zero zero zero book review

Advertisement

Supported by

‘ZeroZeroZero,’ by Roberto Saviano

• Share full article

By Mark Bowden

• July 20, 2015

Roberto Saviano has written a kind of concordance of cruelty in this cocaine-­trafficking epic, minus the alphabetized structure, which would have made it easier to follow. Much of it, sadly, may be true.

How much is an open question. The second chapter begins with the story of Don Arturo. We never learn exactly who this is, beyond the first name and the honorific. He is like a character out of “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” a rich old patriarch who in his younger days grew poppies for morphine production. ­Saviano writes of the day a general arrived at Don Arturo’s Mexican estate and set fire to his growing crop. Don Arturo watched the flames grow higher, incinerating live animals and even some peasants who had fallen asleep in his fields. While villagers feared the flames too much to attempt a rescue of their burning neighbors, the story goes, a dog braved the conflagration to pull its puppies to safety: “He remembers because it was there he learned how to recognize courage, and that cowardice tastes of human flesh.”

Neat sentence. Memorable passage. But did this actually happen? Is there ­really a Don Arturo? Field of flames? Brave dog? What in this sometimes compelling, often tedious assortment of parables, poetry, dramatic monologues, cautionary tales and horror stories is true, and what is fantasy? The cool answer, I suppose, is that we shouldn’t care.

A word about Saviano. Because of the work he did on his acclaimed first book, “Gomorrah,” he lives under constant guard. His life has been threatened by people who follow through. Some of the best passages in this book deal with these profound restrictions on his freedom, and with his determination to persevere.

“Maybe you also have to accept the burden of being a tiny superhero without a shred of power,” he writes. “Of being, in the end, a pathetic human being who has overestimated his strength merely because he’s never run up against its limits before.”

You can’t help rooting for a man who risks his life to tell true stories. In “Gomorrah,” which detailed the murderous excesses of a Neapolitan crime family, Saviano compiled his account through dogged research, working undercover in mob-associated businesses and diligently visiting the scenes of their crimes. That reporting lent chilling authenticity to the book, authenticity enhanced by the death threats that followed. I suspect that ­“ZeroZeroZero” grows out of his forced immersion in the world of his protectors, Italian police who have contacts in law enforcement worldwide. I suspect, I say, because Saviano gives little help in this regard. Sourcing is left to the imagination.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

• ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

ZEROZEROZERO

by Roberto Saviano translated by Virginia Jewiss ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2015

Saviano says he can no longer look at a beach or a map without seeing cocaine, and many will share that view after reading...

An inside account of the international cocaine trade.

Italian investigative journalist Saviano has lived under armed guard since the 2006 publication of his bestselling debut,  Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples’s Organized Crime System . This revealing new book, with a strong focus on Mexico’s cartels, surges with fast-moving prose detailing the lives of drug lords and pushers, the inner workings of their violent world, and how their lucrative business (between $25 billion and $50 billion annually) affects all our lives. “The world’s drowning in unhappiness,” he writes. “Mexico has the solution: cocaine.” An obsessive (“My White Whale is cocaine”), Saviano says reporting on drugs—in the hope it will foster change—gives meaning to his life. His stories offer a close glimpse of Mexico’s cartels: the biggest, the Sinaloa cartel, owns 160 million acres. La Familia cartel recruits in drug rehabs and lavishes money on peasants and churches. The Knights Templar cartel, with a rigid honor code, portrays itself as a protector of widows and orphans. Between 2006 and 2011, such cartels killed 31 Mexican mayors and more than 47,000 other people. Working like remarkably efficient, moneymaking machines, they use Africa, with its poor border controls, as a drug warehouse, build submarines (capable of carrying 10 tons of cocaine) in hidden jungle shipyards, and teach aspiring mules how to package and ingest cocaine-filled capsules at a school in Curacao. Saviano describes the complexities of money laundering, how world banks help make it possible, and the many ways in which drugs are smuggled: in paintings, handcrafted doors, frozen fish, and more. Throughout, the author provides vivid stories of the lives of well-known drug bosses and their minions.

Pub Date: July 14, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-59420-550-7

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Penguin Press

Review Posted Online: April 28, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015

Share your opinion of this book

More by Roberto Saviano

BOOK REVIEW

by Roberto Saviano ; illustrated by Asaf Hanuka ; translated by Jamie Richards ; pictorial interpreter: Andworld Design

by Roberto Saviano

by Roberto Saviano ; translated by Antony Shugaar

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

Kirkus Reviews' Best Books Of 2017

New York Times Bestseller

IndieBound Bestseller

National Book Award Finalist

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

The osage murders and the birth of the fbi.

by David Grann ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2017

Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.

Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.

During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann ( The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession , 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.

Pub Date: April 18, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017

GENERAL HISTORY | TRUE CRIME | UNITED STATES | FIRST/NATIVE NATIONS | HISTORY

More by David Grann

by David Grann

More About This Book

BOOK TO SCREEN

IN COLD BLOOD

by Truman Capote ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 7, 1965

"There's got to be something wrong with somebody who'd do a thing like that." This is Perry Edward Smith, talking about himself. "Deal me out, baby...I'm a normal." This is Richard Eugene Hickock, talking about himself. They're as sick a pair as Leopold and Loeb and together they killed a mother, a father, a pretty 17-year-old and her brother, none of whom they'd seen before, in cold blood. A couple of days before they had bought a 100 foot rope to garrote them—enough for ten people if necessary. This small pogrom took place in Holcomb, Kansas, a lonesome town on a flat, limitless landscape: a depot, a store, a cafe, two filling stations, 270 inhabitants. The natives refer to it as "out there." It occurred in 1959 and Capote has spent five years, almost all of the time which has since elapsed, in following up this crime which made no sense, had no motive, left few clues—just a footprint and a remembered conversation. Capote's alternating dossier Shifts from the victims, the Clutter family, to the boy who had loved Nancy Clutter, and her best friend, to the neighbors, and to the recently paroled perpetrators: Perry, with a stunted child's legs and a changeling's face, and Dick, who had one squinting eye but a "smile that works." They had been cellmates at the Kansas State Penitentiary where another prisoner had told them about the Clutters—he'd hired out once on Mr. Clutter's farm and thought that Mr. Clutter was perhaps rich. And this is the lead which finally broke the case after Perry and Dick had drifted down to Mexico, back to the midwest, been seen in Kansas City, and were finally picked up in Las Vegas. The last, even more terrible chapters, deal with their confessions, the law man who wanted to see them hanged, back to back, the trial begun in 1960, the post-ponements of the execution, and finally the walk to "The Corner" and Perry's soft-spoken words—"It would be meaningless to apologize for what I did. Even inappropriate. But I do. I apologize." It's a magnificent job—this American tragedy—with the incomparable Capote touches throughout. There may never have been a perfect crime, but if there ever has been a perfect reconstruction of one, surely this must be it.

Pub Date: Jan. 7, 1965

ISBN: 0375507906

Page Count: 343

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1965

More by Truman Capote

by Truman Capote

• Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
• News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
• Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
• Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
• Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
• More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
• About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Popular in this Genre

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

• Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Contact us: 1-800-316-9361 or email [email protected].

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, amazon prime’s addictive thriller zerozerozero depicts a global drug deal gone wrong.

Before users are brought into play, the high stakes game of the cocaine business includes the buyers, sellers, and dealmakers. “ZeroZeroZero,” an addictive new international thriller from Amazon Prime, uses a big cocaine deal gone wrong as the spark for international drama that spans three continents. The cocaine was made in Monterrey, Mexico by the Leyra cartel, was set for transport by a boat owned by dealmakers from America (played by Gabriel Byrne , Andrea Riseborough , and Dane DeHaan ), and was on its way to Italy where the crime syndicate will distribute it to the world. In the series’ first episode, “ Sicario: Day of the Soldado ” director Stefano Sollima blows up this deal and hooks us in with Mafioso family drama, high-stakes chase scenes with Mexican cartel, and a dramatic shootout in the climax. All the while, everyone's aspirations are established, along with a disturbing sense of what they'll risk to get what they want. 

Adapted from the book by Roberto Saviano , “ZeroZeroZero” tells these different stories in alternating big chunks; sometimes the arcs will intertwine (and lead to a flashback) and sometimes an arc will be off on its own for a while. It helps keep the stories focused, and helps you keep track of most of the characters who might suddenly die—the show is primed for attentive viewing even more than binge-viewing, but you’ll want to follow its eight hour-long episodes to the end either way. I recommend doing so in doses, even though the show is held together by so many great twists that you might find yourself just watching one episode after the next.  

The weakest of the three storylines belongs to the Americans, and it’s telling that the story could still thrive on its own were “ZeroZeroZero” chopped up into three different movies. Andrea Riseborough stands out with in her performance as Emma Lynwood, the older sister (and daughter to Gabriel Byrne's Edward) trying to keep up the Lynwood family drug deal; her presence is shown to be an abrasive break from the very gendered roles of drug dealing, where Mafiosos refuse to get women involved, and the cartels are shown to put nearly-nude women to work to cut the cocaine. Like many people in this saga she can disappear and reappear from the events, but Riseborough is one of the most stable dramatic forces, working through a bizarre adventure that takes her and her brother Chris (Dane DeHaan) to Senegal and Morocco, where her unblinking management skills prove necessary in trying to keep the deal alive. DeHaan's Chris is a bit more unwieldy, especially with a backstory of a family disease that has him frantically trying to not lose his prescriptions in the process, and eventually tearing up rooms and screaming in bouts of capital-A Acting.  

