TV SERIES TRAFFIK PAVED THE WAY FOR HIT FILM

The six-hour miniseries, made in 1989 for Britain's Channel 4, was
the inspiration for Steven Soderbergh's Oscar-nominated film Traffic.
But even if you've seen the movie, the series -- which airs on
Showcase starting Tuesday -- is worth catching.

Even if you've seen Traffic, Steven Soderbergh's Oscar-nominated film
about the futility of the drug war and drug-running across the
U.S.-Mexico border, don't assume there's no point in watching
Traffik, Simon Moore's six-hour 1989 miniseries for Britain's Channel
4 that provided the template for Soderbergh and screenwriter Stephen
Gaghan.

Traffik is neither better nor worse than Traffic, just different.
Both the setting -- the series is set in Pakistan, Germany and
big-city London -- and the pacing are different. It is European in
tone, with the emphasis on nuances of character rather than stunt
casting and trick camera angles, and Moore uses the additional length
(Showcase will air Traffik in three two-hour parts over consecutive
nights, beginning Tuesday) to subtle effect, creating a slow burn of
suspense that lingers long after viewing.

As with the film, Traffik tells its tale of irony and futility from
multiple points of view: that of an impoverished Pakistani farmer
(Jamal Shah), forced to find a job as a lowly gofer for a wealthy,
well-connected Karachi drug dealer after army soldiers burn the poppy
fields where he works; a cultured socialite in Hamburg (Lindsay
Duncan) who learns about her husband's shady business dealings after
his arrest on drug charges; and a Tory cabinet minister and chair of
a government anti-drug committee (Bill Paterson) who discovers that
his teenage daughter (Julia Ormond) is an addict.

The series is directed by Inspector Morse veteran Alastair Reid and
written by Moore, woefully underappreciated in the shower of
adulation being heaped on Traffic by film critics.

If you miss it this week on Showcase (Tuesday through Thursday at 10
p.m.), Traffik is available on PBS Video (it originally aired in the
U.S. on Masterpiece Theatre) at some Lower Mainland video stores,
including Vancouver's Big City Video.