Traffik - Miniseries

Rating:
Summary: Gripping, Must Watch Viewing
Review: We watched this over 3 nights on dvd and just loved it. I have never found myself liking a film and the tv series it was based upon equally but am in that situation here. I loved the American remake film of this series every bit as much as the series. They are alike yet they are also different. Perhaps the hugest difference is that the USA one involves a south of the border storyline where the Hispanic world is the major influence on our drug trade. However, evidently the British drug problem flows from the Middle East and is played across the European stage. Thus, we spend a great deal of time in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Germany in the UK series. Because the Hispanic culture is radically different from these others, that is a huge difference between the two and makes both well worth watching. Benicio del Toro was thus able to make a contribution to the American Traffic as the Hispanic cop that was so riveting. The rest of the plotline is virtually identical but Bill Patterson is so different from Michael Douglas and Lindsey Duncan so different from Catherine Zeta-Jones that you really understand how a change of actor can totally transform a role. They are all equally as good but all equally different. Julia Ormond is excellent as the druggie daughter in this version but Erika Christensen was positively other worldly in her interpretation of the role and I must give her the edge. I reached the same conclusion after seeing both works: we might as well legalize drugs as the only way of stopping this crime-war. It is as big a losing battle as Prohibition was with alcohol.