Shows Like The Cartel
If you loved The Cartel's Action & Adventure and Drama storytelling, these series deliver a similar experience — chosen for tone, narrative quality, and viewer satisfaction. Each includes where to stream it now.
★ Top Picks
Enemigo íntimo
The story of two siblings who witness the murder of their parents in the hands of one of the drug cartels in Mexico, after which Alejandro Ferrer's younger sister is kidnapped. 25 years later, Alejandro is now the captain of the Federal Police and seeks revenge against the narcos for destroying his family.
El final del paraíso
In this new era, Catalina, now head of the DEA in Colombia, has a new challenge: to track down a criminal organization that is trafficking a new synthetic drug. What she ignores is that her daughter is part of the Cartel that traffics them and that Yésica, her worst enemy, is infiltrated in the DEA.
Rosario Tijeras
This is the story of the legendary Rosario Tijeras, the beautiful warrior from a slum who fell in love with Antonio and Emilio, two handsome and wealthy young men. Antonio, a young architect, desperately rushes the dying Rosario Tijeras to a nearby hospital. The beautiful Rosario has been shot four times by a hitman. While he waits for his beloved Rosario to be saved from her wounds, Antonio recalls how Rosario, a beautiful teenager, became the murderer Rosario Tijeras. And how he, a dashing young man, makes her his obsession. The woman of his dreams.
El Chema
Follow one man's epic journey as he transforms from wily underage drug smuggler to one of the world's most infamous cartel leaders.
Kung Fu
A quarter-life crisis causes a young Chinese-American woman to drop out of college and go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. But when she returns to find her hometown overrun with crime and corruption, she uses her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice…all while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor and is now targeting her.
El Dragón: Return of a Warrior
A Tokyo business man returns to his home country of Mexico where he must battle rivals to replace his grandfather as the head of a cartel.
Atomic
When the path of free-spirited drug smuggler Max collides with JJ, an enigmatic outsider on the run, an unlikely friendship is formed. They're swept into a chaotic, high-stakes mission they never signed up for, trafficking highly enriched uranium across North Africa and the Middle East, with the CIA, MI6, and a global web of opposing forces closing in fast.
The Terminal List: Dark Wolf
Before The Terminal List, Navy SEAL Ben Edwards finds himself entangled in the black operations side of the CIA. The deeper Ben goes into the 'gray', the harder it will become to not give himself over to his darker impulses. Every man has two wolves inside him – light and dark – fighting for control. Which wolf will Ben Edwards feed?
More Shows Like The Cartel
The Sweeney
Jack Regan, an unethical officer of the Flying Squad, uses unorthodox methods to pursue criminals with the help of his partner, George Carter.
Rosario Tijeras (Mexico)
Worlds collide when a vengeance-obsessed young woman from the other side of the tracks captures the attention of two well-off friends.
Senora Acero
The adventures of Vicenta Acero, the feared coyote who now leads the dynasty of illicit dealings once under the control of her father.
Danger Man
Danger Man is a British television series which was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the programme and wrote many of the scripts. Danger Man was financed by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment.
The Unit
A covert team of special forces operatives risk their lives on undercover missions around the globe, while their wives maintain the homefront, protecting their husbands' secrets.
Drive
An American action drama television series set against the backdrop of an illegal cross-country automobile road race, focusing on the willing and unwilling competitors and, as the plot develops, the unseen puppet masters who sponsor the race.
Sin senos sí hay paraíso
A young woman born in a mafia-controlled town seeks revenge on those who wrongfully harmed and imprisoned her family.
Queen of the South
Teresa flees Mexico after her drug-runner boyfriend is murdered. Settling in Dallas, she looks to become the country's reigning drug smuggler and to avenge her lover's murder.
S.W.A.T.
S.W.A.T. is an American action/crime drama series about the adventures of a Special Weapons And Tactics team operating in an unidentified California city. A spin-off of The Rookies, the series aired on ABC from February 1975 to April 1976. Like The Rookies, S.W.A.T. was produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg.
Black Sails
The pirate adventures of Captain Flint and his men twenty years prior to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island.” Flint, the most brilliant and most feared pirate captain of his day, takes on a fast-talking young addition to his crew who goes by the name John Silver. Threatened with extinction on all sides, they fight for the survival of New Providence Island, the most notorious criminal haven of its day – a debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes, thieves and fortune seekers, a place defined by both its enlightened ideals and its stunning brutality.
The Mosquito Coast
Allie Fox—a brilliant inventor and stubborn idealist—uproots his family for a dangerous quest through Mexico to flee the U.S. government and find safety.
Why These Shows Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with The Cartel (2008): Action & Adventure and Drama themes, similar pacing, and comparable production quality. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface series most likely to resonate with fans of The Cartel.
See full details for The Cartel (2008)