{"id":430526,"date":"2026-05-07T19:33:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/430526\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T19:33:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:33:29","slug":"peacock-crime-drama-is-telenovela-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/430526\/","title":{"rendered":"Peacock Crime Drama Is Telenovela-Like"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFrom \u201cOzark\u201d co-creator, Bill Dubuque, Peacock<\/a>\u2019s latest crime drama, \u201cM.I.A.<\/a>,\u201d is a wild and bloody ride focusing on family, vengeance and having the courage to do what\u2019s right.\u00a0 Set in South Florida, the series follows Etta Tiger Jonze (Shannon Gisela<\/a>), who finds herself reeling in the aftermath of a tragedy. Determined to make those responsible pay for her pain, Etta ends up in Miami, intent on taking down the people responsible, one by one. A vast, bloody narrative full of secrets and betrayals, there is a lot happening in \u201cM.I.A.\u201d Though it doesn\u2019t always snap together perfectly \u2014 as engaging as the series is, it\u2019s also thoroughly preposterous \u2014 the show will definitely keep audiences tethered to their screens.\u00a0\u00a0\u200b<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cM.I.A.\u201d opens in the Florida Keys at the Tiger Jonze marina. Etta\u2019s parents are pushing her to finally attend college, but the fiery 21-year-old has plans of her own. An adrenaline junkie with lofty goals, Etta feels stifled and underutilized as the tour guide in her family\u2019s boating business. Instead, she covets her brothers\u2019 roles, working alongside their dad to run drugs for a major cartel. Etta swears she\u2019s ready to live life on the edge. However, after a typical drug run ends in chaos and a spray of bullets, she realizes she truly has no idea what her family was dealing with.<\/p>\n

\n\tFull of guilt and desperate to make those who hurt her loved ones pay, Etta sets out for Miami in search of her estranged aunt and a path forward. What she doesn\u2019t expect is to find a safe haven and a dear friend in Lovely (Brittany Adebumola<\/a>), a Haitian immigrant seeking her own fresh start, and her cousin Stanley (Dylan Jackson), who is guided by loyalty.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe nine-episode first season is completely entertaining, and works because of its intriguing characters. Etta\u2019s rage is understandable, but her youthful ignorance and compulsive behavior continue to land her in tough spots, frustrating viewers and harming not only herself but also the people closest to her, including Lovely and Stanley. In addition to Lovely, who truly is an angel on Earth, and the kind-hearted, neurodivergent Stanley, this world has an eclectic group of people. Ellais (Alberto Guerra) is a cartel consigliere struggling to adapt to a new regime. Carmen (Danay Garcia<\/a>), Etta\u2019s aunt, is hesitant to open her home and heart to old wounds. Maribel (Selenis Leyva) is the plastic surgeon who unwittingly becomes a part of Etta\u2019s clean-up crew, and then, of course, there is Lena (Tovah Feldshuh), the motel owner who knows a thing or two about revenge.\u00a0When the plot begins to go off the rails, leaning into the absurd, it\u2019s the characters in this gritty and glittering depiction of Miami that keep the series afloat.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom the varied menacing cartels to the revelations regarding the fallout between Etta\u2019s mother and her aunt, the twists and turns in the show are endless. In fact, \u201cM.I.A.\u201d begins to feel more like a rogue superhero telenovela than a serious crime drama. In Episode 5, \u201cFault Lines,\u201d Etta and Lovely are forced to fight for their lives, and what should be an adrenaline-filled, violent sequence becomes a hyper-dramatic horror show. It\u2019s far from the first or last over-the-top scene that will undoubtedly force audiences to suspend a high level of disbelief in order to immerse themselves in this world.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u200bDue to the size of the cast, the time jumps, and the varied storylines, the series loses a bit of steam in its pacing. Dubuque spends a great deal of time painstakingly explaining Etta\u2019s family dynamics. This takes the totality of \u201cM.I.A.\u2019s\u201d opener, \u201cRevenge,\u201d as well as Episode 6: \u201cOriginal Sin,\u201d which flashes back to 25 years ago and takes nearly an hour to address a plot point that could have been handled in just a few scenes.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it\u2019s all said and done, the series manages to tie all of its varied threads together. From shootouts to knife fights and burnings, the series is a buffet of violence and intense thrills. Moreover, with a frustrating yet tenacious female protagonist at the center, the show may undoubtedly get even larger and more outrageous, which might be the very thing keeping viewers tuned in.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cM.I.A.\u201d is now streaming on Peacock. The show\u2019s\u00a0pilot episode will air on\u00a0NBC\u00a0on Thursday, May 14 at 10 p.m. ET\/PT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From \u201cOzark\u201d co-creator, Bill Dubuque, Peacock\u2019s latest crime drama, \u201cM.I.A.,\u201d is a wild and bloody ride focusing on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[201908,201909,146,85,46,201020,3167,201910,411],"class_list":["post-430526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-brittany-adebumola","tag-danay-garcia","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-m-i-a","tag-peacock","tag-shannon-gisela","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}