Vince Gilligan, the creator of series such as Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, has returned to television with his latest series Pluribus, available on AppleTV. Instead of going back to the gritty world of crime and drug cartels, Gilligan goes back to his science fiction roots that launched his career over 30-years-ago with The X-Files. Combining the science fiction mystery with noir seen in works such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Twilight Zone, and The Thing, Pluribus is a smart, methodically paced science fiction mystery that will undoubtedly test your patients.
Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn, Better Call Saul) is a best-selling fantasy romance author who is returning home from a book tour with her manager and partner Helen (Miriam Shor, American Fiction). However, a night at the bar turns into a nightmare after an extraterrestrial virus transforms humanity into a peaceful and content hive mind, in a matter of minutes. Soon Carol realizes that she is one of thirteen people who are immune against the “Joining” and is in a race against time to save humanity before “The Others” turn her into them.
If this is your first time encountering a Vince Gilligan series you should be prepared for the series pacing. As with all of Gilligan’s series, his pacing moves with intention. It’s methodical, purposeful, and “slow”. And by slow, you are not going to be getting answers all of the answers served on a silver platter. Gilligan demands patience from his audience as is forcing us to sit with his characters, in their environment in what almost feels like real time. Whether it’s Carol spending an entire episode or two on her own as she pushed The Others away or Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga, The Hijacking of Flight 601) crossing the Darian Gap for an entire episode, Gilligan forces you to be with his characters and their frustrations, anger, depression and pain. In the era for shortening attention-spans and TikTok brains, it is refreshing to see a filmmaker stick to his principles by not immediately rewarding his audience.That said, even by Gilligan’s standards, the pacing can be frustrating at times.
Narratively, Gilligan puts you in Carol’s shoes, played brilliantly by Rhea Seehorn who finds a perfect balance between depression, anger, and sheer human willpower. We know just as much as Carol does as we follow her over the course of the series’ nine episodes. The moment that the hivemind takes over humanity, Carol is forced into an intricate game of cat and mouse between her and The Others. The disarmingly nice and people pleasing nature of The Others constantly puts Carol on her toes as she must navigate the difference between them being genuinely kind and being emotionally manipulative. This balance between manipulation and kindness was perfectly captured by Karolina Wydra (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D), who plays Zosia, Carol’s chaperone to the Others. While The Others cannot lie, it takes a lot of effort to get them to tell the truth. Even when Carol receives the truth, there are still glaring omissions and non-answers that Carol must decipher. And if she pushes too far, The Others break out in seizures or crying fits, which forces The Others to leave Carol alone for weeks at a time. In these moments where Carol is alone, she struggles to keep her sanity as humanity was taken away from her, and hers may be taken next.
What Gilligan has ultimately crafted is a visceral encapsulation of what it’s like to be one of the few sane people in a world gone mad. Every frame is constructed with meticulous care and intention. Through the cinematography, the score, and the precise editing, the series creates a suffocating sense of enclosure as you feel the walls closing in on Carol. Her frustration with The Others, the remaining survivors, and herself are palpable as she searches for answers that save humanity while simultaneously grasping for the human connection she has already lost. At its core, the series is a gripping examination of the conflict between homogenous collectivism and individual identity, posing an unsettling question. If humanity’s final evolution is a state of total peace, as embodied by The Others, what is sacrificed to achieve it? Gilligan resists providing easy answers as he trusts his audience’s intelligence to wrestle with that question and many more. It’s refreshing to encounter a series that so clearly respects its audience’s intelligence.
Overall, Pluribus stands as one of the smartest series I’ve seen in quite some time. It places genuine trust in its audience by asking them to connect the dots alongside Carol rather than spelling everything out for his audience. The show refuses to spoon-feed its audience, and rewards them for their patients and close attention. In the era defined by shrinking attention spans and TikTok brained media consumption, Pluribus not only feels refreshing, but is a necessity to keep critical thinking alive.
My Rating: A
All episodes of Pluribus are now streaming on AppleTV.
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