If you want scope, ZeroZeroZero has it. This show is huge. An Italian production primarily, but set across multiple countries – primarily Italy, Mexico and the United States – in multiple languages, with funding coming from multiple regions, this show is BigBigBig. And for the audience that grew up on Scarface, Cocaine Cowboys and Traffic – or any of a hundred other shows about international drag trafficking – this epic mini-series could be a dream prospect.
The show examines a massive international cocaine deal from multiple viewpoints, including the buyers in Italy, the cartels in Mexico, the soldiers in Mexico (the cops being way out of their league and mainly in league with the cartels) and the “brokers”, based in New Orleans, who essentially provide the ship, in this case a massive tanker. Things to do with many aspects of this mammoth deal go wrong, often lethally, and we examine the various twists and turns from multiple perspectives, jumping back and forth in time, holding flashbacks-within-flashbacks, zooming from the widest canvas to the most intimate moment.
The protagonist (among many lead characters) is played by Andrea Riseborough, who inherits her father’s shipping company, his interest in the global drug trade, and this massive deal, when Dad (Gabriel Byrne) gets felled. She’s supported by her younger brother, played by Dane DeHaan, who somehow manages to pull off playing what I think is meant to be, if not a teenager, then a very young adult. Regardless, they’re very much ‘the kids’, learning the ropes in the middle of the biggest deal, and the biggest mess, one could imagine.
The driving creative force behind all this is Stefano Sollima, who is very good at this sort of thing: his directing credits include the TV show Gomorrah and the movies Suburra and Sicario: Day of the Soldado. If you’re into any of his previous work, you’ll be into this: it’s that kind of thing, on the largest possible canvas, epic, exciting and exhilarating.
Coming Soon To SBS in Australia on May 14.