Far more subtle is the story involving the the Italians, who have their own bubbling drama that rises to the surface. The series’ penchant for gorgeous, extra wide shots of each story’s horizon are the best here when detailing the peaceful cliff sides and small villages that Don Minu  (Adriano Chiaramida ) has right outside his underground bunker, where he has been ruling in seclusion. Don Minu’s hotshot grandson Stefano (Giuseppe De Domenico) forces him out of hiding with the deal, especially as Stefano tries to take over; the two enact an old school vs. new school drama that works in its slow-burns, as they tactfully try to trap and kill the other. Each time that Don Minu, or Stefano, are lead somewhere unknown for a meeting, it feels like it could be their last moment, and the script’s reoccurring chorus of someone shifting allegiances especially pops here within the stakes of their gruesome family backstory. 

This is revealed to be a business where you can either control or be controlled, and Manuel (a quietly insidious Harold Torres) embodies that with his own arc of rising from a church-going special forces sergeant nicknamed “Vampire” to aspirational Mexican cartel leader, who uses his professional training as a way to dominate Monterrey with his own army of men who are armed, fast, and loyal. Manuel’s arc takes “ZeroZeroZero” to some very dark, unrelentingly bleak places, but it too works as a study in evil, disconnected from the other two major stories. His story gets bigger and bigger as he starts to gain control, especially as Manuel builds his army with dozens of men training for war, and yet it always comes back to the wavering power within Torres’ stoic presence. Sometimes it’s the haunting look of a stone-cold, sociopathic tyrant, but in a few weaker dramatic beats its the look of someone whose established intricate conscience dissipates with each tactful act of brutality. 

“ZeroZeroZero” takes the moral stance of a Martin Scorsese project, in that it stands back from such various degrees of evil, and lets God sort them out. To become enmeshed with such villains in a high-paced story can be invigorating at first, but it flags when the series proves to share little insight into its focal subject, as if withholding the massive research that clearly inspired the series and the book. Instead, though episode one features Gabriel Byrne’s cheesy voiceover getting didactic about on drug dealing, the show is more reliant on its confident narrative style, of endless betrayals and bids for power, all while trying to give some gritty coolness to the business at hand.  

An expansive and bleak epic like this is rounded out by its filmmaking vigor, of which “ZeroZeroZero” has plenty of. Its action scenes can burst into some genuinely thrilling car chases, shootouts, and shocking kills, all which make some of its hokier visual missteps (like the way it always suddenly goes into dramatic slow motion to switch arcs) easier to forgive. “ZeroZeroZero” prevails in creating a rich world with its interconnected nature; its scope becomes a weapon itself, sobering you up with just how far everything goes. It’s the kind of thriller that makes such a deep impression because it can think big and small at the same time, uniting three gripping individual stories into one massive saga.

Whole season screened for review.

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Latest blog posts

A Woman Without Peers: Gena Rowlands (1930-2024)

The Needle Drop Sessions: Pump Up the Volume & Untamed Heart

Locarno Film Festival 2024: Youth (Hard Times), Transamazonia, Moon

Thumbnails 8/15/24: Six Must-Reads You Don’t Want To Miss This Week

Latest reviews.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Close to You

Tomris Laffly

Rule of Two Walls

Isaac feldberg.

Peyton Robinson

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut

Peter sobczynski.

• Business & Money
• International

Sorry, there was a problem.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Zero Zero Zero Hardcover – July 2, 2015

• Print length 448 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
• Publication date July 2, 2015
• Dimensions 6.38 x 1.54 x 9.45 inches
• ISBN-10 1846147697
• ISBN-13 978-1846147692
• See all details

What do customers buy after viewing this item?

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books Ltd (July 2, 2015)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1846147697
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1846147692
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.6 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 1.54 x 9.45 inches
• #6,214 in International Economics (Books)
• #20,151 in Criminology (Books)

About the author

Roberto saviano.

Roberto Saviano (Italian: [roˈbɛrto saˈvjano]; Naples, September 22, 1979) is an Italian journalist, writer and essayist. He is the author of international bestsellers Gomorrah and ZeroZeroZero.

In his writings, his articles, his books and his television programs, he uses literature and investigative reporting to tell of the economic reality of the territory and business of the Camorra and of organized crime more generally.

After the first death threats of 2006 made by the Casalese clan, a cartel of the Camorra, which he denounced in his exposé and in the piazza of Casal di Principe during a demonstration in defense of legality, Saviano was put under a strict security protocol. Since October 13, 2006, he has lived under police protection.

He has collaborated with numerous important Italian and international newspapers. Currently he writes for the Italian publications l'Espresso and la Repubblica. Internationally, he collaborates in the United States with The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek and Time; in Spain with El Pais; in Germany with Die Zeit and Der Spiegel; in Sweden with Expressen; and in the United Kingdom with The Times and The Guardian.

His courageous positions have provoked appeals on his behalf from many important writers and other cultural figures, such as Umberto Eco.

In 2015 he launched his own editorial project, RSO-Roberto Saviano Online.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by piero tasso (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 58% 25% 11% 4% 2% 58%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 58% 25% 11% 4% 2% 25%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 58% 25% 11% 4% 2% 11%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 58% 25% 11% 4% 2% 4%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 58% 25% 11% 4% 2% 2%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers find the book an excellent read with a writing style that reflects the character's courage and force of human spirit. However, opinions are mixed on comprehensibility, with some finding it interesting and others saying it's boring and confusing.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the book excellent, amazing, and confronting. They also say the first 200 pages are great.

"...However, I still think it's one of the best books I've read in some time and presents a rare glimpse into the world of international narco..." Read more

"...As a result this first section is must-read material and the author puts on a clinic in how to write fantastic creative narrative non-fiction...." Read more

"I love this book. Its such an amazing work of journalism ...." Read more

" Interesting read and quite depressing to see how far up the administration of government the corrupting influence of cocaine has become...." Read more

Customers find the writing style amazing and reflects the courage of the character. They also say the book is transformational and they could not put it down.

" Brave writer , best wishes for him and “forza”!!! Best reporting ever read. Good work, really a very good job done!" Read more

"...Saviano is an amazing character and his writing reflects his courage , force of human spirit and passion to cover the dark underbelly of what's..." Read more

"Transforming. What a courageous person . I could not put it down." Read more

"An important book that is at once political, brave and poetic ." Read more

Customers are mixed about the comprehensibility. Some find the book interesting, with an in-depth description and exploration. They say it paints the story of the world, while others say it's boring and confusing at times.

"Wow, this book is rich with information that I haven’t seen before. It is a little refreshing to learn and heard those stories...." Read more

" Terrifying but Insightful . It is a real eye-opener to seewhat types of crimes these drug cartels commit...." Read more

"...woven together with an over-stylized abundance of prose they become difficult to follow and the rest of the book becomes tough sledding for the..." Read more

"...But pretty informative on the people involved in the drug trade and how expendable human/ animal life is to them because of how much money is at..." Read more

Reviews with images

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• About Amazon
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell products on Amazon
• Sell on Amazon Business
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Become an Affiliate
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Make Money with Us
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Amazon and COVID-19
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices

• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

Zero Zero Zero by Roberto Saviano

Roberto Saviano dedicates this book to his armed Carabinieri bodyguards and the 51,000 hours they’ve spent together since previous work Gomorrah sent him into hiding from the Neapolitan Mafia. He expands his pool of enemies exponentially here by sketching an intricate map of the international cocaine trade. The power of the white powder fuels an economy of unimaginable scale, which – like gas, oil and steel – regulates global markets and impacts financially on even the most sober everyday lives. 

Unlike loosely comparable works – some excellent, like Simon Strong’s Whitewash and Robert Sabbag’s Snowblind – Saviano looks beyond single regions of the world or functions of the supply chain to zoom out over a complete industry; one headed by men who weigh their money rather than count it. That chain consists of coca farmers, jungle labs, cartels, smugglers, brokers, dealers and ends with the user. He writes beautifully at times, a natural storyteller showboating with technique. It seems that novels await – if García Márquez can move from magic realism to reporting the  News of a Kidnapping , surely Saviano can reverse the switch. His creativity occasionally proves his undoing however – in some instances inappropriate in relating to the stark reality of his subject. A slight flaw, placing this excellent, elegant and brave piece of journalism just below the ‘zero zero zero’ rating of the purest grade cocaine it investigates. 

Culture | Books

Zero Zero Zero by Roberto Saviano - review

Zero Zero Zero by Roberto Saviano, trans Virginia Jewiss (Allen Lane, £20)

In the West Indies, a prime trans-shipment point for cocaine-smuggling is the Jamaican capital of Kingston. Stockpiled along the Kingston wharfs are thousands of “reefers” (refrigerated containers) crammed with frozen meat, fish fingers and other TV dinners. Anti-narcotics security is on the look-out especially for “reefer” shipments from Colombia. No market in the world brings in more revenue than the cocaine market. In return for bribes, Kingston cargo personnel may turn off the container-scanning equipment.

