The Mosquito Cove is quite possibly the most boring and preachy thriller I have seen this year. The series has two seasons, but I couldn’t gather the strength to finish the second one. I try my hardest to finish everything I review, but this one proved too much for me.
The series focuses on a family of fugitives on the run from the US government. We don’t know what they did to become outlaws, but you will get clues throughout the series to figure it out. The family flees to Mexico where now they are also being hunted by one of the cartels. Trouble seems to be the only constant in their lives, and they seem to be running out of places to hide. This life puts a great strain on the family, and they keep finding it harder to want to keep going. Will they ever find a safe place to call home, or will their dark secrets catch up and destroy them?
There are some interesting concepts in this show that I wish were explored better. I like that there is a dark mystery that follows the family and causes friction between them. The parents did something bad in their past, but no one is saying what that is. The kids grow suspicious of the parents and each day become more defiant. You get the sense that the dad might be the bad guy, but this narrative takes too long to unravel, and I lost interest. I like the idea of having the protagonist be the bad guy so that we, the audience, can slowly learn to hate him along with the family. It would be interesting to be trapped like this family, knowing they should leave but have nowhere to go because of the situation. The series does attempt to touch on this idea, but it isn’t done well.
Eventually, you find out that the parents are wanted, environmental terrorists. This isn’t a spoiler; this series is pretentious about its environmentalism and anti-consumerism messaging. Every episode has at least two speeches about how humanity is destroying the planet or some anti-establishment criticism. It is tiresome. I don’t mind this type of messaging and believe them to be important, but not when it’s this abrasive. It is hard to have to constantly sit through a dull lecture when I was promised a thriller.
The pacing is a huge problem for this series. This story drags without ever getting to the point. As a result, there isn’t enough urgency or suspense for this series to work. I found myself mostly waiting around for anything interesting to happen. I kept hoping this family would get caught so I didn’t have to suffer through this series any longer, but the villains proved too incompetent.
The Mosquito Cove lacks the stakes needed to be considered a thriller. Anytime the family gets into trouble, whether they are being chased by the cartel or caught by the FBI, they easily escape through poorly written ex-Machina. This series likes to pretend to be technical and realistic but bends the rules of reality to allow the family a chance to escape. This isn’t even a family of highly trained spies. Instead, this is a normal family fumbling through the sloppiest of escapes.
I wish this series had the courage to kill off one of the characters. It would make for a better story to have the family deal with death on top of the danger. If one of the kids died, the dad would have to live with the guilt as he continues trying to hold his family together. The mother and the surviving sibling would want to leave but find themselves in a situation where escaping isn’t an option. It would create this crazy dynamic where they need each other to survive, but the grief has since split them apart. Honestly, anything would have been more interesting to watch than what this show actually is.
I couldn’t make it through the second season. It was clear this series wasn’t going to get better, and I have since run out of patience. You can stream this on Apple TV if you have a subscription, but I wouldn’t bother.
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Series Review: Slow Horses (2022)
Slow Horses is a spy thriller that you can stream on Apple TV that is based on the book of the same name. While I cannot speak on how good of an adaptation it is, I had a lot of fun with this show. Slow Horses has everything you want from a spy thriller. It is a show full of deception, double-crosses, gun fights, and a race against the clock. If you like the genre, this is a solid entry
Slow Horses focuses on the disgraced agents of MI5 who are sent to Slow House. Most have come to terms with their punishment and wait out their sentence till they can retire. Some still hold on to the hope that they earn their redemption. Opportunity strikes when a young Asian British man is kidnapped by an extremist and racist group that plans to execute him publicly. The members of the slow house jump to the task as the race is on to find the young man alive. Will they save the day and earn their redemption, or will they remain a disgrace to the organization?
