Apple TV+’s Speculative Climate Change Anthology Extrapolations Wastes Time and Resources
Photo Courtesy of Apple TV+
Of all the new series polluting a crowded television landscape, the speculative climate change anthology Extrapolations should know that our time is precious, and shouldn’t be wasted. Scott Z. Burns, who previously asked a much more urgent and anxiety-inducing “what if?” with Contagion, leads Apple TV+’s eight-episode foray into the future of the 21st century, where new technology exploits and humankind’s worsening fears of the planet boiling. Sometimes, we see poignant reflections on people fighting isolation; often, we’re treated to diatribes about how everybody is on their phones these days.
The series’ writers have collected between them an enviable list of credits, not limited to The Handmaid’s Tale, Bly Manor, The Americans, and Little America. But an impressive combined portfolio doesn’t stop Extrapolations from feeling too similar to other predictive dystopia series, specifically the ones from Brit writers Charlie Brooker and Russell T. Davies. Extrapolations stands out by not featuring the twisted cruelty of Black Mirror or the warmth of Years and Years, but that doesn’t do it any favors—in trying to encapsulate the scope of humanity, the show too often feels devoid of its own identity. Its best episodes feel indebted to more talented storytellers, its worst ones feel created by a Chatbot.
Tracing our society’s battle against various life-threatening climate escalations from 2037 to 2070, the series has a loose structure: a lot of our characters are introduced in a multi-storyline premiere that marks an important climate conference in Tel Aviv; there’s a massive incident at the midpoint that ripples throughout the second half; we close with a confrontation that brings back familiar faces. These episodes are far and away the worst due to the inherent problems with making interpersonal drama out of planet-altering conflicts.
With every genius technician or mega-capitalist we meet, like the ones played by Edward Norton, Matthew Rhys, or Kit Harrington, we remember ourselves that individuals are not responsible for the world ending, rather systems are. The individual’s ability to worsen climate damage is only relevant because of the ways political systems condition individuals to behave, and how people’s perception of life and nature are malformed by the ways they are egregiously rewarded with power and capitalism.
It’s a naive writing perspective to think that not only can an industrial complex or political ideology be condensed into a few individuals, and naiver still to think these individuals could ever be accessed on an empathetic level like any other TV character can. Every time Extrapolations showcases humanity’s great selfishness with power-hungry, tech-obsessed titans, it just feels phony. If the problem with the planet’s inevitable heat-death were down to individuals, then justice should be achieved—an impossibility that Extrapolations still fantasizes about in its closing episode.