Colombian “white petrol” is destined above all for Britain, a highly prized market. Cocaine fetches three times as much here as in other European countries. Eleven per cent of all our bank notes test positive for cocaine. Typically, proceeds from narco-trafficking are laundered through banking circuits in the City. Transformed into electronic stock, coke capital is almost impossible to trace. “Moving wealth around is hard work,” a City trader tells Roberto Saviano.

Saviano’s investigation into the cokehead brokers, dealers and professional killers who manage the supply and demand of cocaine has an intriguing title. High-quality cocaine is known to pushers as “zero zero zero” because it contains zero levels of baking powder or other impurities. Saviano has been here before. His bestselling exposé of the Neapolitan Mafia, Gomorrah, was turned into a film that put the author’s life at risk. For the past 10 years the 36-year-old Italian journalist has been under police protection. Pointedly, Zero Zero Zero is dedicated to “all my Carabinieri bodyguards”.

The book might lack the locker-room snooping and legwork that made Gomorrah such a visceral masterwork but it remains a tremendously gripping work of reportage. Throughout, Saviano turns an appalled eye on the methods used to grow, stock, transport and protect shipments of angel dust. “In order to understand cocaine,” he writes, “you have to understand Mexico.” Some 90 per cent of the cocaine currently used by Americans is thought to come across the US-Mexican border. Run by computer-literate entrepreneurs, the frontier cartels have spread their tentacles as far afield as oil-rich Houston. Corrupt Mexican policemen are mixed up in the transborder drug killings which, says Saviano, have become increasingly “lurid”. (Bodies are no longer quietly dumped in the desert; they are displayed for all to see, and in some cases decapitated or flayed.)

In a brilliant chapter, Saviano dilates on the Russian Mafia’s infiltration of Wall Street and the financial malpractice attendant on narco-laundering in general. International fraudsters and currency speculators of one stripe or another are often in cahoots with the Calabrian Mafia, who use “mules” to carry cocaine for them. Up to 100 condoms or latex surgical glove fingers filled with cocaine are ingested. Many mules are single mothers in need of money to feed their families. A rupture in just one of the packages can bring an “atrociously painful death”, Saviano reminds us. Not that the drug dons care: the women are expendable.

Saviano’s book, grimly absorbing, views cocaine as a fuel for the entire world economy. It’ll rot your brain — but just look at the money that can be made.

Go to standard.co.uk/booksdirect to buy this book for £16, or phone 0843 060 0029, free UK p&p

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul: This drag queen does not care if you hate him

Clear by Carys Davies: a novel with the electric hum of a thriller

'Lost' Gabriel García Márquez novel will be published next week

First look at exceptional new London properties for sale in 2024

Create a FREE account to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

• United Kingdom

Fact Vs. Fiction In Amazon's 'ZeroZeroZero'

Separating the fact from fiction in amazon’s zerozerozero.

More from TV

R29 original series.

‘ZeroZeroZero’ is Based on a Compelling Investigation of the Cocaine Trade

Amazon’s ‘ ZeroZeroZero ‘ is undoubtedly the most ambitious entry in the drug-crime drama genre from the past years. Not only does the show give Netflix’s critically acclaimed ‘ Narcos ‘ a tough-competition, it also exceeds it, and probably any other series before it, with its broad scope.

The eight-part series offers an exhaustive exploration of the gritty, dark world of international cocaine trade. It looks at every possible aspect of drug-trafficking, from sellers to brokers, to cartels to buyers, revealing what really goes “under”  in the underworld. ‘ZeroZeroZero’ achieves this through its multiple narratives, tracing lines of cocaine and borders, to piece together the highly dangerous global drug market.

The American Lynwood family acts as a cocaine broker for Mexican and Italian Mafia through its international shipping company. The family, thus, serves as the spine of the story, connecting its different narratives as millionaire middlemen. The series also explores the role of Mexican cartels in the cocaine trade, along with the involvement of Italian mafia, particularly, ‘Ndrangheta.

What makes ‘ZeroZeroZero’ a compelling watch is the way it approaches cocaine as capitalism, exploring the want for pure pow(d)er. Interestingly, the series gets its title from a nickname for pure cocaine. It is also truly addictive with its fast-paced, riveting portrayal of the cocaine economy. Give the premise of the series, and the intricacies it explores, it is hard not to wonder if the series is based on real events and people. In case you’re wondering the same, we’re here to help. Here’s everything you need to know.

Is ‘ZeroZeroZero’ Based on a True Story?

There is no simple answer to this, as the answer is both yes and no. ‘ZeroZeroZero’ is based on the novel of the same name by acclaimed writer, Roberto Saviano. If the name sounds familiar it is because Saviano is the man behind the groundbreaking bestseller, Gomorrah , a modern-day investigative marvel that explores the Neapolitan crime family. Saviano risked his life with his research, and eventually the book, and till date lives in police protection.

With ZeroZeroZero , Saviano, blends fiction with years of research and investigative reporting, revealing the hard-hitting realities of the cocaine trade, that engulfs our world without our knowledge. For the book, Saviano made use of transcripts and second-hand stories, potentially collected from members of Italian law-enforcement that he is usually surrounded by.

The Amazon, series, however, takes a more detached approach, and fictionalizes people and events from the book in an attempt to make it more coherent. But to also possibly escape controversies as Saviano’s book names some big names in the business. So, in Saviano’s novel, the Lynwood family does not exist. Another key difference between the series and the novel is the aspect of the time. Saviano’s  ZeroZeroZero takes dizzying leaps across decades and continents. And while the Amazon show shares its globetrotting ambitions, it sticks to a single timeline.

Amongst the stories and names Saviano talks about in his book, Roberto Pannunzi’s name is undoubtedly the biggest. Pannunzi was once Europe’s most wanted drug lord, and has been labelled world’s biggest cocaine trafficker, the equivalent of Pablo Escobar. He is an Italian criminal known for his links to  ‘Ndrangheta, a mafia from Calabria. Interestingly, Amazon’s ‘ZeroZeroZero’ does explore ‘Ndrangheta, but through fictional characters, particularly the La Piana family. In the series, Don Damiano La Piana is the boss of the mafia.

Apart from ‘Ndrangheta, Saviano’s book also looks at several other compelling stories. These include Bruno Fuduli’s tale, the Knights Templar Cartel, and the Kaibiles (a special operations wings of Guatemala’s army), among several others.

Both the book and the series expose the truth of the global drug trade that we’re made blind too. According to Saviano, cocaine is like any other economic potent product like oil or gold. Due this, it plays a crucial role in capitalism, and thus, our lives. And as cartels launder billions of dollars through banks, even some of the biggest of American and European banks become involved. In an interview with The Guardian , Saviano revealed:

“Capitalism needs the criminal syndicates and criminal markets… People…tend to overlook this, insisting upon a separation between the black market and the legal market. It’s the mentality that leads people in Europe and the USA to think of a mafioso who goes to jail as a mobster, a gangster. But he’s not, he’s a businessman, and his business, the black market, has become the biggest market in the world”

In a similar fashion, during an interview with Reuters , director and series co-creator, Stefano Sollima spoke about how the drug impacts all our lives in one way or another. In the interview, she stated:

“We tell the story of something that I saw and experienced myself making the series…which is that all of us, even if you, personally, don’t use it…you’re not involved in any illegal activity that comes with cocaine, your life is still affected by it.”

Read More: TV Shows About Drug Cartels

SPONSORED LINKS

• Movie Explainers
• TV Explainers

ZeroZeroZero Review: It's a family thing

Amazon's epic tale of how 5,000 kilos of cocaine affect far more than the buyers, sellers and brokers..

What to Watch Verdict

At the end of the eight hours of ZeroZeroZero you'll have to ask yourself — is this sort of thing *really* going on around us all the time?

A gripping story that's at times hard to watch.

The locations are epic.

So is the acting of everyone on screen.

The Mogwai soundtrack is perfect.

Sometimes the brutality is just a little too much.

Fair warning: You're going to want to set aide the better part of a day or two for ZeroZeroZero . This is one of those series where the story is told so damn well — and the episodes themselves are so masterfully pieced together — that you just have to keep going. No matter how brutal things get. No matter how bleak it may seem. If the characters somehow soldier on, so, too, must you.

The premise of ZeroZeroZero is simple. The head of an Italian Mafia family has been living in exile for years. He wants to get out of his hole in the ground and regain his former stature by getting 5,000 kilograms (that's about five tons ) of cocaine into the system. That sort of buy requires a lot of capital, though, so he gets others to invest in the purchase. Like it was a sports team or something. The coke comes from a pair of brothers in Mexico. The two ends work through a family's shipping company out of New Orleans.

Buyers. Sellers. Brokers. The triad that makes up a major international, wholesale drug operation.

The series is based on the 2016 book by Roberto Saviano and was developed for Italian and French TV, plus Amazon. The result is eight gripping hours spanning three continents, countless deaths, double- and triple-crosses, and an unyielding need to get the deals done.

Watch the fantastic series ZeroZeroZero on Amazon Prime Video.

ZeroZeroZero — it gets its name from the purest form of Italian pasta flour, and slang for pure cocaine — is told from three points of view. There's the Italian crime family in Calabria, in Southern Italy. They're the ones buying the cocaine. There's the Mexican side of things, which is mostly about the specially trained soldiers who are tasked to combat the drug trade — but it's also about the Leyra brothers, who head up the cartel producing the drugs. And there are the Americans — the Lynwood family — who run a shipping business out of New Orleans that facilitates the movement of mass amounts of cocaine.

The brutality is just part of doing business.

Each episode does a masterful job of hooking you, and I didn't even pick up on it until I was a few hours in. We start with the elderly Don Minu (Adriano Chiaramida) meeting with other families and guaranteeing a major shipment of cocaine that will bring everyone a lot of money, and allow him to come out of hiding for the first time in years following a protracted mafia war. Don Minu's grandson, Stefano (Giuseppe De Domenico), is in the mix, but he's in it for revenge — Don Minu years ago killed his own son, Stefano's father, to stop the war. (Though we don't learn that reasoning until later in the series.)

Then we see the Mexican special forces surveilling a meeting between the Leyra brothers and Edward and Emma Lynwood (Andrea Riseborough, who you know from Birdman and Oblivion with Tom Cruise). They're the father and daughter with the shipping business who will make sure the cocaine (which is hidden at the bottom of cans of jalapeño peppers) makes it from Monterey to Gioia Tauro in Southern Italy, three weeks and 6,000 miles away. As the soldiers are about to close in on the kingpins, one of them quietly alerts someone on the Leyra's payroll. The dinner breaks up and the shooting begins. The Leyras and the Lynnwoods escape, but not before Edward Lynwood (Gabrielle Byrne) takes a round in the chest.

That's when time slows down, and we flash back — rewind, really —  to get the whole storm on what's actually happening. It's a simple, subtle trick (and certainly not a unique one), but it's an effective device. You're roped in. Something bad is going to happen, and now you want to see what it is.

The Italian side is the trickiest of the three to follow. First Stefano wants to stop the shipment from ever making it to Italy, ensuring that his grandfather is disgraced once more an his new business partners will turn on him. (And in this world, that can mean waking up to find yourself being eaten alive by starving hogs.) Stefano is strong. He's clever. But maybe a little too clever and not experienced enough. He's working with the rival Curtiga family but quickly finds enemies on all sides. Don Minu is old but not naive. He sees what's coming and forces Stefano back to his family's side — at least until the Curtigas make it plenty clear that either the shipment does not make it to Italy, or Stefano will have to kill Don Minu himself. There's a lot of back-and-forth here, and a few too many characters to follow things easily (plus it's all in Italian). But it's intriguing as hell. Who's going to come out on top? Or at least lose less?

The Mexican side is brutal. No two ways about it. Manuel Contreras (Harold Torres) leads the squad of special forces. They hunt down and kidnap one of the Leyra's men and throw him in a hole for some good, old-fashioned shock-torture. But instead of hearing the screams, Manuel puts in his earbuds and takes in the teachings of an extremely religious podcast. It's maybe not his happy place, but he's doing evil in God's name, and this is how he copes. Ultimately they get the location of the dinner, where things start going down.

The ship full of cocaine leaves for Italy, and Manuel and his team are tasked with boarding it off the coast and stopping the drugs. There he finds Chris Lynnwood (Dane DeHaan), Emma's brother who's been kept out of the family business due to Huntington's Disease, which killed their mother and has secretly started to show in him. Chris stepped up, though, because his father ultimately died from the stress and shock of the attack at dinner, and someone has to make sure the shipment makes it to Italy. And Chris grew up on the large container ships, so he's suited for what's about to happen.

The Mexican commandos fastrope down to the ship, knock out Chris and warn the captain — a longtime friend of the Lynnwoods — that they need to shut down all tracking and disappear as they cross the Atlantic if they want to make it.

One problem with that, though: Stefano paid the captain 1 million Euro to make sure the shipment doesn't make it to Italy. How do you do that? Force an engine fire and abandon ship after knocking out Chris again. Except Chris knows these ships, remember? And he's somehow able to put out the engine fire himself and signal for help, ultimately ending up in Senegal, along with his wrecked ship and $60 million worth of cocaine hidden in the jalapeños. Emma flies in and they make their way across the Sarahah to Casablanca, getting caught up with ISIS along the way.

Meanwhile, Manuel and his crew — after killing their captain and saying to hell with the Mexican Army and getting some serious religious direction — decide to become the Leyras' dedicated paramilitary group. (They don't really give the brothers a choice in the matter.) They're ruthless and brutal. Mass executions to make a point seem routine. They recruit dozens of young men and train them as they were trained. (Maybe not as well, but well enough to be effective.)

But as is the case any number of times in ZeroZeroZero , strength isn't a one-way thing. Who has the upper hand at any given time depends on who's willing to go further. Who's able to see what's coming, or who's able to react the quickest. Who's willing to do whatever they have to do to ensure what needs to be done is done. And that's what's so incredible about the final scene of the series.

Manuel in one chair, a bloodbath left in his wake. Emma sits across from him, sandwiched between two bodies. If she blinked during the meeting — or as she twice walked through the courtyard strewn with bodies of men, women and children — I didn't see it. She simply completely the transaction, prepared for the next one, and went on her way.

The brutality — the death and destruction and transnational fuckery — is just part of doing business. It is the business. And for the three groups in ZeroZeroZero — the buyers, the sellers and the brokers — all that carnage is just a family thing.

Emily in Paris season 4 episode 5 recap: aim for the stars

How to watch Chimp Crazy online: stream the Tonka documentary from the creator of Tiger King

The Yuppie Murder details the tragic case of Charles and Carol Stuart

Most Popular

• 2 Real Housewives star Garcelle Beauvais leads new Lifetime romance Tempted by Love, debuting tonight
• 3 Emily in Paris season 4 episode 5 recap: aim for the stars
• 4 How to watch Chimp Crazy online: stream the Tonka documentary from the creator of Tiger King
• 5 I can’t believe I’m saying this, but The Young and the Restless’ Diane and Phyllis should become allies

'ZeroZeroZero' Review: Violent Drug Drama Is Amazon's Answer to 'Narcos'

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

The 10 Best Fights in 'Naruto', Ranked

13 tv dramas that are perfect from start to finish, 10 actors from 'the sopranos' who also appeared in 'boardwalk empire'.

Cocaine is one hell of a drug. It's also one hell of a business, and as Amazon's violent new drug drama ZeroZeroZero dramatizes, it "keeps the world's economy afloat." This gritty international tale is clearly Amazon's answer to Netflix's Narcos , albeit a temporary one, given that it's billed as a limited series. The streamer would be wise to take a page out of its competitor's playbook and pivot to the equivalent of Narcos: Mexico , because these eight episodes would be a promising start for an ongoing franchise.

ZeroZeroZero  is based on the book by Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano , and bounces between Italy, Mexico and New Orleans as we follow a large shipment of cocaine. Dane DeHaan and Andrea Riseborough star as Chris and Emma Lynwood, the adult children of Edward Lynwood ( Gabriel Byrne ), a well respected middle man who brokers drug deals between sellers and buyers.

When the Lynwood family business and its assets are threatened, the siblings find themselves with new responsibilities, including nurturing an all-important relationship with Don Minu ( Adriano Chiaramida ), who leads a criminal syndicate in Italy from a bunker tucked away in the mountains of Calabria. With Don Minu in hiding, his grandson Stefano ( Giuseppe De Domenico ) sees an opportunity to seize control. Meanwhile, in Mexico, Special Forces leader Manuel Contreras ( Harold Torres ) tires of taking orders, and decides to make his own play for power, with a growing army behind him.

Right off the bat, it's my duty to warn you that this show is exceptionally violent. It's the kind of show where someone gets shot in the head, and then two people pick up the body, and you can see the blood and brains falling out of the wound. And yet, the direction is basically flawless, whether it's Stefano Sollima ( Sicario: Day of the Soldado ), Janus Metz ( True Detective ) or Pablo Trapero ( The Clan ) behind the camera, as they all do fantastic work. I don't think ZeroZeroZero has the same emotional depth as Narcos , but from a visual standpoint, I'll give it the edge.

As far as the performances go, DeHaan, Riseborough and Byrne are all solid, and though they're the only recognizable actors in the cast, that actually works in the show's favor. In fact, the series standout is Torres, who gives a breakout performance as Contreras. Though his moral compass has been compromised, Contreras represents the heart and soul of the series for me, as well as its most three-dimensional character.

Torres rises to the occasion here, by equal turns terrifying and sensitive, and I couldn't take my eyes off him. Even though Contreras is one of the show's most cold-blooded characters, Torres imbues him with a certain vulnerability that helps us see him as more than just a monster. His eyes burn with intensity, though he rarely lets his guard down enough to show emotion in front of his men. His humanity is seen in brief glimpses, particularly in his dealings with the pregnant wife of a fallen comrade. Beyond that, he shows no mercy.