This was a fun and enjoyable spy thriller. The acting is great, the story is interesting, and the pacing is perfect. While it does have some of the familiar spy thriller tropes, it is a unique enough story to keep things interesting. This is a team of imperfect misfits who are trying to prove themselves. They will make mistakes, but they will learn from them. As the series progresses, they slowly regain the spark they lost when they were sent to Slow House. This makes for an excellent redemption story, but also one with sufficient tension.
Sometimes with spy thrillers, you get characters who cannot fail because they are too perfect. This makes the story boring because any adversity they face is easily overcome. It is nice to see a group of people fail and then scramble to overcome their failure as they race against the clock. It is what makes a good thriller, and I can only hope that future entries to the genre continue with this trend.
Anyways, Slow Horses is a different but same kind of spy story, and you should watch it on Apple TV if you have a subscription.
Series Review – Roar (2022)
Image by Ian Lindsay from Pixabay
Roar is a horror anthology series on Apple TV that deals with women’s issues. Each episode is a different scary story that tackles a specific issue. The show deals with subjects like discrimination, sexism, and abuse, to name a few. If you like shows like Black Mirror, you might enjoy this more than I did. Ultimately, while many of the concepts were interesting, I was left with a disappointment that makes it impossible for me to recommend this show.
There are a few technical issues that are hard to ignore with the acting and writing, but ultimately the show’s biggest issues are with the pacing and endings. The endings ruin this show for me. The show does a decent job at setting up an interesting narrative, only to fall flat as it struggles to achieve its empowering and happy ending. As a result, this show becomes very preachy, and the narrative suffers for it. I don’t mind morals of female empowerment, but in Roar, it seems forced and out of place.
Each episode is limited by the same simple formula. A woman encounters an issue that gets personified into some kind of magical and inexplicable presence. The presence can be a disease, a person, or even a monster. The idea is that the issue the protagonist faces is tangible and something they can overcome. There is some solid setup and buildup, but it is all wasted on some ex-Machina. The protagonist will always easily overcome their ordeal, and the episodes will sort of just end. It is very anti-climactic and a waste of some interesting concepts. It also creates an issue with the pacing that I cannot overlook. Halfway through the episodes it feels like there is a sudden rush towards a happy ending.
As is tradition with these types of shows, not all the stories are good. Some stand out, but it is always a gamble on what you are going to get. If you enjoy this type of storytelling, you might have a better time than I did. I would suggest you skip it because none of the stories are good enough to earn a recommendation.
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Series Review: Surface (2022)
Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay
Surface has to be one of the most disappointing psychological thrillers I have ever watched. While it may play around with some interesting concepts, it falls flat and even has the gal to sequel bait. If you have an Apple TV subscription, I suggest you skip this series.
After a failed attempt at suicide, Sophie finds herself alive but without any of her memories. Now she must begin her life anew as she scrambles to reclaim her memories and learn who she was. However, her search becomes complicated as she begins to uncover the dark secrets that surround her life. Will she ever be able to make sense of her past? Will she be able to become who she once was? Will she like what she discovers?
The acting is okay, but there are some cringe-worthy line reads that are hard to overlook. The pacing is a huge problem, and the show will often rely on sex to act as filler. The series has some interesting twists but chooses to do nothing with them. Instead, you follow Sophie down a convoluted rabbit hole that leads to disappointment. The show ends on a cliffhanger, but not one strong enough to keep me invested in the series. I will honestly forget that I watched it when the second season comes around.
This show has a cool premise. I liked that the main character is piecing together her own mystery. Each piece gives Sohpie new perspectives and theories, but none of them ever make her whole. Whenever she begins to get a grasp on her reality, some new piece of evidence proves her wrong, and she has to start over. This of course becomes very convoluted.
I liked that there is a separation between Sophie’s identity post and pre-suicide attempt. It is an interesting way of looking at personality because it begs to question of who the real Sophie is. The more she finds out, the bigger the separation grows between who she believes she is and who she actually was. Unfortunately, this show isn’t as interesting as its concept. Instead, this is a slogging series of misdirections. Skip it.
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