If you missed last night’s premiere of the Dallas-filmed, Dallas-set crime drama Queen of the South on USA, the pilot is streaming — no login or cable subscription required — over on the network’s website.
There isn’t very much Dallas in the first episode, a fact that should be fairly obvious while watching the pilot, which was set and filmed in Mexico City. (The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an interesting story about the show’s Dallas production at the South Side Studios on Lamar, including a fun tidbit that star Alice Braga enjoyed walking her dog at White Rock Lake.) Our heroine, Teresa Mendoza, a Mexican woman caught up in the underbelly of a violent cartel via her drug-trafficking boyfriend, only arrives in North Texas after 30-plus minutes of explosions, mayhem, and murder on the other side of the border.
But it is in Dallas that this soon-to-be burgeoning queenpin will build her own criminal empire and meet her inevitably bloody downfall, which is shown and described in the opening scene.
The show is an English-language adaptation of a hit telenovela, itself based on a novel that takes its inspiration from several real-life stories. Queen of the South wears its roots proudly, hitting some delightfully over-the-top notes and featuring a few stock characters that should be familiar to anyone who’s ever seen a telenovela, but the show clearly intends to be more prestige drama than soap opera, more Breaking Bad than Days of Our Lives.
It feels too early to pass judgment, but after one episode, Queen of the South has potential as a violent, Tex-Mex-flavored guilty pleasure. We’ll have some more thoughts once it gets up and running full speed. Episode No. 2 airs at 9 p.m. next Thursday, June 30, on USA.
