Perhaps it is no longer a surprise, but Netflix may have another hit on its hands with the miniseries "Griselda," about Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco. At least, that was my first thought after seeing the trailer this morning. [But what surprised me was Sofia Vergara's performance as Blanco in "Griselda." To be honest, I was hesitant to watch the trailer in the first place, feeling that casting Vergara in such a serious role might be like scratching a record with a needle. But I couldn't have been more wrong: two and a half minutes into Netflix's latest trailer, she is perfectly at home in the role.

This is not to say that Vergara is not a good actor. However, if you look at her career, the only roles she has been particularly good at are comedic roles. Frankly, that is especially true of her role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on "Modern Family" (11 seasons). The role is caricatured and super-stylized, including Vergara's very distinctive voice. In this trailer for "Griselda," all that is gone. It is a completely different side of Vergara, with a voice that is sometimes hard to distinguish. She also shows a range, from her toned-down, sometimes demure demeanor to her incredible confidence and no reservations about the violence necessary to rise to the top of Miami's underworld. Even if the trailer itself is gorgeous, she never comes across as over-the-top.

One character said around the 2-minute mark of the trailer, "She [Blanco] didn't walk like a girlfriend kind of woman. [She] walked like a boss. And there is no doubt in this trailer that Vergara is Griselda's boss.

"Griselda" is a crime drama about Griselda Blanco, a former drug lord who rose to prominence in the Miami underworld in the 1970s. In fact, Blanco had previously been portrayed on the small screen in the Lifetime movie "Cocaine Godmother," starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, which ended just as tragically as you might think after reading this brief description.

This time, however, Netflix's big budget went into "Griselda," and Doug Miro and Eric Newman, part of the "Narcos" production team, were the creative driving force. Even if the show falls short of a great trailer, it would be a real shock if it can't at least outperform its competition from the Lifetime films.

Aside from Vergara, the cast of "Griselda" is known, but their roles have yet to be revealed by Netflix. Expected cast members for "Griselda" include:

You can watch all six episodes on Netflix starting January 25, 2024.