One shipment of cocaine, three continents and a chain of people who each need it to arrive: ZeroZeroZero (2020) follows a single cargo from seller to buyer and shows how much violence and money ride on it along the way.
What is ZeroZeroZero about?
The series is built around a transaction rather than a hero. A powerful Italian crime syndicate decides to buy a very large consignment of cocaine. The drug has to come from Mexico, where the sellers operate, and it has to cross the Atlantic before it reaches Europe. Between those two ends stand the brokers and shippers who make such a deal physically possible. ZeroZeroZero tracks every stage of that journey: the order being placed, the product being prepared and guarded, the ship that carries it, and the waiting on the far shore. Each link in the chain has its own loyalties, rivalries and weaknesses, and trouble in one place sends shockwaves to the others. Rather than treating trafficking as a backdrop for shootouts, the show treats it as a business with suppliers, logistics and clients, and asks what that business does to the families and organisations that depend on it.
About the cast
Andrea Riseborough and Dane DeHaan lead an international cast that also includes Giuseppe De Domenico, Harold Torres, Erick Israel Consuelo and Mauricio Mendez. The catalogue credits Leonardo Fasoli, Mauricio Katz and Stefano Sollima as the creative team behind the series. The mix of performers mirrors the story's geography, which moves between very different worlds connected only by the cargo.
Context & significance
ZeroZeroZero is adapted from the book of the same name by bestselling author Roberto Saviano, whose subject is the worldwide cocaine trade and the way it actually functions. The screen version is an Italian production classified as crime, drama and thriller, with episodes of roughly 56 minutes. Its structure sets it apart from most gangster stories: instead of following one family or one city, it cuts between the buyers, the sellers and the intermediaries, so the viewer sees the same deal from several sides. It has been strongly reviewed and stands among the better-regarded crime dramas in the catalogue. The pace is deliberate and the subject matter is harsh, so it suits viewers who like dense, serious crime storytelling.
Watching ZeroZeroZero on Ktime
K-Time offers ZeroZeroZero with a Persian dub and with Persian subtitles. Anyone can read this page, while watching the episodes requires logging in to a K-Time account. The whole experience, from menus to search, is available in Farsi for Persian-speaking audiences living outside Iran.