The series of the week: Extrapolations | For or against the planet?

Global warming has already been discussed in fiction, mainly in literature. Apple TV+ is doing it big time and an all-star cast with the series Extrapolationsby Scott Z. Burns.

The idea

In 2011, director Steven Soderbergh showed how a pandemic would affect our world with the film Contagion. Scott Z. Burns was the screenwriter. He also produced the double Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which deals with climate change. Clearly, humanitarian crises inspire the American. With Extrapolationsit explores, over the course of eight episodes, the future repercussions of the gradual warming of our planet at different times, from 2037 to 2070.

The distribution

The proposal is intriguing, no doubt. The cast is downright impressive. Among the names in the credits are Meryl Streep, Marion Cotillard, Edward Norton, Kit Harington, Forest Whitaker, Sienna Miller, Gemma Chan, Tobey Maguire, Daveed Diggs and Diane Lane. Some only star in one episode, while others return from time to time. Kit Harington, for example, plays the multi-billionaire Nicholas Bilton, founder of the Alpha company, whose shadow hovers throughout the story.

The approach

With the exception of a few recurring characters, each episode offers different points of view. A marine biology specialist who communicates with the last whale in the oceans, a rabbi who tries to save his synagogue from the waters in Miami, a duo of petty criminals who must carry a precious package from one city to another in India, a couple receiving another for New Years in San Francisco. We visit different places and meet a wide variety of protagonists, which is quite relevant since it is a global crisis.

Our opinion

Unfortunately, these qualities only beautify the surface ofExtrapolations, which was already quite appealing with its topical premise and big-name cast. No need to dig long to realize that this series has many gaps. First, it is terribly poorly written. Nuance and subtlety are almost non-existent, the tone is moralizing and dramatic, then the characters are poor helpless victims or rich profiteering bastards. The music, which is meant to set an eerie vibe, is just annoying – that over-excited piano… The production is lazy and relies too much on dialogue that wishes it were as deep as it claims. Certain performances, including that of Marion Cotillard, sometimes save the day, but not often enough.

Of the eight episodes, only one really pleased us and it is the sixth, which was put online last Friday. Our suggestion: watch only him or do yourself harm and persevere until the end to find out the fate of Nicholas Bilton, aka Elon Z. Bezos.

On Apple TV+