Extrapolations Review: Apple's Sobering, Starladen Ecodrama Asks Difficult Questions
In Extrapolation (now streaming on Apple TV+), creator and screenwriter Scott Z. Barnes aims to tackle climate change, as he did for infectious disease.
Also, the show promises to grab viewers by the collar and immerse them in a high-profile drama that will actively explore the people of a planet headed for environmental disaster.
With a stellar cast that includes Meryl Streep, Edward Norton, Marion Cotillard and Forest Whitaker, there's a worthy reason for the extrapolation. Fifteen years in the future, Burns immediately begins bombarding the audience with facts and figures that immediately reinforce the play, which wastes no time in building its manifesto.
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Due to rising temperatures, forest fires, glaciers melting due to the same reason, and hybrid diseases appear which are linked to these environmental factors.
Fluctuations occur between different characters; Each of which plays an important role in telling this story.
Watch the trailer for Extrapolation
In one corner stands Marshall Zucker (David Diggs), a trainee rabbi desperately trying to reconcile his faith with the growing crisis. Elsewhere, environmental activist Rebecca (Sienna Miller) runs through the jungles of Colombia and faces the same moral dilemma as her husband Omar (Tahar Rahim) attends the COP 37 climate change conference.
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Another element in the equation is Junior (Matthew Rhys), a nasty corporate money launderer who wants to build a casino at the North Pole.
Pearly white, she travels the world oblivious to her carbon footprint while her pop star partner Hannah (Heather Graham) dabbles in social media for no reason.
It's obvious that each character in this early episode is an archetype created specifically to portray a different point of view, but what might surprise some is how deeply rooted each point of view is. Junior may be cartoonish, but he reflects the behavior of many viewers who are part of the one percent who treat this world as a playground for their own personal spoils.
Within this layered introduction of characters, this Apple TV+ original also begins to take on dramatic energy with the reappearance of certain characters from time to time. Over the years, some environmental activists have become archival specialists. Some experience personal loss as a direct result of global factors, remnants of relationships that define them most preciously.
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As heat-related deaths continue to rise as temperatures rise, which in turn kills all kinds of wildlife, extrapolation explores the science of climate change. It goes beyond theological debates about the gods of all religions, which ignore humanity and instead focus on long-term solutions.
It all comes from a company called Alpha Industries, the brainchild of billionaire Nick Bilton (Kit Harington), suggesting that corporations are considered saints and sinners here. As a global organization that puts drought control decisions in the same hands but actively tries to influence the public through media manipulation, this is a contradiction.
Carbon-neutral transportation may have been seen as a panacea for jet crashes for decades, but humanity still seems content to cause damage and then reach for the Band-Aid. Even if this fictional Amazon clone tries to be charitable in its actions, there's still the faint smell of big business dollars in the rearview mirror.
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Given the presence on this A-list calendar, there's an embarrassing richness on display here. Some will surprise the audience, although truly great star roles are weak in their emotional impact: they don't want attention to accidentally overshadow or detract from the importance of what Scott Z Burns is trying to convey.
Most notably Meryl Streep, who only cemented her reputation with this very rare appearance on the small screen, delivers a compelling performance that works on multiple levels. Likewise, Sienna Miller plays the truly wealthy character Rebecca Shearer, which gives Extrapolation a real sense of emotional honesty in the first two episodes.
Elsewhere, Judd Hirsch ( Storytellers ) indulges in sci-fi nostalgia while reprising his role as an overprotective father in Independence Day , this time with David Schwimmer ( Friends ). Who will make such an amazing comeback and makes you wonder why the actor chose to do so few films?
What other critics think about extrapolation
Digital Spy: "Feels very realistic, although people are a bit two-dimensional" (Read 4 minutes)
The Guardian: 'Even Meryl Streep Can't Save This Messy Eco-Drama' (3 min read)
The Independent: 'All-star climate change drama bland and predictable' (4 min read)
The Hollywood Reporter: "Surprising But Complicated Climate Change Drama On Apple TV+" (5 min read)
Also, it's fair to say that "Extrapolation" aims to entertain rather than educate, even if some viewers prefer the entertainment of climate change to be sometimes short and more "tomorrow" than glory.
Either way, this is a show that has time and reason to ask some tough questions as it aims to reach a wider audience.
The first three episodes of Extrapolation are available to stream on Apple TV+ with new episodes every week.
