PRISON CELL 211 on Netflix is a Mexican thriller series (org. title: Celda 211) with six episodes. It’s exactly as violent as you’d expect from a prison riot in Mexico. You may know the story from the book or the 2009 Spanish movie adaptation. Read our full Prison Cell 211 series review here!
PRISON CELL 211 is a new Netflix thriller series from Mexico (org. title: Celda 211). The series has six episodes with runtimes between 33 and 45 minutes, so you can watch it relatively fast. If you can stomach it, that is. This is a very brutal and violent story, which you’ll realize just from watching the first episode.
It’s a powerful story that also seeks to entertain, so while it does get very visual in its violence, there is a reason. Having watched other movies and documentaries about crime and violence in Mexico, it feels all too familiar. This story also deals with corruption and the struggle for power in a corrupt world.
Continue reading our Prison Cell 211 series review below. Find all six episodes on Netflix from February 5, 2025.
Wrong place, wrong time
At its core, Prison Cell 211 is all about one man being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A human rights lawyer is visiting a client – which in itself is no small feat – when a well-planned prison riot erupts.
The prison is already overcrowded, to say the least. In fact, it seems the population is more than double what the prison was intended for. This obviously results in a very chaotic setting, which only gets much worse once the prisoners riot.
Of course, there’s much more to the story and the riot is really covering a very specific plan. Then again, plans can change and corrupt people can easily be corrupted more than once.

How much can one person endure?
The human rights lawyer – who has a very pregnant wife at home – discovers that he’s trapped in this terrible situation. To survive, he poses as an inmate. As such, he quickly finds he must do things, he never expected to.
Dealing with pain and fear, he discovers a darkness inside himself that enables him to do unspeakable things.
However, it also begs the question; Can you ever get back to who you were? And would society even allow this? Once you’ve done what the criminals are doing, doesn’t that make you a criminal as well?!
Diego Calva plays the lead role of the human rights lawyer posing as an inmate until he practically becomes a criminal himself. He does a stellar job, just as he did when he starred in the Netflix series The Secret of the River. You may also recognize him from the 2023 movie Bird Box: Barcelona.
Is the Netflix series Prison Cell 211 (Celda 211) based on a true story?
While the new Netflix series Prison Cell 211 (org. title Celda 211) is based on a book, which was also adapted into a movie back in 2009, it is also inspired by a true story.
Specifically, the riot that happened in a state prison near the Mexico-US border on December 31, 2022, and January 1, 2023. It was in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez.
Please note, this isn’t the official plot as the Netflix series is based on a book by a Spanish author. However, it also means that the original story takes place in Spain, which means decidedly different circumstances than in Mexico.
Not least when it comes to prisons and how they are handled.
Watch Prison Cell 211 on Netflix now!
Prison Cell 211 is based on the 2003 book Celda 211 (which is also the original Spanish title of the Netflix series) by author Francisco Pérez Gandul. This book was made into a feature film in 2009, which starred Luis Tosar (The Courier) as an inmate and Alberto Ammann (Griselda, The Longest Night) as a rookie prison guard.
The movie was simply called Cell 211 in English, so they’ve made sure this series stands apart. Also, as already mentioned, it stands apart in more ways as the Spanish movie adaptation stayed more with the book and had Spanish elements (like the fact that the Basque separatist group ETA was involved).
This Mexican series has many elements specific to Mexico and is directed by Mexican directors. The directors of the six episodes of this series are Gerardo Naranjo (Fear the Walking Dead, Miss Bala) and Jaime Reynoso (The Purge series). If you’re ready for a truly brutal and wild story inspired by reality, then do check it out.
Prison Cell 211 is out on Netflix from February 5, 2025.
Details
Directors: Jaime Reynoso, Gerardo Naranjo
Cast: Diego Calva, Ernesto Meléndez, Noé Hernández, Alejandro Puente, Ana Sofía Gatica
Plot
Caught in a prison riot, a human rights lawyer poses as an inmate to survive. As he blends in, chaos and personal loss unveil the darkness within him.
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