Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
In 2037, humanity has done a lot of great things, according to Apple TV+. We’ve set foot on Mars. We’ve cured cancer. We’ve saved U.S. democracy (despite losing Texas).
But, as Extrapolations’ dystopian world tells us, none of those things are going to matter soon because we haven’t figured out how to solve climate change.
Part of it comes from countries unwilling to work together to fight the problem. After all, some countries are still just trying to secure basic needs like water, so climate change isn’t really at the top of their radar. The other big problem is corporate greed (along with everyone who buys from said corporations). As it turns out, everyone’s all for saving the planet until they realize it means they’ll need to cut back on making, buying and using cars.
So now, polar bears, tigers and whales are all extinct, with thousands of other species following suit. Humanity is desperately trying to save its coastal cities as places like Miami and Havana deal with constant flooding. Some island countries are already gone.
And as the decades push on, and the fires and flooding get worse, the only place left for salvation is in religion—even if you have to wear rain boots because the synagogue is flooded.
Extrapolations dramatizes the impact that climate change might have on the world. It’s directed by Scott Burns, who also produced the climate focused An Inconvenient Truth. And though we can tend to expect a bit of preaching when it comes to movies dealing with these kinds of topics, we didn’t expect it to be in the literal sense.
The show’s premiere episodes are filled with discussions on religion—so much so that I often knew the beliefs of a character before I even knew their name. The primary focus has thus far been on Judaism, as Hamilton star Daveed Diggs’ character attempts to wrestle with the climate change issue as a rabbi. There’s furthermore some Native American mythology and a few references to Christianity, too.
Extrapolations also contains a bit of sexual content (particularly in its pilot episode), enough that we wouldn’t be surprised to see complete nudity in the episodes to come. We see a bit of violence in the form of bloody bodies or, in one case, a man lighting himself on fire. And heavy language is quite frequent, too.
The show may also have some elements that don’t sit well with some. For instance, the second episode showcases technology that allows us to have full conversations with animals. (And, of course, the irony of Apple producing a series about how corporate greed is destroying the planet certainly isn’t lost on us either.)
Is Extrapolations the worst it could have been? No. Despite its issues, I could see the same story being told with much more sensationalism and content problems. But don’t extrapolate that concession into praise.
As world governments debate climate change regulations, a greedy hotel CEO named Junior attempts to capitalize on the Arctic Circle.
Marshall Zucker steps into his role as a rabbi in Tel Aviv, though his father wants him to move to Miami. He tells a joke about a priest, rabbi and imam, and he gives a sermon on climate change. A protestor, upset at how much control CEO Nick Bilton has over the world (thanks to his valuable water desalination company, Alpha Hydro Solutions), wears a mask of the CEO’s face and calls himself the “Alpha and the Omega.” Immediately after, we switch to a scene of Nick in a pool, and the black lines coloring the tiles behind Nick make him look to be in front of a cross.
A Native American woman tells a mythological story about Gray Eagle and the Raven. A company looks to use gene technology to bring back extinct species, causing someone to respond “everyone wants to play God but God, I guess.” A man quotes the Ten Commandments. Someone says that “hell is upon us.” A woman does yoga, and we hear the instructor say “namaste” and lead her in Hindu exercises.
A holographic broadcast is interrupted by a woman in revealing lingerie dancing on a pole. A woman wears a dress that exposes most of her breasts. Someone talks about a video in which she says she wore nothing except for whipped cream. An environmental initiative is sarcastically called the “Green Wet Dream.”
A man lights himself on fire. A man is killed by a walrus, and we see the resulting bloodied corpse. People consume alcohol.
We hear over 15 f-words and 11 s-words. “A–,” “d-ck” and “h—” are all used, too. God’s name is used in vain three times, including once in the form of “g-dd–n.” A slang term for male genitalia is used once, too.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
An elf mage contemplates on connection and regret as she watches her human friends grow old and pass away.
