Director and actor Zach Braff, like many of us, is overwhelmed by the number of shows available for streaming. The director of “A Good Person” and Emmy-nominated actor for the long-running comedy “Scrubs” keeps an ever-growing list of the shows recommended to him.
A friend recently suggested the Amazon Prime Video eight-part miniseries “ZeroZeroZero.” The series follows the cocaine trade around the world as an American-owned shipping business acts as a broker between the buyers in Italy and the sellers in Mexico. The cast includes Oscar-nominee Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”), Golden Globe winner Gabriel Byrne, and Dane DeHaan. Braff considers the show “too good to be missed.”
More: ‘A Good Person’ director Zach Braff on being a ‘decent’ actor
This segment has been edited for length and clarity.
[“ZeroZeroZero”] is an incredible story that follows the cocaine trade, and it's about an enormous shipment of cocaine that is making its way from Mexico to Italy.
I've never seen anything like it. I don't think you see one person do cocaine in the [series]. It's not about the people who actually do it. It's about the giant systems that are in place to smuggle huge amounts of cocaine into countries.
Andrea Riseborough is one of the stars. She plays sort of a broker in between the buyers in Italy and the sellers in Mexico. She, her father, and brother are sort of brokers that own this cargo ship on which the giant container is going to travel.
It's really about a deal between Mexico and Italy, the mafia in both places, the cartels, and all of the people that are paid off. So much goes wrong [that] you find yourself bizarrely rooting for the shipment of cocaine to make it to its destination. It’s so wrong to say that, but you're like, “Oh, come on!”
The acting is extraordinary. It also really just opens up your eyes to a world that I had never seen, in the style of a “Sicario”-like movie [with] actors that I've never seen before from all those countries, who are phenomenal.
More: Did ‘To Leslie’ promo campaign involve lobbying and harassing?
More: Zach Braff talks “Wish I Was Here” on The Treatment (2014)
More: Zach Braff talks about Kickstarter project for 'Wish I Was Here' on The Business (2013)