Is anyone going to watch the Traffic Miniseries on USA Tonight?

[La_Serpiente]

It is a three part-miniseries that will be on USA tonight at 9/8 Central.

It is based off of the original Traffic movie.

Here is what the website says:

Going beyond the Academy Award-winning movie, Traffic: The Miniseries is a three-part USA Network Original Miniseries which takes an inside look at the highly lucrative world of illegal trafficking, a world in which supply and demand isn't just for drugs: it's also for goods, weapons, and even human beings. Traffic: The Miniseries explores the dark, inner workings of these illicit trade organizations, as well as the secret agents that risk their lives to apprehend the elusive criminals who are a part of it.

Traffic - Part I : The Miniseries follows the story of Mike McKay (Elias Koteas), a field agent with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency who has traveled to Afghanistan to help dismantle that country's drug export operation. After making a fateful decision that effectively destroys his credibility, no one will believe him when Mike tries to tell his superiors that an Afghani drug shipment on its way to American shores also includes something that poses a much greater danger to the country. Meanwhile, back at Mike's Seattle home, his wife Carole (Mary McCormack) and son Tyler (Justin Chatwin) become pawns in a D.E.A. investigation that also pulls in Mike's long-time partner, Brent Delaney (Martin Donovan).

Traffic - Part 2: The Miniseries also follows the story of Ben Edmonds (Balthazar Getty), an ambitious young Ivy League graduate who has just lost a fortune due to bad real estate investments. Strapped for cash, Ben goes to work for his father's Seattle-based garment business, and soon discovers that his dad has developed close ties to the Chinese underworld through the company's shipping operations. After his father's unexpected death, Ben takes over the business, and Ronny Cho (Nelson Lee), his father's Chinese contact, approaches Ben to try and keep the same "arrangement" that he had with Ben's dad. Ben then learns that the arrangement involves allowing Ronny to use the company's shipping containers for smuggling other cargo - including the shipment of illegal aliens into the United States.

And finally, Traffic - Part 3 : The Miniseries follows the story of Adam Kadyrov (Cliff Curtis), a Seattle cab driver who entered the United States illegally through Ronny Cho's immigrant smuggling operation. Adam is eagerly awaiting the arrival of his wife and daughter, who are also being smuggled into the country, but he soon learns that the ship carrying his family has gone down at sea with all hands lost. The sinking is reported to be an accident, but when bodies begin washing up on shore with bullet holes in the backs of their heads, Adam begins to doubt the report's validity. Desperate to know what really happened to his family, Adam begins to investigate, and the trail quickly leads him to even more murders - and puts his own life in grave danger.

Before long, the lives of all three men become intertwined in ways they never could have foreseen and don't understand... until the very end. Traffic: The Miniseries is the story of an industry where the power and seduction of money lures the innocent into a harsh, unforgiving, and dangerous world - a world in which wealth and power eclipses the value of human life.

[soothsayer]

1. does it mention that illegal drugs contribute 1.5 trillion to the US econ

and that THAT fact needs to be taken into consideration if we really ever wanted to stop illegal drugs (or perhaps it IS taken into consideration at the top). Cuz they say the US economy would collapse even more if this money disappeared.

[La_Serpiente]

2. maybe

:shrug:

[eek]

3. watch the original UK miniseries, Traffik

Traffik is where the Soderberg film came from.


Scary, riveting, bleak, superbly acted.

This version is about the drug trade/poppies/heroine between Afghanistan and The West.

It sure opened our eyes about where "humanitarian aide" goes.
(to the Officials, not the citizenry)
Fascinating depictions of poppy harvest and how it is made into dope.

We were watching it on Sept 8, 9 , 10 of 2001 with an episode or two to go.
The Tragic Events happened and we at last resumed watching a week or so later.
It was incredible watching through the lens of 9/11 and gave perspective to the anti-taliban , war on Afghanistan stuff.
Also really interesting look at where and with whom OBL was supposed to be hanging out.

Rent it!

[supernova]

5. Traffik was on PBS

quite a while back, now. But I still remember it; it was THAT good. I'll have to rent it again from the video store.

[elfin]

4. Have to tape it - am hooked on "Wire in the Blood" on BBCA

at same time.

Sounds like a good adpatation/variation on the earlier European and American movie version of same topic. V

Very scary and disheartening to see how the various tentacles of this trade interconnect and devastate lives in so many places and so many ways.