A drug bust goes bad in US occupied Afghanistan, a merchant marine boat is scuttled while smuggling illegal immigrants, and the bank forecloses on a Wharton MBA's insolvent real estate deal -- the first 50 pages of a new Clancy novel? No, these 3 completely nonsequitur events happen in the first half hour of Traffic: The Miniseries.
Aside from the common theme of drugs, Traffic bears very little resemblance to Michael Douglas movie of the same name. That said, I was surprised by how engrossed I became in the plot. The miniseris is purely plot driven, with skin-deep characters provided to push the plot along. With 3 separate plot threads running concurrently, Traffic adeptly navigates the viewer through the labryinthine story with little confusion and much suspense.
Noteworthy performances are Elias Koteas and Martin Donovan as 2 DEA agents charged with the sisyphean task of de-stabilizing the same Taliban drug operation they helped organize in the 80s. Koteas displays the same subdued heroism here as he did in Thin Red Line opposite Nick Nolte. Mary McCormack also shines as Koteas wife, not your typical damsel in distress.
In the end, Traffic: the Miniseries is just a cool story, weaving narco-terrorism with Homeland Security. I would have enjoyed seeing this writ large a la HBO, bigger budget, better locales (Vancouver, BC doubles for everything from Seattle to Afghanistan), and stark dialogue. On HBO, Traffic would have been a true epic. On USA, it's a just a long stanza (Damn you, Barry Diller, spend some $$$!)
