Pluribus Series Premiere Review

Full spoilers follow for Pluribus Episodes 1 & 2, “We Is Us” and “Pirate Lady,” which are available now on Apple TV.

Vince Gilligan is best known for creating Breaking Bad and its spin-off Better Call Saul, but the writer-producer-director actually got his start in TV back in the ’90s in the pulpier sci-fi/horror trenches of The X-Files. In addition to co-creating that show’s short-lived spin-off, The Lone Gunmen, and working on other genre projects, Gilligan has also made it clear over the years that he’s a sci-fi fan himself, with Star Trek in particular being near and dear to his heart.

So it’s really no surprise that Pluribus, his new series for Apple TV, would have a science fiction bent. And while Gilligan is back in the world of weird and other-worldly concepts, he’s not surprisingly bringing his distinctly dark yet humorous tone with him for what is, based on the first two episodes, a unique spin on an age-old sci-fi notion.

Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn teams up with her old showrunner again, starring in Pluribus as Carol Sturka, a popular Diana Gabaldon-type romance novelist who’s great at interacting with her fans at book signings and the such, but who, once she’s safely ensconced in her black car on the way home from such events, unleashes her real feelings about her work. “Should I know who you are?” her driver innocently asks. Carol responds, “That depends. Are you a big fan of mindless crap?”

And while her life partner and manager Helen (Miriam Shor) encourages Carol to finally finish the passion project she’s been working on for years – her “serious book” – the problem is the entire world is about to change in a big way…

The first episode of Pluribus takes its time in establishing the premise of the show, which involves – reminder, this is a full spoiler review of the first two episodes – a mysterious transmission from deep space which provides humankind with an RNA formula. Long story short, the formula leads to a virus of sorts and eventually causes the minds of every person on the planet to merge into a single consciousness via a sort of “psychic glue.” So yeah, it’s a lot, and some viewers might find the road to get there circuitous, as we follow random astronomers and scientists as this discovery goes from strange anomaly to, essentially, an invasion of the planet.

And oh, when I say every person on the planet, I have to amend that because it’s actually everyone on the planet who is now part of a hive mind except for Carol and, we’re told, 12 other people from around the globe who for some unknown reason are immune to the effects of the virus.

So it’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but the pod people have already won by the time our hero character even figures out what’s going on. (Resistance is futile, don’t you know?) This all sets up a very interesting dynamic for the show; not only is Carol confronted with the question of how she can move forward in this strange new world, but there’s also the matter of how the “joined” rest of humanity will deal with her.

It’s here that Gilligan really freshens up this take on the pod people/Borg/what have you. For while the Joined did cause horrific damage to the world and mass casualties (886 million dead, give or take) when they hurried up the joining process by seeding the atmosphere with the alien RNA (the military was on to them), they seemingly are a happy, go-lucky people (person?) who want nothing but the best for Carol and the other folks who are immune to its effects. As Episode 1 nears its conclusion, there’s a great scene involving the Under-Secretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation, who is live on C-Span just standing at a podium, quietly waiting for her to call him so they can talk. Why the Under-Secretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation? Well, because he was “nearby, and intact, and he was wearing a suit.”

Seehorn is great in these moments, somehow depicting Carol as she digests not just the insanity that has erupted around her, but also the tragedy – which includes Helen dying after falling and hitting her head during the Joining. And yet there’s a slightly comedic vibe at times as well, as if the preposterous nature of the situation can’t wait to come out and play in future episodes.

By Episode 2, Gilligan (who wrote and directed both segments) is fully embracing both the (literally) out-of-this-world concept while also having fun with it all. In an extended opening sequence, Karolina Wydra makes her debut as Zosia, a woman from the Middle East who is chosen to be a spokesperson for the Joined because she kinda looks like the hunky (male) character from Carol’s romance novels (the Pirate Lady of the episode’s title). Not a bad idea!

In this sequence, we start to get a sense of how the Joined work, with every individual act serving a greater need. As Zosia moves from being yet another faceless participant in the clean-up effort the entire world is currently conducting, to modifying her look to be more Pirate Lady-ish, to piloting a cargo plane herself to the United States in order to meet Carol, it becomes clear that the Joined have literally every resource, human, mechanical, and otherwise, at their disposal. And yet they just seem to want to help Carol and the 12 like her.

Or do they? Carol feels an obligation to restore the world, somehow, to its former self. But when she requests, and is granted, a meeting with the English-speaking members of the 12 who are immune, she is surprised to find that most of them are either in denial about the true nature of the situation, or they just don’t care enough to resist the Joined. They’re complacent, and as a result, complicit.

Certainly, the Joined’s constant fawning over Carol is meant to evoke how her fans once treated her, and while she was very patient with that lot, she’s way less forgiving of her new fan club. Seehorn’s anger and sadness as Carol really add weight to the crazy idea at the center of this show, even while Carol’s biting wit and constant booze-guzzling keep us from going too far down the well of despair.

Meanwhile, Wydra has a very difficult task as well as Zosia, a character who – as a member of the Joined – is basically a cypher, but one who we are already starting to care about all the same. As Episode 2 comes to a close and we see Zosia going off with one of the immune Others after Carol rejects her, her simple look back – in extreme wide shot, through an airplane window! – is kind of heartbreaking.

I can’t wait to see where Gilligan goes next with this show.

Questions and Notes From Kepler-22b

• Pause at 51 minutes and 47 seconds and you’ll see that the radio signal seemed to come from the vicinity of Kepler-22b, an exoplanet which orbits the star Kepler-22 and is some 640 light-years away.
• I was surprised that we already met some of the other 12 immune Others in Episode 2. The question now is what’s up with the ones who Carol didn’t meet yet?
• Will we get some flashbacks here or there to the before times? Certainly Gilligan has done that with past projects. I’d like to see more of Miriam Shor as Helen for one thing.
• Speaking of which, what a cruel twist that not only did Helen die because of the Joining, but she also joined herself right before passing.
• I may continue to review Pluribus on a weekly basis if you guys seem to want it (and the show remains interesting). So let me know in the comments!