• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, January 22, 2024

Sofia Vergara packs a punch and a baseball bat in a new crime drama that abruptly changes any preconceived notions anyone might have had about her range as an actress.

She plays the title role in the new series “Griselda” about a woman from Medellin, Colombia, who flees the country for killing two men -- one her low-life husband.

She then ends up in Miami in the wild era when cocaine was king. The year is 1978, and she means to stake her own claim to a piece of the action in the city’s wild cocaine trade.

She comes to the U.S. with virtually nothing, except for three young sons and a kilo of cocaine in one of her son’s suitcases.

With these small facts to set up the show, do the math. The “Modern Family” mom is now a bloody mama.

She became a superstar in her scene-stealing role of Gloria, bombshell wife of closet king Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill), in “Modern Family,” one of the best situation comedies ever made.

On that show, Vergara emerged as one of the sharpest comedic actresses on TV. Now, 180 degrees later, she emerges as a drama superstar too.

In the role of Griselda, she is all in. To fully realize the character, she is made up with a prosthetic nose and what appears to be a slightly altered chin.

The effect gives her a harder countenance than we are used to. As Griselda, she swaggers when she needs to.

But at the same time, she is a vulnerable single mother who is desperate for the money she needs to establish a home for her family in the United States.

Netflix says “Griselda” is based, fictionally, on Griselda Blanco, who is said to have become the most powerful woman in Miami’s no-holds-barred cocaine marketplace.

“Griselda” consists of six episodes. I watched Episode One on Friday and spent the full hour on the edge of my seat.

All six episodes of “Griselda” start streaming on Thursday, January 25, on Netflix.