ZeroZeroZero is a web series released on Amazon Prime in March 2020. 48-66 minutes long 8 episode series. It is a crime-thriller drama based on the cocaine business, covering its movement across continents.
The series moves in three parallel stories based on a drug cartel of different countries. The first story is of a drug buyer, don of Italy. The second story is of an American broker is the link between buyer and seller. A broker takes care of transportation. The third story is of Mexico’s drug seller. The sellers, narco Leyras brothers, are aided by corrupt soldiers. The buyer, a boss of the ‘Ndrangheta Don Minu, Stefano, and the Curtiga family challenged his position. And, the brokers are an American Lynwood family, owns a prestigious shipping company. The story is the journey of a big drug shipment from Mexico to Italy. Broker and shipping company owner gets killed in a shootout in Mexico before shipment leaves. The story majorly focuses on the trouble his daughter and son faced to ensure safe passage of the shipment to Italy. It also shows how old guy Don Minu dominates gang war and stops rebelled grandson in Italy.
The lead characters are
Edward Lynwood (Gabriel Byrne) is a broker who owns a shipping business, Chris and Emma’s father. Emma (Andrea Riseborough) helps Edward and becomes the owner later. Chris (Dane DeHaan) is Emma’s brother, helps her in drug shipment delivery, and is affected by Huntington’s disease. Don Minu (Adriano Chiaramida) is a drug buyer and a boss of the strong gang in Italy, Stefano’s grandfather. Stefano (Giuseppe De Domenico) is a rival of Don Minu who wants to kill him and take revenge for his father’s murder. Omar (Seydina Baldé), Lynwoods’ business fixer in Senegal, saves Emma and Chris. Yasser (Mostefa Djadja), Amina’s father and the Lynwoods’ business fixer in Morocco. Amina (Nabiha Akkari), Chris’s love interest. Lucia (Nika Perrone), Stefano’s wife. Italo Curtiga (Francesco Colella), Stefano’s friend. Jacinto Leyra (Flavio Medina) and Enrique Leyra (Víctor Huggo Martin) , Mexican narcos known as Leyra brothers, drug sellers. Manuel (Harold Torres) is a Mexican Army soldier working for the Leyra brothers and building an army. Varas (Noé Hernández) is a Mexican Army commander. François Salvage (Tchéky Karyo), a sailor of Lynwood’s ship. Moko (Érick Israel Consuelo), Gordo (Jesús Lozano), Indio (José Salof), and Chino (Diego Cataño), Mexican Army soldiers. Diego (Norman Delgadillo), a loyal Mexican Army soldier. Chiquitita (Claudia Pineda), Diego’s wife.
The series starts in Italy with Don Minu meeting gang members with Stefano and informing them he has ordered 5 tons of cocaine to revive businesses. In the night, Stefano with Nicola kills Luciano and burn all the money he has collected for drug shipment. Stefano hates his grandfather and wants to sabotage his mission.
In Mexico, a special forces team captures a factory handler where hides the cocaine in the cans. He tells them about an upcoming meeting of the drug deal. In the restaurant, the Leyras know about the action of the special forces and stop the meeting abruptly. While escaping, Edward gets critically injured, so Emma quickly boards a plane and brings him home. Later he dies there. Emma lies to Chris, “Edward wanted him to join the family business.”
In a flashback, Edward and Emma purchase a cargo ship, and she knows the money for the shipment has not come. Emma and Edwards fight over it, but he assures that Don Minu will pay all the money.
After the funeral, Stefano threatens and asks them to abort the shipment and connect him to the Mexican. Emma negates and tells Chris will personally take care of the shipment. In Mexico on the ship, Chris sees Manuel knock out the rest of the Mexican soldiers.
In Mexico’s flashback, Manuel distributes the money to the team that has stolen it during Leyras chase. Diego declines, but he threatens and forces him to declare loyalty. Captain Varas tells him there is a mole in the team and will replace the entire team. He tells him that he suspects no one.