If there's anything holding this series back in the slightest, it's the scenes with the Lynwood siblings, as the brokers simply aren't as interesting in this world as the buyers or sellers. The shipment of cocaine that they are overseeing is obviously a big deal for them, but the stakes for them never felt like life or death to me in the way that they do when the series moves to Mexico or Italy. The later episodes try to beef up Chris' character by putting more emphasis on the Huntington's disease that he knows will eventually kill him, and while that does give DeHaan a bit more to play as an actor, it still doesn't make Chris especially interesting. He'll always be seen as the runt of the litter, eager to prove himself to his father, who would prefer to keep him away from the family business, which Chris doesn't always have the stomach for -- certainly not like his sister, who has ice running through her veins that helps her navigate her way in this cutthroat world. Again, Riseborough and DeHaan are both good, but their characters just didn't feel as fresh as others. I feel like I've seen their sibling dynamic before.

The secret ingredient in this cauldron of chaos is the original score by Mogwai. I can't understate how crucial Mogwai's music is to the success of this show. They have contributed some awesome instrumental tracks to plenty of Hollywood movies, from Michael Mann 's Miami Vice to the Steve Carell - Timothee Chalamet drama Beautiful Boy , but never before has their instrumentation served as the backbone of a major TV series, and it's quite effective in communicating the intensity of ZeroZeroZero . Even the credits feel epic as the main theme builds to a crescendo before our journey continues.

ZeroZeroZero is a series about power, the lengths we'll go to get it, and what we're willing to do to keep it. Don Minu and Manuel each grapple with this, though sometimes it's the middle man left holding the bag to suffer the greatest consequences. The final minute of the series is stunning. The camera follows a single cast member out of mansion littered with dead bodies. and that character has to act completely unfazed, whether or not they actually are. Those dead people are just the cost of doing business Everyone has their price. The question you have to ask yourself is, 'what's yours?'

Rating: ★★★★

ZeroZeroZero is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

• Gabriel Byrne

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Fitness & Wellbeing
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Car Insurance Deals
• Lifestyle Videos
• UK Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Broadband deals
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Climate 100
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Solar Panels
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

ZeroZeroZero review: This dark cocaine opera is brilliant, bleak escapism for long February nights

Bold adaptation starring dane dehaan contains a little of the godfather, a splash of sicario and a dash of succession: a tasty recipe, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails.

The brash, expensive, enormous eight-part cocaine crime drama ZeroZeroZero ( Sky Atlantic ) arrives on British screens a year after it appeared in the US and Italy, and almost 18 months after its debut at the Venice film festival. It doesn’t hide its ambitions under a bushel. Based on Roberto Saviano ’s novel of the same name, this is a series with grand pretensions. It explores the global drug trade by focusing on the suppliers in Mexico, the buyers in Italy, and the middlemen who operate out of New Orleans. Normally this business is a smooth multibillion-pound engine of hedonism, profit and death, but what happens when something goes wrong?

In the opening episode alone, there are more set pieces than in many blockbusters: I counted a mafia showdown in the woods, three glamorous locations, hundreds of extras, pigs eating a corpse, two abductions, two gun fights, a car chase, a torture scene, slow-motion bullet-casings, banknotes being burnt in an oil drum and a man praying to Jesus over the body of a dead schoolgirl. It’s about as subtle as an elephant loading a dishwasher.

Which isn’t to say it isn’t enjoyable. At its best, ZeroZeroZero is three polished dramas rolled into one. The Calabrian mafia – the ’Ndrangheta – are engaged in a succession tussle. To shore up his position with the local commanders, Don Minu (Adriano Chiaramida) orders five tons of cocaine, but his grandson Stefano (Giuseppe De Domenico) sees an opportunity to overthrow the old man. The turbulence has knock-on effects for the suppliers in Mexico, who are already embroiled in a classic narco plot that revolves around Manuel Contreras (Harold Torres) as a turncoat commando.

Caught between them is the American Lynwood family, who use their international shipping business to move the gear between continents. Patriarch Edward (Gabriel Byrne) is grooming his daughter Emma (Andrea Riseborough) to take over the company, believing his son Chris (Dane DeHaan), who has Huntingdon’s disease, to be unfit. A little of The Godfather , a splash of Sicario , a dash of Succession : a tasty recipe.

Each of the strands has different strengths, but there’s enough material in each to sustain a lesser series. The director, Stefano Sollima , previously worked on the excellent adaptation of Saviano’s novel Gomorrah . He creates a similar sense of kinetic energy here, using a cinematic visual aesthetic and a pulsing, Nine Inch Nails-esque soundtrack by Mogwai to connect the different locations, and freely showboating with the directorial flourishes.

On the whole, the three stories are treated as discrete units, only combining for the odd disastrous encounter, which means the web of relations between the characters is not as involved as it would be if they were all in one place. Byrne, Riseborough and DeHaan do sterling work in making Lynwoods seem like a realistic family unit, considering they are the linchpins of a global drug smuggling route. It’s a credit to the writing and performances that ZeroZeroZero doesn't collapse under its zeal for bombast. Instead, this is a dark, exuberant cocaine opera, bleak escapism for long February nights.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Find anything you save across the site in your account

Zero Zero Zero is proof that when it comes to crime, Italians know best

All the best families in fiction want to kill each other. From the Lannisters to the Roys to the Corleones, all are murderous, deeply compelling and dysfunctional clans. Zero Zero Zero , Sky Atlantic’s new Italian mafia/Mexican cartel crossover series based on the novel by Roberto Saviano, knows this intimately and much of its first episode, “The Shipment”, is spent setting up an internecine conflict that looks like it should have an explosive effect on the remaining seven hours of the series. It’s a classic move because, to paraphrase Leo Tolstoy: “All happy crime families are alike, but every unhappy crime family is unhappy in its own way.”

The episode is divided, roughly, into three parts and the first is titled “The Buyers”. Set in rustic Calabria, the cold open sees an old 'Ndrangheta crime lord, Don Minu, emerge from an underground bunker into the hills of southern Italy amid a herd of goats. He heads down into the woods near town to meet his loyal grandson Don Stefano, a young mafioso with the slicked looks and Mediterranean charm of an overhyped Premier League signing. Don Minu has that age-old problem faced by any veteran crime boss: a lack of respect among his underlings. “Until yesterday,” he tells Stefano, “everyone would shit their pants at the sight of me.” To win back the support of his clan, Don Minu has put in a huge order of cocaine from the Mexican drug cartels: some 5,000 kilos worth €900 million, enough to make them all rich. 

But not everybody is happy with the arrangement. After agreeing to help his grandfather, Stefano intercepts the cash intended to pay for the coke and burns it, feeding the courier’s corpse to a huge pig (if this sounds like a spoiler, bear in mind it takes place barely 15 minutes into the series). “Keep her on a diet,” he tells the pig farmer. He has his own plans for Don Minu.

In part two, “The Sellers”, we jump to Monterrey, Mexico, where a squadron of police are tracking the Leyra brothers, cartel bosses who are processing the cocaine order for the Italians. There’s more action here, as the police – who are almost as corrupt as the cartel, driving out to remote locations to torture suspects – follow a mid-level associate to try to catch the Leyras themselves. Despite a couple of confusing plot elements (when all the cops are wearing skull bandannas over their faces, it can be difficult to tell them apart), the section makes up for it with a couple of great chase scenes. And eventually, the Leyras are cornered…

If you told me that was that for the hour, I’d have believed you – provided I wasn’t expecting Andrea Riseborough, Gabriel Byrne and Dane DeHaan to turn up at any point. Because although Riseborough, Byrne and DeHaan are the big British, Irish and American names in Zero Zero Zero , it’s not until 40 minutes in that any of them appears on screen (although Byrne gets a few lines of voiceover and a single no-context shot early on). They are the Lynwoods – patriarch Edward and his adult children, Emma and Chris, or “The Dealmakers” who give part three its title – and they have a fleet of cocaine-running ships based out of New Orleans. And so, at last, the link is established between the ‘Ndrangheta and the cartel. The Lynwoods’ position, as the deliverymen stuck between a violent Italian crime family and a violent Mexican one, is unenviable, and they’re already €31m in the hole after the Italians’ payment has failed to materialise courtesy of Stefano. Tensions rise, Emma and Edward clash, and you wonder whether Stefano’s feed-Don-Minu-to-the-pigs plan might not be the only act of patricide in Zero Zero Zero .

Many international series with such big Anglosphere stars (who have a raft of award nominations between them) would be in a hurry to shove them on-screen as quickly and often as possible. But instead, and admirably, Zero Zero Zero is happy to treat them as just another three members of the cast and let Saviano’s own understanding of the real-life world of the Italian mafia shine through on its own terms. (Saviano is not a writer on the show, but he is credited as an executive producer.)

Don Minu’s bunker, for example, isn’t just a writer’s flourish – it’s a reference to the hundreds of real-life bunkers dug throughout Calabria for ‘Ndrangheta bosses over the last 30 years. Far from being Marlon Brando types, with rings to kiss and red roses in the lapels of their tuxedos, these elderly men hide in tiny concrete rooms and give orders through ancient mobile phones or in person. And yet they could still happily chop your head off with a combat knife if you crossed them.

