TV Show review
June 23, 2016 · 42 min · TV-MA
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Queen of the South is a gritty crime drama about Teresa Mendoza, a poor Mexican woman who flees to the United States after her drug-runner boyfriend is murdered and then builds her own powerful drug smuggling empire while seeking revenge. The five-season series follows her rise through cartel violence, betrayals, and business deals in a realistic border and Mexican underworld setting. The story centers on ambition, survival, loyalty, and ruthless pragmatism with no prominent modern identity politics, activist dialogue, or social-justice framing. Strong female leads and a Latino-heavy cast fit the story’s authentic cultural and geographic world without visible forced diversity or signaling.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Queen of the South.
Woke representation / casting
Latina lead and supporting cast fit the Mexican cartel and Texas border setting naturally; no audience-visible forced diversity, race swaps, or mismatches with story logic.
Woke political dialogue
No explicit modern political, activist, or social-justice dialogue; conversations stay on cartel business, loyalty, betrayal, and survival.
Identity-driven story themes
Strong female protagonist rises through skill and ruthlessness in a male-dominated criminal world; some media called characters “feminist,” but the core narrative is crime-drama ambition and revenge, not identity politics.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Shows cartel and political corruption in Mexico and the U.S. drug trade as standard genre elements; no modern activist framing of patriarchy, toxic masculinity, capitalism, or systemic identity issues.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant; adaptation changes (U.S. setting vs. novel’s Europe) were made for American audience appeal, not ideological reasons.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Almost no backlash or complaints treating the show as woke; minor positive media notes on representation did not spark debate or audience pushback.
Creator track record context
Main creators have queer-focused work elsewhere; a few writers (Dailyn Rodriguez, Fernanda Coppel) have spoken about Latino/Latina representation advocacy, but this does not drive the show’s content or marketing.
Production
