Tobey Maguire and Eiza González in a scene from Extrapolations.APPLE TV+
In 2011, writer Scott Z. Burns may or may not have predicted the COVID pandemic with sci-fi thriller Contagion. Fast forward to the present day, and here’s hoping his new environmental drama on Apple TV+ isn’t as prophetic.
Extrapolations is a global-warming disaster drama with a big cast and a bleak premise. Through eight interconnected anthologies, Burns (also a director and producer on the project) delivers the title promise: He draws conclusions about the planet’s future by gauging existing environmental, tech, business and political trends.
The series kicks off in 2037, where global leaders have come together at the COP42 climate change conference in Tel Aviv. The global temperature has risen overall by 1.55 C, the ice caps are melting, developers are eyeing the Arctic Circle for a new casino and several parts of the world are on fire.
“You can’t negotiate with a flood, or a fire or a famine,” one protester, played by Yara Shahidi, declares to the crowds outside the negotiations via hologram. Predictably though, those in charge fumble their opportunity, choosing to align with a powerful entrepreneur named Nick Bilton (a chilling Kit Harington), setting the tone for the rest of the series.
In Episode 2, we jump nine years to 2046 (each episode is named for the year in which it takes place), and things are dire. Science has eradicated cancer, but humans are grappling with new life-threatening illnesses as a result of the heat. The global temperature change is now up 1.8 C, resulting in 411,227 more species lost this century.
Digging into that stat, the episode hones in on an animal scientist (Sienna Miller) who is given the task of finding and researching the last of each species in hopes of some day bringing those animals back. Future episodes include examinations of floods and the government’s role in deciding who can be saved, geoscience’s part in global warming and who makes those decisions, and the importance of business ethics when it comes to saving the planet.
To tell those stories, Burns has recruited a top-notch cast that includes players such as Meryl Streep, Edward Norton, Daveed Diggs, Diane Lane, Heather Graham, Matthew Rhys, Tobey Maguire and Forest Whitaker. Some roles are more significant than others, but it feels like many of these actors just wanted to participate in a project that could inspire further conversation and, maybe, some action.
Those themes of complacency and courage, as well as the far-reaching effects of climate change, are at the very core of Extrapolations. That makes it an important watch and a wake-up call for those of us who are willing to ignore what’s happening in the world around us. (According to the UN, human activities have caused an estimated 1.1 C of warming to date.)
Burns, who once brought us An Inconvenient Truth, isn’t setting out to tell a story about the end, however, but about what happens in the messy middle. He’s telling us that the future is now, and it’s up to us to choose which path into the next century we will take. There are things that could happen, but it’s the everyday decisions these characters make that ultimately determine what does.
That makes this show a downright depressing watch though, particularly in the first two episodes as you acclimatize to the new status quo. For as much as the show critiques complacency, it also leaves you with a sense of helplessness as the world continues to burn.
Burns and his fellow producers worked with some of the top scientists on climate and carbon in extracting these stories, which gives them urgency. But, of course, this is still science fiction. As much as Extrapolations may be grounded in current trends, some outcomes are more believable than others. Major food consumption changes, daytime curfews and personal oxygen tanks could become the norm in the next 50 years if things continue as is. How much technology factors into that, however, is another matter.
The show is at its strongest when it sticks to tangible outcomes and keeps emerging technology on the back burner. Early episodes could be described as an environmental version of Black Mirror, with personal stories to connect you with the plot and force you to care about the consequences. But by Episodes 6 and 7, it’s as though the show is trying to be Black Mirror by throwing tech to the forefront.
In “2068,″ a dinner party scene is the backdrop for discussions of mind and conscious uploading, for example. And in “2066,″ we’re presented a world in which memories can be extracted from the mind and shared across the cloud. (Whatever that elusive “cloud” actually is.)
By the “2070″ series finale, the narrative does come full circle. Although the instalment is the least believable of the bunch, it is also the most hopeful. If this show is indeed meant to enable real-life action and encourage change, then that is the note it has to end on.
Whether viewers will be able to stomach getting there, however, is another matter.
Extrapolations debuted its first three episodes March 17 on Apple TV+. Weekly instalments follow.
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