Watching the Italian section of Zero Zero Zero , you feel like this is really what the mafia is like: unassuming, hidden in plain sight, but full of latent menace. Italians are good at crime, nice suits, cured meats and tearfully thanking their mothers when they win the World Cup – and Zero Zero Zero makes sure to include three of these things in its first 20 minutes. Until someone pulls out a gun, Calabria looks like a decent enough place to go on holiday, if a little shabby. 

Similarly, the Mexico sequences benefit from having director Stefano Sollima at the helm. Sollima directed the underappreciated cartel thriller Sicario 2: Soldado and has worked with Saviano material before, on the Gomorrah TV series and it’s not hard to tell that he’s in his element with Zero Zero Zero , thriving amid the dusty half-built housing estates and villas on the outskirts of town. He dwells on the human cost of crime, with one scene involving a little girl hit by a bullet particularly difficult to watch.

What made Gomorrah , the film, so striking when it came out in 2008 was just how intensely dirty and mundane much of organised crime is. Far removed from the London townhouses of its recent peers Gangs Of London and McMafia and the Mediterranean luxury of The Night Manager , the first episode of Zero Zero Zero starts off sordid and only promises to get more so, wolfishly reminding us that the glamorous and the grimy often go hand in hand.

Zero Zero Zero is on NOW TV and Sky Atlantic tonight at 9pm.

The best TV of 2020: from Small Axe to The Boys and Industry

Warmcore TV: why shows like Parks And Recreation and Ted Lasso thrive in dark times

Russell T Davies on It’s A Sin and the criticism of gay men on screen

• Documentary
• Trailer Breakdown
• DMT News APP
• Privacy Policy
• Crime Drama
• Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

‘ZeroZeroZero’ Summary & Analysis – Organized Crime is like Poetry. Unlawful but beautiful!

Cinema based on Organised Crime is like Poetry. Unlawful but Beautiful. The narrative of ZeroZeroZero runs like a slow affecting drug, slowly peeping into the veins and then taking over. The series sends you to the nostalgia of all those great films that were about Italian crime and the Mafia. However, ZeroZeroZero is realistic with more humanly flawed protagonists.

Created by Stefano Sollima, Leonardo Fasoli, and Mauricio Katz, ZeroZeroZero is based on the book of the same name and concludes in 8 episodes of 1 hour each (approx). It screens three main countries, Italy, Mexico, and the Middle East. Due to its diverse or wide scene locations, the series includes a variety of languages, mainly English, Italian and Spanish. Anyone who loves the sound of a multi-linguistic narrative should purposely watch it.

‘ZeroZeroZero’ Summary

The screen opens with a man, Edward Lynwood ( Gabriel Byrne ) lying down, holed with bullets. The series, without any “super”, goes back in time, and portrays Don Damiano “Minu” ( Adriano Chiaramid a), a fading boss of the ‘Ndrangheta organisation. Don Minu walks out of his concrete underground den, while a voiceover plays on the screen that suggests, “ you are no longer useful when you’ve got nothing to give. ”

When Don Minu comes out, he arranges a meeting with other members of the ‘Ndrangheta and tells them that he has arranged a shipment of 5000 kilos of drug cocaine from Mexico to feed the families of the organisation and keep people loyal to his control, which is fading due to numerous reasons.

The origin of the shipment is Mexico, where the drug is packed in a pickle box. However, at the last moment, the pickle factory is compromised and special forces chase the man, running it. In the midst of a gunfight, a young girl is shot. It is here, Manuel Contreras ( Harold Torres ), the most striking character of the series is introduced. Manuel takes the dying girl in his arms and feels sorry for her. It is Manuel who makes another raid to a private meeting of Edward Lynwood, an American man who owns the shipping business and is authorized to ship the drugs to Italy. Edward is killed in the raid that night, which brings back the series to the first frame, where it started.

Now, it is the responsibility, Emma and Chris Lynwood (daughter and son of Edward) to deliver the drugs to Don Minu, or Minus’ legacy will perish. Though the obstacles in the journey are too many and hope too little.

The multi protagonist narrative encompasses three major lives, with different conflicts, yet connected by a single deal. Don Minu is old and circled by men, he can’t trust. Manuel is a snitch in the special forces who want to earn big and become great. Emma and Chris have to fulfil an impossible task and deliver the shipment from Mexico to Italy. When all the three meet their fate, the series concludes with a memorable ending.

Mild Spoilers Ahead

Buyer (Italian) – Mediator (American) – Seller (Mexican)

The story revolves around a drug shipment, but the multi-narrative covers the origin (Manuel – the Mexican), the delivery agent (Edward, Chris, Emma – the Americans), and the destination (Don Minu – the Italians). These are the key characters of the series, whose life is or will be affected by the shipment. Symbolically, the Americans play the role of a mediator (not suggesting anything, but that is what America does, bring you weapons and drugs). Mexico, still a developing country that has to rely on many other measures to feed its people. Where the cost of guns is cheap and lives, cheaper. And Italy, the place where organized crime is still a stronghold and thus, an epicenter of organized criminal activities in Europe. ZeroZeroZero doesn’t stop at this but also includes the militants of Al-Qaeda and shady African dealers of middle eastern countries. At large, the series widely covers every immoral element on the Earth.

A Generation After

A common layer between Don Minu and Edward is that they are both about to be succeeded by their grandson and son/daughter respectively. The important question in each one’s mind is, will the generation after them, will be able to handle the risky business of drug dealing? Don Minu has made some really severe and cold-hearted decisions in his Mafia Life to build respect and legacy, but his grandson is scheming to kill him because he is influenced by emotions rather than business. For Don Minu, it is “ Business First. ”

In the case of Edward, his son Chris suffers from Huntington’s disease, just like his late mother. Edward doesn’t want Chris to ever enter the business, while Emma ( Andrea Riseborough ) is already handling most of it. After the sudden shootout of Edward, Emma leads Chris into the business, because they can’t trust anyone now. Emma and Chris are forced into a situation where they are not sure of the outcome but walk in a blackout tunnel, hoping for a better exit. Emma’s character goes through several changes but in the end, she stands still, left with nothing but money.

Thus, the lives of the two main protagonists are affected by the actions of their future generations.

Variety of Obstacles

The drug shipment has to cover half of the map, from Mexico to Italy. It isn’t an easy ride, not when the captain of the ship abandons the ship in the middle of nowhere. When the shipment leaves Mexico with Chris on board, he quickly figures out that there are people, who want to drown the ship. Thus, the obstacles faced by the shipment are too many. It travels by water, land and desert before it can finally reach the destination. These obstacles are not just external, but prominently internal. External conflicts include militants, government, mafias, terrorists, special forces, and outlaws (that’s the diversity, exactly). While the internal ones are struggles of Chris suffering from mental diseases and spending his days on heavy doses of addictive medicines. The most impracticable man is assigned the job, but it is the gap between the possible and the impossible, that makes the ride entertaining. ZeroZeroZero is a clear-cut example of “ how to make things hard for the hero and make the journey worthwhile. ”

The Narrative Structure – Explanation after the Explosion

Each episode of ZeroZeroZero is approached with a non-linear narrative element. This particular element is, often in the episode, a certain event happens on screen, which is explosive information for the audience. The narrative then (without super or titles) goes back in the time frame to suggest how the explosion happened. For example, Edward Lynwood is shot dead in the first frame of the first episode, but the narrative goes back in time, to explain how he died, by the end of the episode. Films and Television series have previously used this methodology but ZeroZeroZero keeps it consistent in each particular episode, and too, without any suggestion. The time frame and explosive information or character are different in each episode, hence, it is impossible to predict. In short, ZeroZeroZero requires your dedicated attention or you will miss the “bang.”

Major Spoilers Ahead

Manuel Contreras – Dream Character Arc of Every Screenwriter

I really hurried to this subheading because Harold Torres’ character of Manuel is something that could be studied for a screenwriting class. It has everything, confusion, emotion and devotion. Manuel is first introduced during the raid of the pickle factory, which leads to the sudden death of an innocent girl. Manuel takes the girl in his arms and shows signs of a vulnerable soldier.

To control his racing thoughts and dilemma, Manuel hears recordings of a Christian speaker that shows his devotion towards religion. Additionally, Manuel is the snitch in the force who works for the Leyra brothers, drug lord of Mexico. He informs his bosses before a raid happens. However, sometimes it is unavoidable which leads to death. Manuel fears god but wants to earn big money, that is why he became an informer. Whenever I never miss a chance to earn. Manuel is ambitious, he wants money and respect and love and everything else. He doesn’t want to become God, but he aspires to become a Lord.

Manuel is the only protagonist in the whole series, who doesn’t belong to an already established system or legacy. He is a low lying rat who makes it big towards the hierarchy through power and bloodshed. He can be looked upon as Macbeth.

When Manuel first visits the Leyra brothers, he sits in fear on the large sofa. His posture indicates like he is suppressed with power, and wants to revolt against it. He wants to fly and own the kingdom, thus becoming a lord himself.

