As I said last week in my review of the first two episodes of The Mosquito Coast, one of its most attractive and important features is the picture it provides about life on the southern border, and its depiction of immigrants. The third episode, on Apple TV+ today, goes one big, original step, further, bringing the Fox family into contact with Mexicans in the northern part of their own country.
The guy who ultimately rescues the Foxes and Chuy was only on the screen briefly. But he conveyed a humanity you don't often see from Americans along the other side of the border in TV series and movies. He had a quiet confidence and power that was reassuring. You knew that the Fox family and Chuy would be safe -- at least for now -- even though Chuy had been bitten by a snake.
How Chuy managed to contact this guy was also a pleasure to see. He has a phone in the dead of the desert and way out of range. Leave it to Allie to know a way to get Chuy's phone synched and operational with a telephone tower. Allie's a little crazy, true, as Chuy tells Margot. But he's also clearly a genius.
The series, so far, has a freshness, an intensity, in a mix that even has some humor that I've never seen before (again, I haven't read the book or seen the 1986 movie). My only regret is having to wait a week to see the next episode. One of the great advantages of streaming is seeing as many episodes as you like, turning the television series into a kind of book and its chapters. This is one of the joys of most of what is available on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Not that Apple is going to listen to me, but hey, it would be a good idea to put up a new series or two all at once.
In the meantime, I'll just look forward to the next episode, and at least give Apple creds for making new episodes available at 12 midnight local time, or the instant it becomes Friday.
See also The Mosquito Coast 1.1-2: Edgy, Attractive, Enlightened, and Important
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