The story follows the perilous journey of a radical idealist and brilliant inventor, Allie Fox (Justin Theroux), and his family - wife Margot (George), teenage daughter Dina (Polish), and young son Charlie (Bateman). After suddenly getting into trouble with the US government, the patriarch uproots his family and they go on the run to Mexico.
The series started in April 2021. Filming on the first season was halted several times due to the pandemic and ran for seven episodes. The Mosquito Coast was renewed for a ten-episode second season just before the release of the first-season finale. Season two premiered in November last year and ended on January 6 with a cliffhanger.
The series is essentially a prequel, leading up to the events of the novel and 1986 movie starring Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, Andre Gregory, and River Phoenix. Paul Theroux told Deadline that if there had been a third season, it would align with the book and film's quest for a utopian community. Eventually, the family would run into the same problems. Theroux explained:
"Because there's no such thing as a utopia. It doesn't exist. The problem with people who try to create utopias, like Allie Fox or Colonel Kurtz, is that although they have left the United States, America and its flaws are inside them . You can't create a pure society, especially if you yourself are flawed in character. Something goes wrong anyway. You create this society, it seems to be going right, but there's always a flaw. And the flaw is in the creator.
One of the inspirations for the book was Jim Jones. In the mid to late 1970s, Jones attempted to create a utopia in Guyana. He had ideas, and it ended in a mass suicide, one of the most horrible events of my life. Over 900 dead. But while they were building that utopia, they were growing plants, trying to create a society that was equal and color blind and everything. Talk about an idealist who really had a screw loose. What Jim Jones did I couldn't find anywhere else in history where anyone leads their herd to this jungle place. They create society, they build, they have God, they have houses, they have food, speeches, sing songs. And it all ends in mass suicide. That was an American tragedy for me."
