![]() ![]() Not to harp too much on its difference from the book, which feels especially meaningless at the end, but that's pretty much the whole point of the original story: children finally seeing their flawed father for who he really is with one moment where he reappears after seeming to be dead still cutting deep for how devastating it was. It is a shame that the story isn’t more willing to lean into that and let him more fully embrace the darker potential of the character. Allie's flashes of anger are terrifying in how quickly the facade of friendliness can fade away. Although the narcissistic and callous character seen in the source material is sanded down, his performance frequently provides some texture to everything. If there is a saving grace through what is otherwise a mess of a second season, it would be Theroux. However, the rest of the story is so preoccupied with too many subplots running in opposite directions that it becomes a muddled narrative wash. It isn’t nearly as misguided as that and will occasionally stumble upon a more interesting observation. Such a storyline was recently portrayed to outstanding effect in the film How to Blow Up a Pipeline, but this show ends up feeling more like the atrocious Last Light. Without giving away all the revelations, Margot had a past life as an activist willing to do anything to fight against the destruction of the environment as we know it. ![]() ![]() What had been only hinted at, and honestly felt like it could be a misdirect in keeping with Allie’s propensity in the novel to manipulate the truth to his own ends, is instead explained to within an inch of its life. ![]() Through flashbacks, we learn why exactly they all had to go on the run in the first place. En route to this supposed utopia, it's revealed that matriarch Margot ( Melissa George) has a past that has been kept from their children Dina ( Logan Polish) and Charlie ( Gabriel Bateman) for their entire lives. Picking up right where the first season left off, Allie is now seeking to escape on a boat with his family along for the ride to a destination where they hope that no one can find them. RELATED: 'The Mosquito Coast' Season 2 Trailer Sees Justin Theroux Living Off the Grid That it unnecessarily adds three more episodes this go-around only prolongs the show’s directionless nature. Everything ends up being too busy and gets so thoroughly lost that this version of The Mosquito Coast struggles to hold together. Though he isn’t the first actor to sink his teeth into this role (as Harrison Ford did so previously in the fraught yet faithful film in 1986), Theroux still gives a dynamic performance that is desperately trying to break through the woefully scattered story playing out here. It is one of the sole remaining aspects that connect to the book and also the show's most engaging. There are some elements of this that remain in Season 2 as Theroux’s patronizing patriarch Allie continues to cruelly control his family. Although it was built around being more of a thriller as opposed to a haunting character study about a family falling apart from the book, it would provide glimpses of what a story like this could be by linking itself to some deeper ideas about violence and disillusionment. While the first season of the show was miles from perfect, it at least felt more streamlined and grounded. ![]()
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