Traffik - Miniseries (1990)

Like The Singing Detective, Alastair Reid's award-winning 1989 British miniseries (broadcast in the U.S. on Masterpiece Theatre) has taken on mythic status. The critical and box-office success of Steven Soderbergh's Oscar®-winning feature-film adaptation paved the way for Traffik's home-video release, and it's an even more gripping and devastating experience. This is understandable in that it unfolds over five riveting hours, allowing for richer characterization. Traffik also operates on a broader canvas, as the interlocking stories play out in such far-flung locales as London and Hamburg, Germany, as well as Pakistan, a reminder that the war on drugs--in this case, heroin--is a global one. Comparisons between the miniseries and the movie are inevitable, and in the role played by Michael Douglas, Bill Paterson (perhaps best known as the lovelorn disc jockey in Comfort and Joy) makes a more convincing bureaucratic Everyman trying to hash out a financial-aid agreement with Pakistan that would eradicate the impoverished farmers' precious poppy crop. His world is shattered when his own daughter (Julia Ormond in her heartbreaking screen debut) becomes an addict. Lindsay Duncan is even more chilling than Catherine Zeta-Jones as Helen, a "housewife" who takes over her husband's smuggling operation when he is arrested. Aware of his illicit activities, she vows, "I'm not going to let go of everything we fought for." In the Don Cheadle role is Fritz Müller-Scherz as Ulli, a crafty and relentless German detective on Helen's case. One tragic story line unique to the miniseries concerns Fazal (Jamal Shah), an impoverished Pakistani farmer who finds work with Tariq Butt (Tallat Hussain), a major drug trafficker. This is one of television's finest hours (or five), and it's impossible not to get caught up in it. --Donald Liebenson Amazon.com essential video

Full of ambiguity, darkness, and murkiness....

This is a great miniseries, absolutely riveting. It's far superior to the American film in many ways. It's longer, which enables its makers to really dive into the murky, dark, deeply ambiguous world of police and drug dealers. The police are just as ruthless and cruel as the drug dealers are, and aside from one speech near the end of the series, there is very little moralising. This version just shows things as they really are in the drug war/worlds, and it's really terrifying. Soderbergh's film is much too short (even at 148 minutes) and simplifies things much too much, reducing the drug debate to the level of a "Crossfire" debate (which is no real debate at all). I really prefer the dark edges here, and the realistic approach that this series takes with the drug dealing and the relationships. I especially like Lindsay Duncan's character, as she seems at first a meek, subservient housewife of a German drug dealer, but then shows her true self and becomes as ruthless and cruel as the cops who are trying to destroy her husband and her way of life. September 4, 2007

So much better than the movie

Watch this show - it should be show to every 'War-on-Drugs Czar' in the world. July 30, 2007

Rather intresting

I had to watch the Miniseries for a class and write a 12 page paper on it about one of the characters.... Some points in the movie were long and could have been made shorter and to the point. But over all it was rather intresting and showed the many sides that Heroin Production covers and who it affects and how. From the Drug dealer to the drug user to the Drug Manufacter.... January 9, 2007

wooh - eyeopening and unforgettable

Yikes. The situation is incredibly fubar and it doesn't look to improve given the chaos in the Middle East. I liked this more than the American remake where I couldn't forget the actors playing the roles. December 10, 2006

The Absolute Best

I originally saw this on Masterpiece Theater in 1990 and was blown away at the quality of this film. I can't say enough positives. I waited so many years until this was finally released on DVD. Anyone who has seen the American film "Traffic" should see this. No comparison. May 31, 2005

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