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- 2018
- TV-MA
- SHOWTIME
- 2018
- TV-MA
- SHOWTIME
Summary The documentary series from Matthew Heineman focuses on all sides of the drug epidemic, from the growers in Mexico, the police in Ohio and the two families impacted by addiction.
- 2018
- TV-MA
- SHOWTIME
- 2018
- TV-MA
- SHOWTIME
The Trade
Season 1 Premiere: Feb 2, 2018
84
6.9
Summary The documentary series from Matthew Heineman focuses on all sides of the drug epidemic, from the growers in Mexico, the police in Ohio and the two families impacted by addiction.
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 7 Critic Reviews
84
100% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 7 Critic Reviews
84
100% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The Trade, a five-part series from Showtime and “Cartel Land” filmmaker Matthew Heineman doesn’t purport to be a corrective or some magic key to unlocking the problem. But as a means for empathy and a way to understanding the human cost at each step of an international heroin trade, it does far more than hollow words and shallow promises.
There may not be a more effective way to understand the sinister pervasiveness of this crisis and the destruction it is wreaking in the United States and Mexico than to spend time with the different kinds of people it's holding in its net, in addition to the people trying to destroy it and a few of the millions caught up within it. None of this makes The Trade easy to watch, but it is transfixing.
An unnervingly close-up study of the conflict. Given an astonishing level of access to both Mexican drug lords and American junkies, he's intercut their stories with a narrative about an Ohio police narcotics squad, which though far more ordinary, is still revealing.
The Trade is a reminder that the people who are caught up in this world are only human; it encourages empathy. Much of what is most affecting in The Trade are the small human details--a Christmas tree in a drug dealer's house, the childhood pictures on a refrigerator door of a son or daughter lost to dope, a police detective rubbing the neck of a frustrated partner. The film is in letter-boxed widescreen for maximum cinematic effect--the photography is handsome without making things too pretty.
This isn't a documentary that has occasional exciting patches. It's a thriller that occasionally does the wonky work of a documentary. It's an episode of Narcos only it's apparently real and chances are good you'll appreciate all of these glimpses into a clandestine and personal world we're not supposed to be seeing without getting hung up on how we came to be seeing it.
“The Trade” might make you tear up at a few points, and it’s sure to light a fire beneath some viewers’ political trousers, but its dire hopelessness does start to wear and weather after a while, and its immense power gets a bit regurgitative.
The show is still frustratingly stingy with the kinds of numbers and figures that would provide viewers with a fuller picture of this ongoing catastrophe, and Heineman digs into a moral binary that, at least in the first three installments, fails to resolve the contradictions within his narrative. But it's undoubtedly a more mature work that shines a light on lesser known but no less grievous injustices.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 14 User Ratings
6.9
64% Positive
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
21% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
14% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 14 User Ratings
6.9
64% Positive
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
21% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
14% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Production Company:
- Our Time Projects
Initial Release Date: Feb 2, 2018
Number of seasons: 2 Seasons
Rating: TV-MA
Genres:
Awards
News & Documentary Emmy Awards
• 2 Wins & 6 Nominations
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 2 Nominations
International Documentary Association
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination