What I’m Watching: May Edition

Mosquito Coast (Apple TV) (through two episodes)-Based on a novel in the 1980s that was adapted into a Peter Weir film starring Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, and river Phoenix. The protagonist, Allie, was inspired by novelist Paul Thoreaux’s self-reliant father (who would often take his kids dumpster diving) along with American cult leaders like Jim Jones and Joseph Smith (father of Mormonism) who wanted to take what they viewed as the American ideal and create a utopia with it somewhere else.

Fortunately, Allie does not want to kool-aid a thousand people to their deaths or marry dozens of women. He has a family and just wants to live off the grid in Central America where he can test new societal theories or something or other. That’s in the book which I didn’t really read or in the faithful film adaptation.

In this series, Allie (played by Paul’s nephew Justin coincidentally) is partially pushed out of the country by the police. Why they’re chasing him and his wife isn’t revealed which is perhaps the smartest adaptational move. We’re left guessing how severe their transgression must have been if cops and feds must care about them so much. In the tradition of “Lost”, it’s always nice leave the audience piecing a puzzle together. The series is well-paced and the family dynamic keeps this story above the level of a standard narrative thriller.