THE 21 MOST SHOCKING DRUG SERIES - ARTE - 2025

Today I come with a list of the 21 most impressive drug series on television so you don't miss a single one. Among them are Breaking bad, Elementary, Weeds, Narcos, The wire, among others.

Are you a series lover? For a few years now, we have been living in a golden age for television productions of a police, war, comic or historical type. However, there is a topic that is being exploited a lot and it is related to drugs.

This type of substance is very important due to its relevance in today's society. It is a genre that has served as an object for the plots of different books, movies and of course series.

Recommended drug series

1- Breaking Bad

Walter White is the famous protagonist of what is, most likely, the best drug series that has been on television.

White is a chemistry professor diagnosed with cancer. His treatment is too expensive for him to afford and so he decides to team up with his most gifted student, Jesse Pinkman, to start a small business.

They are dedicated to making methamphetamine to later sell it, thus becoming powerful drug traffickers and all that that entails.

2- Orange is the New Black

This series would not be possible without the "power of drugs."

An innocent young woman is sentenced to prison for a crime she committed ten years ago, when she was the partner of a heroin drug trafficker. There she will meet again with her ex in a prison that is only for women.

Things there will not look good at all, so you will have to get ahead no matter what.

4- Elementary

Perhaps you have ever heard of Elementary.

This series has a plot that will sound familiar to you (it is a modern version of Sherlock Holmes). A detective tries to get out of his drug addiction. His past drags him down and for this he will have the help of Lucy Liu, a faithful companion who will help him rehabilitate.

5- Weeds

Controversial to say the least, but one of the best series. Narrated in comedy format, Weeds is about the need for Nancy Botwin, a widow with two children, to sell drugs to survive.

What a priori seems harmless and easy money, becomes a road full of dangers and adversities.

6- United States of Tara

36-episode series that talks about the life of Tara Gregson, a housewife who gives up her addiction to pills.

This fact will lead to three types of personalities to flourish: an uncontrolled teenager, a housewife and a Vietnam War veteran.

7- That 70's Show

This curious and old series is worth mentioning. If you have seen all its chapters, you will never have heard a single word spoken about any type of drug.

Now, it is known that their long and hallucinogenic conversations in the basement, together with that constant smoke, implied that they used marijuana in a great multitude of episodes.

The protagonist, William Banks, along with a group of drug addicts promise not to fall back into drugs after the birth of their daughter.

With this series you will see the suffering and work that it takes to rehabilitate when you fall into this world.

9- Nurse Jackie

Jackie is a nurse who is psychologically unwell. This results in him consuming pills at all times, causing him multiple problems.

Work in the hospital will sometimes help her to overcome these disorders, but in others, they will sink her further to lead her, again, to the consumption of pills.

10-

True blood is characterized by having one of the most original plots on drugs of the moment.

In a world where humans and vampires mix, the latter use blood as a very powerful and, of course, addictive drug. He calls it "V", with which they traffic illegally around the globe.

Humans who consume it suffer hallucinogenic as well as curative effects.

11- The Wire

The Wire tells how a group of police officers conducts investigations through the Baltimore slums. With this they hope to be able to stop the drug trafficking that occurs there.

This plot is joined by other issues such as state corruption or the role played by the media in these areas.

12- Narcos

Is the name Pablo Escobar familiar to you? Narcos n the life of the greatest drug dealer and gangster of all time.

Released in 2015, the series reviews the most important events in the life of "the boss." It has no waste and proof of this is its success has been global

13- Pablo Escobar: the patron of evil

Like Narcos, this series also works as a biography of the famous drug trafficker.

The difference is that its production is Colombian, something that has established it among the best due to its high level of loyalty.

14- The queen of the south

Series that has been adapted from the homonymous book by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Teresa Mendoza, a modest Mexican woman who does not seek great complications, finds herself involved in a series of problems.

Given this, she is forced to flee and start a life in southern Spain to become one of the most powerful women thanks to international drug trafficking.

The series had a great impact in Spain, being praised by both critics and the public.

15- The Bridge

If you have ever seen The Bridge, you may think that drugs is not the main theme, but now, you will also know that we found a drug dealer who becomes one of the most important characters in the plot.

In addition, its second season focuses on the drug trafficking that exists on the border of the United States with Mexico.

16- The Lord of the Skies

Mexican production series based on the life of Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Nicknamed "Lord of the Skies," this drug lord became the head of the Juárez Cartel in the 1990s.

Without going any further, his nickname was due to the large fleet of aircraft available to transport drugs through the skies. It is said that Carrillo himself held the position left by Pablo Escobar upon his death, placing himself as one of the richest characters in history.

17- Californication

A writer in crisis and a drug addict finds himself in a deep crisis.

Throughout the seven seasons in which this series continues, Han Moody will achieve as many successes as failures, something that he will have to combine with a problematic and unhealthy personal life based on partying and drug addiction.

18- Better Call Saul

It's not a proper drug series, but Better Call Saul works like the prequel to Breaking Bad. That is why I had to put it on the list.

If you want to know in detail how Walter White came to do what he did, you cannot miss it.

19- Power

Series released in 2014.

In it, the protagonist is about a wealthy man who runs a New York nightclub. It is not uncommon to see the powerful of the city frequent this place, where sex is intermingled, and above all, drugs.

20- The Black Widow

Colombian production series that premiered in 2014. As you can deduce, it is another biography in the form of chapters of a drug trafficker. On this occasion we refer to one of the most famous and known so far: Griselda Blanco.

Known as "the queen of coca", Griselda was one of the people closest to Pablo Escobar.

Dramatic in nature, the series is based on an adaptation of the book La patrona de Pablo Escobar by the author José Guarnizo.

21- Gomorrah

Developed from the novel of the same title by Roberto Saviano, Gomorrah is properly a series that focuses on the theme of the mafia, an "institution" closely linked to drug trafficking.

Based on real events, the city of Naples (Italy) takes center stage due to the wave of violence that reigns due to the clashes for drugs between the two rival clans: the Savastanos and the Conte.