Watching the Apple TV+ comedy Acapulco has always made me feel a little like I’ve gone on vacation with each episode, to somewhere like a gorgeous beach paradise.
I’m hard-pressed, in fact, to think of another streaming TV show available right now that’s as joyous, as bursting with color, as filled with positive and upbeat characters, and is as much of a delight to binge as this underrated Apple series set in and around the fictional resort of Las Colinas. It’s the kind of show that will make you want to immediately grab your passport and book the next flight to Mexico. Acapulco, which just returned to Apple’s streamer for its third season, is seriously that good.
The first two episodes of Acapulco’s new season debuted today, and viewers will see some new faces this time around — including that of Cristo Fernández, who played Dani Rojas in another similarly feel-good Apple TV+ comedy you might have heard of (a little show called Ted Lasso). And speaking of Ted Lasso — seriously, people, if you’re still clamoring for a new season of that hokey comedy that, yes, made us all feel better during the pandemic but got a little too cringe-inducing at times for me, then you especially need to check out this comedy starring and executive produced by Eugenio Derbez.
There’s some of the same Lasso magic here, with characters all generally trying to be the best versions of themselves, minus the goofy aphorisms and folksiness that got a little tiresome by the end. Acapulco is the better watch, in my opinion, maintaining a pretty consistent level of comedy and sweetness throughout — and Season 1, by the way, still has a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
In the new season, the focus is on reconciling past mistakes with exciting new beginnings. The older version of Máximo, played by Derbez, returns to a Las Colinas that he doesn’t recognize anymore, while the story from the past that’s told in parallel finds a younger Máximo in 1985 climbing up the ladder of success — while also potentially jeopardizing the relationships that are so important to him and that he’s worked hard to build and maintain.
There’s a fun, telenovela vibe to the writing, with jokes and puns that come at you a mile a minute, combined with real heartfelt emotion (like when Maximo’s mother and sister reconcile after the mother originally kicked her out of the house).
At this point, Apple TV+ has a pretty tightly curated and still-growing library of prestige TV shows like For All Mankind (which is about to get a spinoff), Slow Horses, and Severance — but don’t sleep on the underrated feel-good gems, like Acapulco. With its breezy, half-hour episodes, TV doesn’t get much more delightful than this.