‘Tomorrow + I’ Episode 4 ‘Octopus Girl’ Review

In ‘Octopus Girl’, the fourth episode of Netflix’s sci-fi anthology ‘Tomorrow + I’, we’re shown a world trying to survive as it’s battered by freak weather.

In the future, the Earth is plagued by constant heavy rain, which has been pouring for decades. The water level has risen drastically, meaning a lot of areas have become uninhabitable. To fight this, the government has built cities higher, using huge drainage pipes to return water to the lower ground. However, despite the fact they should have been relocated, there are still people living in the lower parts of the city, where poverty and disease are constant. This is where we’re introduced to the main characters, Calapangha and Mook, two young girls who live there.

A new vaccine is announced that will make people immune from many of the water borne diseases, but the government is hesitant to role it out, saying it hasn’t been properly tested yet. When Calapangha enters a singing contest on national TV, she reveals what life is like for people living in her neighborhood, raising awareness that there are still people down there. It’s eventually revealed that the prime minister himself has taken the vaccine, and the only reason it hasn’t been rolled out is because of how much it would cost.

I’m not entirely sure where to start with this, as it’s the kind of film that’s all over the place. For a start, the tone is very much a comedy. Sometimes it’s surreal, or zany, or childish, or brutal. At times it’s a political satire. But it’s wildly inconsistent. The same can be said of the characters, who are often more like cartoons than serious people. Everything is bright and over the top, with a lot of weird stuff thrown in, like a piranha cat, or the fact the vaccine makes you grow squid tentacles.

There’s so much random stuff included it feels like it could have been thrown together by a group of people who just threw every random idea into a mixer to see what came out.

At the heart of the story, you essentially have the two girls, Calapangha and Mook, and their lives in the flooded part of the city, where it’s clear things are pretty bad. A lot of people are ill, there isn’t much money, and the buildings aren’t strong enough to withstand the heavy rainfall. But I’m not really sure where any of it goes, or what point it’s trying to make. Sure, it’s about the effects of global warming, but that’s about all. It doesn’t have anything else to say other than it will be bad. There’s no examination of its causes, or who is responsible, or how it can be dealt with.

It’s odd because all of the other films in this anthology had a very clear purpose in mind. They knew what they were saying and stuck to it. But ‘Octopus Girl’ feels like an incoherent ramble. There are specific questions, no attempt to make the science credible, and no attempts to fix the issue raised. The girls mention doing something to help, but that never comes to anything, and the only answer it gives is to just try and cope with the situation you’re in.

While the wacky tone does make for some entertaining, and often quite funny, scenes, it also doesn’t find a way to balance that with the serious moments, turning everything into a joke. It never lets up for a moment, and the pace is so frantic and random that it feels more like an SNL skit rather than a smart look at the problems of the future.

It’s a pity, as comedy is always a good way to explore difficult issues, but this feels like the laughs come above everything else, and there’s no proper plot underlying it all to give it a purpose. Things just happen with no set up or pay off, and the ending comes completely out of nowhere in what could be seen as dystopian, but really is just hilarious.

Throughout this anthology there have been some interesting questions asked, but here, in the final episode, it really doesn’t have all that much to say.