Later, Manual kills Diego and tells Varas he was a mole to take Varas’s suspicion away, and to the team, Manual tells somebody has framed Diego. Varas takes Manuel to Lynwood’s cocaine shipment, where Manual kills Varas and asks Chris to change the path by switching off communication. Later, his squad joins hands with the Leyras. They kill a local drug dealer to send warnings to others.
On the ship, the captain knocks out Chris, locks him, and leaves with the ship burning and unmovable. A flashback shows the captain joining hands with Stefano.
In Italy, Don Minu gets badly injured while escaping from the police. His friend, Giovanni, treats and takes him to a safe house. He calls Stefano for a meeting to tell him and the gang that the shipment must arrive to stop their enemies. Stefano shares his location with the wife so that his friend can attack and kill Don Minu. But Don Minu knows this and burns Nicola alive as a final warning to him. Later his men attack Don Minu, but Stefano injures himself to help Don Minu escape. The gang knows Stefano has cheated them, so he warns his wife and tells her to go to Don Minu with their son.
Chris takes a ship to Senegal with some help, where he requests officials to allow it to continue, but they refuse. Then he buys an alternative to his tablet in the form of a liquid from a local gang leader, who helps him later for taking out the shipment from Senegal. Emma meets him and hires Omar.
They manage to take out the shipment from the port. And start moving it by road.
For safe passage of shipment through the Sahara desert, Omar offers 100 kg of cocaine to Jihadists. After a shootout, they successfully escape from Jihadists’ capture. But injured Omar dies on the way before they reach Morocco.
In Morocco, the shipment gets loaded on the ship for Italy. Yasser arranges an apartment for Emma and Chris. He informs them Amina will visit the next day with money for a customs officer and medication for Chris. The next day she comes, Chris accompanies her to the customs office. They spend time together and come close to each other. In the night, frustrated Chris rebuffs her and leaves. The next day, Emma goes to the port alone to see the shipment, and Chris will leave for home.
In Mexico, Manuel builds an army of brutal soldiers. One day, he meets the Leyras brothers to give them the collection and remind a payday, but they deny payment for some reason. Upset Manual stays calm. On the night during a party in the restaurant, Manual humiliates the Leyras brothers. The same night Indio gets killed during a fight between Manual’s army and Leyras’ men. Later, angry Manuel’s army acquires Leyra’s house by killing many. Before getting killed, Jacinto tells Manuel, Emma is coming to hand over 32 Million.
In Italy, Don Minu reaches a safe house. And Stefano is held by the Curtiga family. He tells them he knows how to track the shipment. Bellantone kidnaps Lucia with her son and asks Stefano to do what they say. Bellantone with Stefano then goes to Morocco. There they kidnap Amina and take her to Lynwood’s apartment. A frightened Amina takes them to Chris’s apartment, and he guides them to a warehouse from where a shipment is already left. They kill Chris, and Bellantone asks Stefano to kill Don Minu. Emma finds Amina tied in the apartment, and Emma and Yasser find the dead body of Chris in the warehouse.
In Italy, Bellantone asks Stefano to arrange a meeting with Don Minu. In Safehouse, Emma meets Don Minu and tells him that Stefano killed Chris, and he was trying to stop the shipment.
Don Minu kills Stefano when he visits him. Then Emma hands over to him the shipment container number and leaves. Don Minu’s men kill Bellantone to rescue Lucia and her son.
Emma arrives in Mexico and receives the call from Jacinto. At Jacinto’s home, she meets Manuel to give him the 32 million and asks for 2,000 kg of cocaine to Russia. He gives her a phone number, and Emma leaves to end the series.
It is a good web series based on a novel with the same name, with a good story and picturization. Everybody acted well, especially Emma and Chris. Web series shows the broker’s struggle to deliver the drug shipment and its journey. It shows precisely the fights of various cartels to dominate the business at the buyer and seller’s end. Good series if you like the Narcos kind of series. 4.5/5*
Chetan Nikam 