster - and there are moments where he is a human. There are moments where all of us seem kind of capable of anything, and that line that divides good and bad and villain versus hero becomes more and more blurry."

"Narcos" executive producer Eric Newman maintains he never loses sight of the nature of the story: "I think we're successful in not glorifying these people. I think that as much as we may enjoy watching Wagner play Pablo Escobar - and it is certainly worthy of enjoyment - he's a murderer, so I don't think the show in any way glorifies the narcotics business."