Mosquito Coast 2021

TV-MA Season 1 -  7 Episodes

I remember very well the details of the Peter Weir film of the same name, with Harrison Ford, 1986.  Every actor in that film was an icon, or became one.  Hellen Mirren, River Phoenix, Martha Plimpton, all the members of the family.  

 

The same genius myopic vision of the progenitor of the Paul Theroux novel is now a direct descendant, the nephew, of the author, Justin Theroux.

 

It would seem that the casting here could not have been more fitting, as it was self-applied by the actor himself, and the director, and the producer.  Yep, all the same.  And I say fitting, because the character he plays, for all practical purposes, may very well be him in real life.  He is noted as saying that he has no ambition...ok...no "street" ambition as the character in the AppleTV series might also say he does not.  But Justin certainly fits the profile of the lone genius and multipod, as he's had his hand in every position except possibly script girl.  

 

The Series, well, it's a different animal than the earlier film, that's for sure.  The same theme of anti-societal, or anti-oligarchical innovation and system disruption is in the main character, yes, but the sum of the plot parts could not be any more different, and definitely caught up with the 2K world.  

 

I'll have to say that this series takes many of it's cues after Breaking Bad, as so many TV series since then have.  The gritty reality, the brutal characters, the hair-raising tension/suspense, but mostly...the main character, Allie Fox...all point in the same dangerous direction as Breaking Bad.  There are many moments when I swear it's Bryan Cranston on the screen and not Theroux.  The way he puffs his chest out, and calmly, dismissively hands out his decisive and ultimately persuasive directions to his family, of course in this case the whole operation up front from the start and not a coverup.  Walter White had us all strung along for some time with his "case" of underdog, and his heroism in the face of cancer and "the man", until you couldn't help but get sick of all of the people he used and killed.  Here, we have a much more elevated hero/anti-hero it seems, that while guilty of activities that have led to people being hurt, we might be much more persuaded to align ourselves with because of his seemingly absolute affection for the family, and his hatred of all things hypocritical and wasteful. His empathy for the disenfranchised could not have been more poignantly stated than when he labels all of those indigent souls running around under the city concrete as being "simply no longer able to consume...non-consumers...so that's their crime...they can..." no longer participate in the great capitalist engine, my words for what he said.  Yeah, that was a very clear moment that encapsulated the "insight" of his character, and the "cover" for his drive to action.  

 

However, we know that all great altruistic utopians had as much ego as anyone else, and many a justification for their excesses in obtaining their goals, including such subtle subterfuge even as playing the heartstrings of their family members.  Yet most characters of this nature it is believed, have historically had some genuine love for the end result being prosperity and the comfort of their own.  This is of course the very same trait that also leads these cavalier souls to be blinded by their programs of change, or their rendition of human revolution.  

 

The thing that struck me most about this season 1 was the effect that Allie Fox's drive and behavior had upon his family, specifically his son, near the end of the season.  We see his teen-aged son come to grips with and experience a few things that even those of a later age, 21 to 30 yo maybe, have not had to deal with.  A devastatingly tough and quick way to grow old before your time.  

 

Well, it's a thriller, well produced, directed, acted, lensed...ok, most of it is Justin's doing, yes, but if something is good and gripping as this story is, you can't help but get drawn in and begin to take sides.  

- Agitatus