Extrapolations follows characters and stories set in the future where climate crisis has crossed alarming levels and stands to make Earth inhabitable for the vast majority of humans by the end of the century.
Story
The year is 2037, and the world is succumbing to the adverse effects of climate change. Amid harrowing water scarcity, extreme forest fires, and demonstrations all over the world, governments across the globe hold a meeting to decide the annual global temperature rise limit.
The story takes a leap to 2046 where Rebecca Shearer works on establishing and maintaining communication with the last surviving humpback whale, which unbeknownst to her is a subject to retain genetic IP from, to exploit and rebuild her species when they go extinct, for the purposes of capitalism.
The next chapter focuses on Rabbi Zucker, who faces a moral dilemma and a crisis of faith when he struggles to save his Synagogue in the face of the upcoming storm.
Up next is the story of a scientist taking matters into her own hand and embark on a drastic mission to lower the temperature of the Earth, through a method not as scientifically sound or solid, but one she believes is a necessary risk in the face of immediate dangers of climate change.
The story then focuses on the deadly mission a delivery man from Mumbai must take on, to deliver important seeds to a genetic scientist across the country, while powerful enemies follow him to prevent that from happening.
The penultimate chapter sees a character from a previous story return, now all grown up but having suffered tremendous loss since and struggling to cope with said loss. In order to keep hanging on to the past, he ends up losing the memories of all of it, starting a new life tragically unaware of the one he had before it.
The final chapter sees the billionaire villain who has impacted all thses stories and developments thus far in the show, getting brought to justice, as humans finally gain a tool to improve upon the climate change and also learn to be better themselves.
Performances
The range of emotions for the most part in Extrapolations is confined to a relatively smaller part of the spectrum. The stories and the subject matters within make for some melancholic times, when they’re not immediately and clearly tragic.
Notable mentions are Meryl Streep, who is on screen for a brief period but nonetheless provides a strong, emotional performance that resonates and touches deeply.
Sienna Miller in the second episode does nothing extra with her expressions or body language but just enough to portray the pain, grief, shock, empathy, and then hope that her character Rebecca Shearer goes through in the episode.
Neska Rose as the young, inquisitive, and fierce Alana Goldblatt is really great and shows a lot of promise. Her exchanges with an equally great Daweed Diggs are the best part of the third episode.
Tahar Rahim as the adult Ezra Haddad is just heart-shattering, but before his tragic fate at the end of the episode, he plays an incredibly slick professional who can sport the sleeves of anyone and speak in any tongue. Rahim does an incredibly good job playing that part, among others in the episode.
Positives
There are some compelling narratives that Extrapolations deals with, because the nature of the subject matter allows for it.
The CGI effects for the most part are done really well and the sci-fi elements are integrated seamlessly while also feeling grounded and realistic.
The tragedy of an issue as global and big as climate change is better conveyed through personal stories, for statistics and facts are increasingly becoming ineffective in the public discourse, and the show does personal pain and loss brilliantly, allowing the viewer to really empathize with the characters and feel the effects that irreversible climate changes can bring upon an individual and the collective.
Negatives
While mostly heavy-handed and preachy, the show gets specially loud and cartoonish with the unsubtlety of themes and messages near its end.
The overall affair feels washed down and stale, from a really bad and mostly absent primary antagonist, to the lack of intellectually compelling stuff one would expect from a sci-fi contending with the climate change.
The finale seems really hastily put together and only connects with the previous episodes through brief cameos where it could have drawn a rather prominent connection and a building tension and bad karma would have unloaded on Nick Bilton in a more drastic and dramatic manner, since the show already did away with the subtlety at the end.
Verdict
Extrapolations season 1 is a commendable effort that fails to approach the issues of climate change in a more nuanced, consistent, and connected manner.
Instead, the stories almost entirely focus on the well-off to ultra rich people and their woes in the face of a global calamity that most severely affects the poor, who are nowhere to be seen here other than transient scenes.
