Netflix's latest hit, "Who Killed Sara?" (also known as "Quién mató a Sara?"), follows Alex Guzman, an ex-convict wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of his sister Sara 18 years ago. The thrilling crime drama pits Alex against the powerful Lazcano family, including the overbearing patriarch Cesar Lazcano, and it is no surprise that the show has soared to #1 on Netflix's Top 10 (opens in a new tab). But unlike the real-life dramas and documentaries (opens in new tab) that have become a trademark of streaming, "Who Killed Sarah?

The show was created and written by Jose Ignacio Valenzuela, a prolific Chilean screenwriter who has written more than 20 telenovelas, and produced by the Mexican production company Perro Azul. In an interview with El Imparcial de Oaxaca (opens in new tab) ), Valenzuela explained that he has a long history in the detective genre, including a childhood love of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. But while the show is fiction, some history buffs may notice that the Lascano family shares the same name as a notorious Mexican criminal. Because of this and the use of Acapulco as a setting, "Who Killed Sara?" is tied to a piece of Mexican history.

Trigger warning: references to sexual assault. Cesar, the patriarch of the Lascano family, is a prominent businessman who held Alex responsible for Sarah's death several years earlier. He is set up as the series' obvious antagonist from the end of the first episode, when he sends an armed escort after Alex. By the final episode of Season 1, the full extent of Cesar's corruption is revealed to include adultery, sexual violence, and murder. Spoiler alert for the end of Season 1 of "Who Killed Sara," he raped and impregnated Sara, who was the girlfriend of his son Rodolfo, and Rodolfo's current wife several years earlier. We also learned that he ran an illegal brothel, blackmailed prostitutes to keep working there, stole their passports, and murdered some of them. He even filmed some of the violence.

Although Cesar is a fictional character, a real man by the name of Lascano also made debauchery his business. Heriberto Lascano Lascano was one of Mexico's most wanted drug lords when he was the leader of the Los Zetas cartel; according to the LA Times (opens in new tab), Lascano was a soldier in the Mexican army, but after leaving the military, he worked for the Gulf cartel Los and Cetas, a paramilitary organization that worked under the Gulf cartel. Known as the "Executioner," Lascano was rumored to be particularly brutal, feeding his victims to his pet lions and tigers, and was killed in a firefight with the Mexican Navy in 2012.

While most of the action takes place in Mexico City, parts of Who Killed Sara were filmed in the coastal city of Acapulco (open in new tab). Although crime rates in this historic resort have dropped over the past year, the city was named the second deadliest city in the world based on homicide rates in 2018. According to the Washington Post (opens in new tab), most of the violence is due to cartel warfare. Despite the violence, Acapulco is known as one of Mexico's party capitals.