At the end, when Emma Lynwood returns from Italy to Mexico, to transfer the money to the drug lords, she finds Manuel with his small army, already taking over the charge. He tells Emma that he is the new lord here and she will have to deal with him now. When Emma leaves, Manuel sits on the same sofa, spreading his wings, like the eagle who is now the master of the kingdom.

It is the same Manuel who showed signs of sympathy and vulnerability in the beginning. Now, he doesn’t even think twice, before pulling the trigger. Hence, suggesting that power brings hostility. Power means controlling people, leading them to a fate, to have an extended family, like Don Minu. but in the process, one loses the affection from his own family. Don Minu kills his own son of treason, Manuel has to shoot his best friend to label him as the snitch and avoid suspicion. Power demands the sacrifice of one’s own close ones. The one who is willing enough to do it will see their fate.

Manuel in the end loses all love but gains all power. He is the first Don Minu of his line, who now will have to see whether his upcoming generation will be able to make the same sacrifice or he will have to spend his epilogue in a concrete den-like Don Minu.

A good series gives entertainment, but a great series stays with you forever or much longer. ZeroZeroZero does justice to the latter part. It is furnished with a brilliant screenplay, marvelous performance, and more importantly, an attention-grabbing narrative. With no loose ends and a visually stunning end, ZeroZeroZero is my favorite series of the year and thus I have written so much. However, remove Manuel, a Pablo-Escobar figure from the series, and it will lose a major value. Any actor or screenwriter, wishing to learn or polish their art with a reference of a beautifully carved character arc should really check out this series. It is going to stick with you for a long.

ZeroZeroZero (Season 1) is streaming on Amazon Prime Video .

For more Quality Content, Do visit  Digital Mafia Talkies .

‘Manorathangal’ Episode 2 “Kadugannava” Recap And Ending Explained

‘dance first’ movie ending explained & summary: did samuel beckett serve in world war ii, ‘manorathangal’ episode 7 “kadalkkaattu” recap and ending explained, ‘gunner’ movie ending explained & summary: is dobbs dead or alive, more like this, ‘the duel’ 2024 ending explained & film summary: are colin and woody dead, ‘crescent city’ movie ending explained and summary: who was the serial killer.

• Write For DMT

COPYRIGHT © DMT. All rights Reserved. All Images property of their respective owners.

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘zerozerozero’: tv review.

Amazon's new look at the international drug trade is familiar stuff, but globe-trotting cinematography and performances by Andrea Riseborough and Dane DeHaan help 'ZeroZeroZero' stand out.

By Daniel Fienberg

Daniel Fienberg

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

Thanks to the relative decline in the legal and medical procedural, I lack the TV-earned confidence that I could litigate a case or perform surgery. After years of watching shows like Narcos , Breaking Bad and The Wire (plus movies like Traffic ), however, I’m utterly convinced that I could operate at least a small drug empire.

At this point, few businesses have been depicted as often with the multitiered nuance that showrunners have dedicated to the ins and outs of the narcotics field, which for some reason has lent itself better than most to a top-down analysis of production, distribution and consumption.

Air date: Mar 06, 2020

That’s probably why Amazon’s new drama ZeroZeroZero rarely feels all that revolutionary even if its approach — multiple storylines across several continents with an ensemble of dozens of characters speaking many languages — would surely be innovative if the corporate focus were on, say, grapes. Genre familiarity may make ZeroZeroZero less fresh, but it remains quite watchable, if you can ignore its vaguely nihilistic streak, thanks to a good cast, confident direction and cinematography that’s really quite stunning at times.

Adapted by Stefano Sollima, Leonardo Fasoli and Mauricio Katz from the book by Robert Saviano, ZeroZeroZero has its focus particularly on the drug trade between Mexico and the Italian organized crime syndicate known as ‘Ndrangheta. Adriano Chiaramida plays Don Minu, an aging ‘Ndrangheta boss whose ability to maintain his power may hinge on a hefty shipment of cocaine arriving from Mexico. Producing conflict on that side of the equation is Manuel (Harold Torres), a cold-eyed soldier in the Mexican army with plans to use military precision and vicious tactics to upend the corrupt local infrastructure.

Uniting the two groups are the brokers, New Orleans-based shipping family the Lynwoods, led by business-first patriarch Edward (Gabriel Byrne) and chip-off-the-old-block daughter Emma ( Andrea Riseborough ), with sheltered son Chris ( Dane DeHaan ) getting unexpectedly pushed into the fray.

Over eight episodes, directed by Sollima, Janus Metz and Pablo Trapero, the three groups engage in a high-body-count war that travels from New Orleans to Monterrey to Calabria to Casablanca and features enough double-crossing that I probably stopped caring around halfway through.

Related Stories

'tv's top 5': an interview with the creator of amazon's nazi-hunting drama.

Narratively, ZeroZeroZero borders on mechanical. Each episode has to weave together the three storylines, rarely with grace or clear continuity, and each episode contains a point where everything goes into slow-motion briefly and queues up a flashback, sometimes adding illumination and occasionally just playing like a gimmick.

It doesn’t help, though it may be intentional, that particularly on the Italian and Mexican sides of the story, the characters are fairly mechanical as well. I can accept that some of that is probably a “cogs in the machine” approach, but other than the few primary figures — Don Minu, his wormy grandson Stefano (Giuseppe De Domenico) and Manuel — the supporting characters rarely have names and they definitely don’t have personality traits and even those main characters are limited. Manuel has a devotion to a revivalist church, which barely pays off, and otherwise the character might as well be a robot. Stefano has a wife and son whose names might as well be “Woman Prop” and “Child Prop.” Don Minu gets tremendous mileage from Chiaramida’s consummate gravitas, but I couldn’t tell you a single detail about the character.

They’re all prepared to kill each other at a moment’s notice and I guess the inference is that if these people wipe each other off the map collectively, another identical group of factotums would take their place, which makes it hard to care one way or the other and renders the series’ frequent bloodshed affectless. I lost track of whether ZeroZeroZero was getting off on the hollow violence — there’s a whole lot of torture and maiming here — or is about people who get off on hollow violence.

By default, your sympathies go to the Lynwoods, which isn’t in any way deserved. Edward cares mostly about money and has raised Emma to follow in his footsteps. Riseborough gives a performance of Swinton-esque inscrutability and upending of gender roles, peaking in the eventful finale. Because he may be the series’ only character with a clear secondary motivation that isn’t financial — he has the genetic markers for Huntington’s disease and he’s begun to show symptoms — Chris is almost the hero here and DeHaan’s performance is intense and wired in a way nothing around him can match. The Lynwoods are still complicit and parasitic and the nods to make you care about them are manipulative.

Much of this, I know, sounds negative. It’s still easy to get caught up in the churn of this elaborate drug deal, especially when each episode is sparked by well-executed car chases and shootouts that punctuate what is otherwise a strangely contemplative tone (given that not a single one of the characters is introspective enough for contemplation).

Maybe it’s here that the directors and cinematographers Paolo Carnera and Romain Lacourbas are the ones doing the contemplating? ZeroZeroZero was shot on location through Italy, Mexico, Senegal and Morocco and each episode is one breathtaking shot after another, whether the natural beauty of the Calabrian coast or the African desert or the industrial scale of a vast shipping yard or container-stacked freighter. And it does it all without the somewhat rudimentary use of photographic filters that Traffic and Narcos have made into just another convention.

The distinctive cinematography is aided by the score from Mogwai that’s unexpectedly dreamy in a world that’s more of a nightmare. This is a story in which every principal in the drug trade has apparently used their ill-gotten gains to purchase a residence on an incline, overlooking the civilians they obviously believe themselves to be above. The actual end-users are entirely absent in ZeroZeroZero , because as disposable as those in power might be, the consumers are invisible to them.

Even if ZeroZeroZero is a variation on a story you’ve probably seen ad nauseam and I wish it did just a bit more to differentiate itself, at least it doesn’t look like the previous versions — and if you’re doing research to start your own foray into the powder racket, that can’t hurt.

Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Dane DeHaan, Gabriel Byrne, Giuseppe De Domenico, Adriano Chiaramida, Harold Torres

Creators: Stefano Sollima, Leonardo Fasoli and Mauricio Katz, from the book by Robert Saviano

Premieres Friday, March 6 on Amazon Prime Video.

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

‘friends’ creators recall defending monica’s storyline in pilot after nbc executive’s opposition, elizabeth debicki on why she thinks ‘the crown’ “ended in the right place” with season 6, ‘reservation dogs’ dp on capturing deer lady’s emotion the moment after she exacts revenge on a man from her past, ‘fargo’ creator noah hawley on not knowing how season 5 would end and bringing ‘alien: earth’ tv series to fx next, ‘true detective: night country’ showrunner on creator nic pizzolatto’s criticisms of latest season: “it was very confusing”, hollywood flashback: dropped slime boosted ratings for ‘you can’t do that on television’.

• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
• Amazon Prime Video

More From Decider

New Shows & Movies To Watch This Weekend: Prime Video's 'Jackpot!' +...

Peacock Has Removed Raygun and the Entire Olympics Breaking Competition...

'WWHL': Bowen Yang Says One Terrible 'SNL' Host Once Made "Multiple Cast...

