Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Bandidos’ Season 2 On Netflix, Where One Of The Thieves’ Pasts Prompts Her To Push For The Big Score

Heist shows have an inherent problem: Once the heist at the center of its first season is accomplished — or thwarted — where does a show go from there? Well, just like the various Oceans movies showed, the gang has to get back together for an even bigger score. In the case of the Mexican heist series Bandidos, not only is the second season’s target bigger than the first, but one of the members of the gang has to contend with her past while planning the heist.

BANDIDOS SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “Playa Paraiso.” Waves crash on a beach outside the bedroom window of Miguel (Alfonso Dosal) and Lilí (Ester Expósito).

The Gist: Miguel is researching his next big antiquities score: The Tear of Fire, which Moctezuma stole before the Spaniards invaded. Lilí figures they’ve already made their big score and she just wants to be in bliss with Miguel. She then gets a text that shows someone from her past with a gun to his head. She reluctantly drugs Miguel and leaves.

We see her again in the Spanish Pyrenees. She’s there to rescue her old boyfriend Leo (Pol Hermoso), who is being held in the school she used to attend. Oh, and we find out her real name: Carlota.

She gets to Leo, and he tells her that he was used as bait to lure her back to her old haunt. She still thinks she can escape, but then a bunch of laser sights are trained on her, and she’s greeted by Regina (Ximena Lamadrid), her old enemy back from their respective childhoods.

Regina, who was part of the family that employed Lilí’s family, drained the accounts from everyone who worked with Lilí and Miguel to steal the Mayan treasure that brought the team together. She feels that Lilí owes her family a debt from way back, and continues to threaten Leo as a way to get her to cooperate. Being holed up in a cell at the school makes Lilí think of her past there, memories she always strove to forget.

Eventually, though, Lilí and Leo escape, but Regina tracks them. She says they’ll be even if Lilí gets the Tear of Fire for her. Lilí and Leo go to Mexico, and she gets the team — Lucas (Juan Pablo Fuentes Acevedo), Inés (Mabel Cadena), Citlali (Andrea Chaparro) and Octavio (Nicolás Furtado), all of whom thought she was dead — back together to go to Miguel, who has found an artifact that will help lead him to Moctezuma’s treasure and the Tear of Fire.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Bandidos is a heist show, pure and simple, just like recent examples like Baby Bandito, Berlin, and Everybody Loves Diamonds.

Our Take: Bandidos is the kind of show that can keep running as long as the show’s writers can keep coming up with good heists to drive each season. Of course, the targets are bigger, the heists need to be more ambitious. What we appreciate about this season, though, is that the past of one of the bandits comes into play in a big way here.

As we’ve said many times, the quality of most heist shows comes down to whether you want to spend time with the gang of thieves that will be planning and executing that heist. The Bandidos were certainly an entertaining group in the first season, and they continue to be here. The group is down one member, as Wilson (Juan Pablo Medina) only appears to Miguel in ghost-like fashion. But it’s still a group that feels like it can steal just about anything.

Only this time, not only will Miguel and Lilí be keeping them in the dark about the ultimate target of their heist, but Regina will be breathing down their necks the whole time. It’s a formula for another fun season, albeit with some personal drama in the mix.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: We find out that Regina is in Mexico and working with someone Lilí will never suspect.

Sleeper Star: Ximena Lamadrid does a good job as Regina, Lilí’s scheming long-time enemy.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Lilí crushes a bunch of apple seeds and puts them in a syringe she stole, she threatens Regina. When she says “apple seeds have cyanide in them,” Regina backs off. At that point it was pretty obvious that Regina wasn’t going to let Lilí and Leo go that easily.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The second season of Bandidos presents a more personal story and a bigger prize for the show’s gang of thieves, both of which keep the series interesting.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.