The Trade

Name: The Trade
Genre: News/Documentary, Documentary
Released: February 2, 2018
Rating: 84

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Universal acclaim based on 7 Critic Reviews

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Series Details & Credits

SHOWTIME | Release Date: February 2, 2018

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.

Genre(s): News/Documentary, Documentary

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Recent Episodes

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S2:E4. Episode 204
Air Date: March 27, 2020
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S2:E3. Episode 203
Air Date: March 20, 2020
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S2:E3. Episode 203
Air Date: March 20, 2020

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Critic Reviews

IndieWire Steve Greene

Feb 2, 2018

Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review

Melanie McFarland

Feb 2, 2018

Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review

Daniel Fienberg

Jan 26, 2018

Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review

Robert Lloyd

Feb 1, 2018

Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review

Glenn Garvin

Feb 3, 2018

Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review

The Playlist Andrew Bundy

Oct 5, 2020

Season 2 Review: “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. Read full review

Inkoo Kang

Jan 29, 2020

Season 2 Review: 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. Read full review

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User Reviews

OneSubtleDose

Mar 16, 2020

I was motivated to write a review of The Trade based off Season 2. Each episode is absolutely amazing. It's impossible not to empathize with the Hondurans he introduces you to. Whether they are on the train somewhere in Mexico ducking under branches to avoid falling to their death orI was motivated to write a review of The Trade based off Season 2. Each episode is absolutely amazing. It's impossible not to empathize with the Hondurans he introduces you to. Whether they are on the train somewhere in Mexico ducking under branches to avoid falling to their death or saying goodbye to their children in Texas before heading to court. Heineman documents all of the network news banter about thousands of this or that and smuggling of whatever and MS something......and gains access (I study this subject and I'm amazed at some of the footage he was able to shoot) that gives life to buzz words like 'caravan' that serves as a proxy for partisan **** Season 2 should be mandatory viewing for all Americans. The Trade documents border patrol, aliens, immigrants, smugglers, victims of trafficking, politicians, attorneys and countless other parties/perspectives without bias. This isn't meant to make you change your mind in any particular direction about any given policy. Considering how frequently television news blindly debates 'The Trade,' I sure wish people would watch this series and actually witness the situation first-hand. If you are so concerned kids in cages or never shut up about 'build that wall' this is mandatory viewing. If your view changes in either way, it is simply because you are finally given the opportunity to witness. The documentaries unique ability to cover such a horrific crisis without a partisan angle is extremely rare outside of Frontline on PBS. The Trade chooses to replace the standard documentary narrator by having people speak for themselves; and often while in the midst of extreme danger. The first season of The Trade is nothing short of excellent. This isn't a subject that hasn't been covered by several outlets (including Heineman) in the past. The black market is always evolving to meet the uniquely high demand the United States has for narcotics. Subsequently the first season always feels like it's documenting something both relevant and new. This series needed a damn review....I refuse to edit that. Just watch the show. Steal it if you have to. Come on kids you know how. Learn.… Expand

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Seasons & Episodes

84

Series Overview
Season 2

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- Season 2 Overview
  Air Date: March 6, 2020
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  S2:E4. Episode 204
  Air Date: March 27, 2020
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  S2:E3. Episode 203
  Air Date: March 20, 2020
- tbd
  S2:E3. Episode 203
  Air Date: March 20, 2020
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  S2:E2. Episode 202
  Air Date: March 13, 2020
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  S2:E1. Episode 201
  Air Date: March 6, 2020
- tbd
  S2:E1. Episode 201
  Air Date: March 6, 2020
Season 1

84
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: February 2, 2018