Peacock's Gary Coleman Doc Questions The Late Child Actor's "Suspicious"...

11 Best New Movies on Netflix: August 2024's Freshest Films to Watch

'Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles' Star Josh Flagg Gives Update On His...

Kora's Scars in the 'Rebel Moon: Director's Cut' Sex Scenes Were Sofia...

11 Best New Shows on Netflix: August 2024's Top Upcoming Series to Watch

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to copy URL

‘ZeroZeroZero’ Series Premiere Review: CocaineCocaineCocaine

Where to Stream:

• ZeroZeroZero

“Powder,” Gabriel Byrne’s voiceover narration intones. “That’s all you see when you look at cocaine. But look a little closer and you’ll see an endless network: buyers, sellers, brokers, and users, invisibly tangled in our daily lives—whether we like it or not.”

Byrne neglects to mention “makers of international crime dramas for streaming television services,” but at this point it probably goes without saying. You can’t swing a kilo without hitting a series about narcotraffickers and their customers, enablers, and enemies; there are times when it seems that next to adorkable comedies, yayo is Netflix’s entire business model.

Into this crowded field charges Amazon’s ZeroZeroZero , guns blazing. Seriously: The very first time we see Byrne’s character, Edward Lynwood, he’s already lying down on the ground with a gunshot wound as shell casings and broken glass rain down around him.

However did he find himself in such a pickle?

Well, it’s a long story, and telling it is the task of this series premiere. During this introductory episode (“The Shipment”), we meet Don Minu (Adriano Chiaramida) and his nephew Don Stefano (Giuseppe de Domenico), the grandfather-and-grandson bosses of a powerful ‘Ndrangheta organized crime outfit in Calabria, Italy; Vampire (Harold Torres), a ruthless, religious cop tasked with taking down narcos in Monterrey, Mexico; and Edward and his adult children Emma (Andrea Riseborough) and Chris (Dane DeHaan), who run a legit shipping company based in New Orleans that doubles as the trans-Atlantic middleman for the trade in coke between the Italians and the Mexicans.

We also learn some secrets about each faction. Stefano, it turns out, is secretly undermining his grandfather, burning the money intended for the Lynwoods and swearing he’ll feed Gramps to his friend’s pigs.

Vampire is actually working for the cartel when he’s not staging bloody, collateral-damage-heavy shootouts with their foot soldiers; it’s his heads-up to the local narco bosses (the Leyra brothers) that enables them and the Lynwoods to (mostly) escape.

And Chris, who suffers from hearing loss brought on by incipient Huntington’s disease, chafes about being kept at arm’s length from the real family business, even as Emma argues with her dad about the wisdom of accepting a job from the Italians without the cash up front.

Based on a book by Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano, ZeroZeroZero ‘s strengths are pretty much exactly what you’d expect them to be. The show makes the most of its international scope, offering plenty of local color—or at least what passes for local color on a cocaine drama, which means lots of people running for their lives in a Mexican marketplace and getting shot at in a fancy restaurant and stuff like that. A meeting between Don Minu’s men staged in a forest in the Italian countryside is especially striking, and unusual for that sort of scene. The family resemblance between DeHaan and Riseborough is pretty dead on, and even if it doesn’t quite extend to Byrne, well, hey, it’s Gabriel Byrne, are you gonna complain? (I’d be shocked if Riseborough doesn’t emerge as the show’s MVP at some point.)

The show’s weaknesses are also easy to guess. Byrne’s narration is a stew of hardboiled clichés: “Laws are for cowards, rules are for men” he says at one point, like he’s doing “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” for drug traffickers. The Mexican and Italian gangsters are standard-order thus far, though admittedly it’s very early in the series. The cop named Vampire has a soft spot for Jesus; he’ll get little girls killed in shootouts, but he’ll totally feel bad about it, man.

'Them: The Scare' Season Premiere Recap: Our Descent Into Los Angeles

Stream it or skip it: ‘suburraeterna’ on netflix, an italian crime drama and sequel to ‘suburra: blood on rome’, stream it or skip it: 'to leslie' on netflix, in which andrea riseborough gives a riveting portrayal of a woman in the grip of alcoholism, stream it or skip it: 'tom clancy's without remorse' on amazon prime, starring michael b. jordan as the new hope for the cinematic ryanverse.

Not as bad as I feel about it after watching it, though. I’m a broken record on this anytime it comes up on a television show, but here goes: Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner once told an interviewer he’d never consider killing one of Don Draper’s children, because any show in which a child dies would need to become about the death of that child , the way people’s real lives reshapes themselves around that tragedy.

Is ZeroZeroZero going to wrestle with this? Is it going to dig down deep into how it feels to know you caused the death of a kid? Or is this just a kind of detail intended to add instant gravitas and then given no more thought? I have my suspicions, yes I do.

At the very least I don’t need television’s umpteenth narco series to show me a little girl whimpering in pain and fear as blood pulses out of a hole in her neck, until eventually she dies, all on camera, which is exactly what ZeroZeroZero does. The main goal of a show like this is, let’s face it, to entertain people who want to watch people get whacked in expensive location shoots, and tossing the brutal on-screen murder of a child into the mix just so the cop character can have a sad about it is an ugly, ugly impulse. “Rules are for men”? Alright, then—that’s my rule. Break it again at your peril.

READ NEXT: ‘ZeroZeroZero’ Episode 2 Recap: The Living and the Dead

Sean T. Collins ( @theseantcollins ) writes about TV for Rolling Stone , Vulture , The New York Times , and anyplace that will have him , really. He and his family live on Long Island.

Watch ZeroZeroZero Episode 1 ("The Shipment") on Amazon Prime

• gabriel byrne
• Prime Video
• Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Andy Cohen Implies That He Never Wants To See Or Hear From Bethenny Frankel Again On 'WWHL'

Is 'The View' Going Off The Air?

Where's Kelly Ripa This Week? 'Live' Co-Host's Absence Stretches Into Week Two

Does 'Yellowstone' Return Tonight? 'Yellowstone's Season 5, Part 2 Premiere Date, 'The Madison' Spin-off Updates, And More

Peacock Has Removed Raygun and the Entire Olympics Breaking Competition Off The Platform

'The View's Whoopi Goldberg Snaps At Joy Behar While Defending Harrison Butker's Controversial Commencement Speech: "Stop That!"

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

ZeroZeroZero

• TV Mini Series

A cocaine shipment makes its way to Europe, starting from the moment a powerful cartel of Italian criminals decides to buy it, to its journeys through Mexico, to its shipment across the Atla... Read all A cocaine shipment makes its way to Europe, starting from the moment a powerful cartel of Italian criminals decides to buy it, to its journeys through Mexico, to its shipment across the Atlantic Ocean. A cocaine shipment makes its way to Europe, starting from the moment a powerful cartel of Italian criminals decides to buy it, to its journeys through Mexico, to its shipment across the Atlantic Ocean.

• Leonardo Fasoli
• Mauricio Katz
• Stefano Sollima
• Andrea Riseborough
• Dane DeHaan
• Giuseppe De Domenico
• 407 User reviews
• 29 Critic reviews
• 1 win & 2 nominations

Top cast 99+

• Emma Lynwood

• Chris Lynwood

• Stefano La Piana

• Manuel Contreras

• Italo Curtiga

• Enrique Leyra

• Don Damiano 'Minu' La Piana

• Lucia La Piana …

• Jacinto Leyra
• Domenico La Piana

• Maria Leyra …
• Italo's driver
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Andrea Riseborough and Dane DeHaan's Bond

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia The title ZeroZeroZero is a play on the Italian grading system for flour, which is rated, 2, 1, 0 or 00 depending on how refined it is (double zero being the highest grade). ZeroZeroZero, or triple Zero, here means pure cocaine.
• Soundtracks Amor Traicionado Written by Immanuel Miralda Performed by Amantes del Futuro and Sofía Espinosa

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour
• Dolby Digital

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.

Stay informed: Sign up for eNews

• Facebook (opens in new window)
• X (opens in new window)
• Instagram (opens in new window)
• YouTube (opens in new window)
• LinkedIn (opens in new window)

The Zero Trimester

• Amazon (opens in new window)
• Barnes & Noble (opens in new window)
• Bookshop (opens in new window)
• UC Press (opens in new window)

About the Book

About the author, from our blog.

Award-Winning Authors and Books at ASA 2019

Table of contents.

"Breaks new ground. The 'zero trimester' concept is an excellent addition to the sociology of reproduction’s ever-developing glossary." — American Journal of Sociology

“A sophisticated study not only of a new medical trend, but also of a contemporary result of a century-old construction of modern pregnancy, modern motherhood and women’s health care.” — Social History of Medicine

"Waggoner’s analysis is clear, compelling, and richly documented." — Medical Anthropology Quarterly

"The findings of The Zero Trimester are particularly relevant to the recent upsurge of attention to maternal and infant deaths and near-deaths." — Social Forces

• 2019 Robert K. Merton Book Award 2019 , American Sociological Association section on Science, Knowledge and Technology
• Adele E. Clarke Book Award 2019 2019 , ReproNetwork
• 2017 C. Wright Mills Award Finalist 2018 , Society for the Study of Social Problems