Created by Scott Z. Burns, responsible for the script of ‘Contagion’, the feature film that all journalists turned to when the pandemic turned everything upside down, ‘A challenging future’ -‘Extrapolations’ is its much more suggestive title in English- it also has a certain prophetic air. Its theme is, neither more nor less, climate change and its consequences in the not too distant future, through eight episodes that develop eight different stories but interrelated by their characters or their plots.
The new Apple TV+ series began to be deployed on the platform last Friday, placing the first three chapters of the proposal on the table, so it is possible to get an idea of the quality of an ambitious fiction that comes with a cast full of stars, among which you can find Meryl Streep, Matthew Rhys, Forest Whitaker, Marion Cotillard, Sienna Miller, Tobey Maguire, Kit Harington, David Schwimmer, Judd Hirsch or Edward Norton.
Its first episode is precisely the most complex of the production due to the number of elements that must be introduced for the viewer to fully enter the story. We are in the year 2037 and COP42 is taking place in Tel Aviv. Much has happened since the summit held in Paris in 2015, which ended with the warning that if the planet’s temperature rose by more than one and a half degrees over a century, the consequences would be devastating. Now countries are considering reaching and even exceeding two degrees, while thousands of protesters march through the streets of their cities demanding that the disaster stop.
Soon we are introduced to the four characters that are part of this first episode. Marshall, a young man who has just been appointed rabbi and plans to stay in Israel, despite his father’s insistence that he go with them to Miami; Junior, a remorseless businessman who doesn’t hesitate to continue getting rich off the hardships of others and who plans to build a casino in the arctic; Becca, a pregnant naturalist who has just been trapped in a burning forest, and Nick Bilton, the world’s richest man, a sort of Elon Musk, owner of Alpha, with patents that could bring water to regions most in need.
Relying on images of real catastrophes and creating others through computer-designed special effects, the series, with a good bill, presents a terrifying future where, in reality, the challenges remain the same as we have today, only multiplied by the consequences. already visible climate change: droughts, fires, famines and migratory crises continue as nations try to agree on the steps to follow -France demands a commitment not to reach two degrees, Algeria and Palestine ask in return water – and corporations take advantage of the delicate situation. It is a complex chapter due to the number of plots that are intertwined, which points to capitalism and unscrupulous businessmen, as the main culprits, but which also sins of Manicheanism, with some one-dimensional villains.
towards the concrete
But the fiction improves in its next two episodes, when it develops more concrete stories. The second is set ten years later and focuses on the figure of Becca, who has become an archivist for Menagerie2100, a genomics technology company that has set itself the mission of saving animals and plants from extinction. They will save their DNA so that, in the future, they can be brought back to life. Becca’s little boy, Ezra, was born with Summer Heart, one of the many diseases that arose as a result of climate change and that force him to remain almost always sheltered from the outside sun.
While taking care of her son, Becca works with a humpback whale that could be the only one left on the face of the Earth and is voiced by Meryl Streep – yes, in 2046 humans have managed to communicate with other species. ‘2046: the end of the whales’, which is what the chapter is called, is a fantastic fable that talks about how dangerous the human species is when it believes it is above the rest, about the lack of ethics in its actions, and that invites not to make the mistakes of the past again, while launching a resounding plea in favor of the preservation of species.
The third is set a year later, in 2047, and resumes the character of Rabbi Marshall, who has finally moved to a semi-sunken Miami due to the increase in water caused by melting glaciers. His synagogue is one of the buildings that needs funding from the Department of Sea Level Mitigation so it doesn’t end up abandoned due to flooding. Marshall will do everything possible for the property to be repaired, but the irruption into his life of Alana, a young activist, daughter of a builder who is making gold with the houses he is building for the rich in the highest areas and about to of celebrating your Bar Mitzvah, it will lead you to question your own faith and put you in more than one spot.
‘A challenging future’ has an aroma like a climatic ‘Black Mirror’, although on this occasion the technologies it presents -windows that hide the terror that is experienced abroad with paradisiacal landscapes, glasses that allow telephone conversations or the device that interprets the sound of whales – are not so vital in developing your narrative. Less ambitious in its direction, although with the occasional very enjoyable dream moment -that musical moment is very funny-, the fiction seeks to stir consciences and put the viewer on alert. It would be nice if it went deep.
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