We don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the UK is bloody cold. A sunny day is about as common as a winning scratch card, whilst vitamin D is as hard to come by as a full tank of fuel in October 2021. Here at Must, we fancy a holiday, so thank goodness for brand new Apple TV+ series Acapulco. Don’t forget the sun cream – it’s going to be a scorcher.
+ Check out The White Lotus for the OG holiday from hell
Our streaming staycation takes place in the luxurious Las Colinas resort in Acapulco Mexico, where the water’s warm and the sun is hot. But below the surface is the flashback story of humble and hard-working staff members breaking their backs to make it in the world of the stinking rich. In the words of The Hollywood Reporter’s Daniel Fienberg, the series is “awash in upstairs-downstairs and fish-out-of-water humour”, so, it’s like Downton Abbey but with more bikinis and a better forecast.
Oh, and did we mention that the flashbacks are set in a gorgeously camp, flamingo pink 80s? It’s How I Met Your Mother meets The Golden Girls, with a splendidly Spanglish twist which puts meat on the bones of an otherwise gentle and unambitious show. The Guardian’s Rebecca Nicholson points to Acapulco’s interesting use of language, claiming “bilingualism is no longer the barrier to mainstream success that it once might have been”, a notion aided by shows like Acapulco which aren’t afraid of making their largely English-speaking audience work that little bit harder for maximum authenticity. And let’s be real, subtitles really aren’t that hard –we all managed fine whilst bingeing Squid Game.
+ Fancy your own holiday inspiration? See our Great Escapes List
Nicholson loves the “candy-coloured 80s” tinge to the show, describing the setting as “a bright, bold visual treat” which is “gentle, sunny and laidback” certainly making for enjoyable TV, but lacking the substance and “hard satire of something like The White Lotus” as Fienberg points out. But Nicholson doesn’t think this is an issue, arguing that whilst “Acapulco doesn’t reinvent the wheel…Las Colinas is a most pleasant place to spend some time”.
We’ll see you at the airport.
First shown October 2021.
