No Traffic CLone

USA mini-series is fresh, gripping ride

Elias Koteas plays DEA undercover agent

Even if you've seen the movie "Traffic," and the PBS-imported British miniseries called "Traffik," you still won't find anything familiar about USA's new "Traffic: The Miniseries" - except for the narrative structure.  That's because this six-hour production, though it tackles the same themes about international smuggling and uses multilayered, cross-cutting story lines, features all-new characters, settings and situations.

It's like redoing "Roots" with a new family tree — the basic idea's
the same, but everything else is fresh.

And the shocker is that this third variation on the formula, made for
American TV, is the best yet.

"Traffic: The Miniseries," premiering tonight at 9 on USA Network and continuing tomorrow and Wednesday at the same time, must be carefully watched. Not just casual, watch-while-you-multitask TV — but clear-the-decks-and-watch TV.

There are three main story threads in this miniseries, written by
executive producer Ron Hutchinson and directed by both Jay Benson and producer Stephen Hopkins. For almost two hours, their paths run parallel for the most part, then start revolving around one another like strands of DNA.

Then, as the plot's surprising true nature is revealed, the urgency
amps up like an episode of "24," and all the stories and characters
hurtle toward one another like an inevitable multicar "Traffic"
accident. The "24" comparison is no accident, though — Hopkins
directed the pilot of that series, setting its breathless tone.

One story in this new "Traffic" follows Elias Koteas as Mike McKay, a DEA undercover agent on assignment in Afghanistan. A second follows Cliff Curtis as Seattle cab driver Adam Kadyrov, an illegal
immigrant — making plans to sneak his wife and daughter into the U.S. the same way he arrived. A third follows Balthazar Getty as Ben
Edmonds, a business graduate who has a hard time succeeding in the cutthroat real world of business.

The inspired method in which their stories are told allows for plenty
of surprises — not only with the plot twists and turns, and how they
finally connect, but in the depth and complexity of the characters.
Initially, it appears easy to tell the good guys from the bad. Each
of these leading roles, though, will have you questioning the wisdom of first impressions.

"Traffic" contains plenty of strong supporting players as well —
including Mary McCormack as Carole, Mike's faithful wife, and Justin Chatwin as their impressionable son, Tyler; Martin Donovan as Brent Delaney, Mike's DEA partner; Nelson Lee as ruthless smuggler Ronny Cho; and Ritchie Coster as Fazal, an Afghan heroin supplier. They all have strong scenes, and their characters all have moments of strength and weakness.

The climax of "Traffic," after so much built-up tension, may leave
some questions unanswered and plot threads untied. Here, though, that seems intentional, either as a springboard to launch a sequel, or a subtle way to suggest that the war against smuggling, like any story about it, never really ends.