Apple series "Mosquito Coast": Capitalism criticism from the capitalism high priest

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"Mosquito Coast" series from Apple: Escape from American consumer terror

Photo: Apple TV +

In the second episode of the new series "Mosquito Coast", father and daughter end up on the run from the police in a disused building, probably an empty department store.

The breather gives the father the opportunity to take a small lesson in capitalism.

"One less nuclear submarine could have saved these people," he explains to his daughter, pointing to the ragged figures that stagger like silhouettes through the semi-darkness.

“But we threw them away.

Like everything else in this country.

Cars, televisions, vacuum cleaners: don't fix them, buy a new device! "

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Daughter Dina (Logan Polish) wonders what exactly her father is up to

Photo: Apple TV +

Criticism of consumerism and capitalism can hardly be hung more posteriorly, and you can hardly help but laugh when you know which company produced and financed this series: the high priest of digital capitalism, the hyper-valuable luxury brand Apple.

The company that recommends its customers to buy a new smartphone every year and, well, throw away the old one - even if it isn't broken at all.

What does that mean for "Mosquito Coast"?

Is the series so bad that you can throw it away right away?

Not that, but let's put it this way: the phenomenal contradiction between saying and doing stands around like an invisible, particularly clumsy elephant in many scenes.

For example, when the American inventor Allie forbids his son to use a cell phone and throws a device out of the car window (not a fancy smartphone, of course, and certainly not one from Apple, but one of those antediluvian flip cell phones).

The consumption mania of his fellow human beings has been getting on Allie's nerves for a long time.

The novel has already been filmed with Harrison Ford

With his own inventions, the idealist would like to arouse consumerism, but he never succeeded. And then Allie is also being persecuted by the government and has to live undercover. After a near discovery, he decides to flee with his wife and two children across the border to Mexico and start a new life there. This is how an adventure drama begins, accompanied by all sorts of entanglements, dangerous situations and the constant anxious question: will you make it?

The material is based on the novel of the same name by Paul Theroux, which was filmed in 1986 with Harrison Ford in the lead role.

Now Paul Theroux's nephew Justin plays the main role, but the family ties do not ensure a script that is true to the original, on the contrary: the series is even further removed from the novel than the film, so far that even the eponymous coast is nowhere in sight in the series .

Swimming free from the source material does not have to be a shortcoming for film adaptations, and in some places "Mosquito Coast" does indeed carry you away.

Each episode ends with a dramatic heartbeat finale, with a dead end from which there seems to be no escape for the family.

In addition, there are images that, with their brilliance and the color and light setting, are likely to exceed Apple's high demands on its content.

Under the high-gloss paint, however, a rather old-fashioned dramaturgical engine chugs.

The increase in tension, for example, works just as strikingly as the criticism of capitalism: Again and again the children try to finally find out from their parents why the hell they are being persecuted at all - and again and again a new surprise bursts in that prevents the dissolution.

So after a while one wonders why the rest of the family keeps following someone who is obviously driven by inner demons and who forces them all from one mortal danger to the next.

His eternal battle cry - "This is going to be an adventure!" - at least not very convincing anymore.

In a way, the series "Mosquito Coast" stands for the dilemma that still plagues Apple's in-house streaming service: The fabrics should be as large as possible, somehow in tune with the times, and at least look as good as an Apple computer.

But what is missing is a clear vision of what exactly they should tell and what the audience can expect from them.

However, Apple seems anything but willing to give up its streaming adventure.

In the last few months the group has been breathlessly announcing new titles that are being developed for Apple TV +, from a multi-part series with Justin Timberlake as the host of a TV show to the ultra-expensive World War II series "Masters of Air".

At least Apple should not lack the change necessary for such projects.

Seven episodes, coming April 30 on Apple TV +.