TV review: ‘Pluribus’ - Vince Gilligan and Rhea Seehorn nail it again
Rhea Seehorn is back working with television guru Vince Gilligan in Pluribus, a new show on Apple TV.
With four episodes aired so far, the show is already proving popular, setting record viewing numbers for the launch of an Apple TV drama - even exceeding those put up by season two of Ben Stiller’s Severance.
Film News Blitz’s Charlie Gardner breaks down everything you need to know about the show before watching, with as few spoilers as possible.
Who is Vince Gilligan, creator of ‘Pluribus’?
From his work on The X-Files to a little show called Breaking Bad, Gilligan is now established as one of the biggest and best in writing and directing.
Gilligan’s work is often intricate in its writing and incredibly creative when it comes to direction.
His shows will often leave you on the edge of your seat in nail-biting moments, or sometimes create a slow burn that is so uniquely satisfying when it pays off.
His characters are always intriguing and emotionally complex, feeling real and grounded even when subject to any outrageously outlandish events that Gilligan writes into his shows.
He has seen critical praise throughout his work, something that sells Pluribus long before you even know a thing about it.
Who is Rhea Seehorn, star of the show?
For those familiar with the Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul, Seehorn is someone who deserves no introduction.
Seehorn is an actress who was relatively unknown prior to Better Call Saul, where her role as Kim Wexler earned her deserved acclaim.
Her character in the show serves not only as a love interest to the main protagonist Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), but one that is brilliantly written with a tragic story.
Seehorn is a fantastic actress who certainly deserved another big gig, with creator Gilligan adamant he had plans to work with her on a new project once Better Call Saul ended.
That project wound up being Pluribus, and Seehorn absolutely makes the show, with her witty and pessimistic character stealing any scene she’s in.
What is ‘Pluribus’ about?
Pluribus is a sci-fi drama that centres around Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), one of the very few worldwide “survivors” after a signal from space infects the minds of the human population, leaving them all part of a hive-mind, save for her.
The creation of this bizarre hive-mind leaves Carol alone and without her wife, who died in the aftermath of the worldwide infection.
Seemingly the only one capable of independent thought, Carol finds herself struggling to piece together what the world has come to as the mind encourages her to blindly assimilate into their new and efficient way of life.
With the virus meaning everyone now shares the same thoughts and knowledge, Carol is plunged into a world where everyone is familiar with her work as an author, as well as privy to all the knowledge that her late wife had before her death.
Pluribus seems to be keeping its cards close to its chest, though, as each episode drops a little bit more information on the virus, with the audience finding things out as Carol does.
The slow burn is fantastic, teasing the audience in a way that only draws you closer into the plot with its bubbling intrigue.
The rest of the cast does a fantastic job, with nearly every other character so far being wonderfully portrayed as billions of minds talking through one mouth.
The main spokesperson from the “others” is Zosia (Karolina Wydra), an unnerving character who can often be seen obeying Carol’s every demand in a bid to encourage her to assimilate, even going as far as blindly providing her with a live hand grenade simply because she demanded it.
The show is a far cry from the world of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul (even though both worlds share the setting of Albuquerque, New Mexico), as Pluribus sets a more bleak, sanitary and unsettling scene compared to the drug and crime-filled pressure cooker that was the world of Gilligan’s previous works.
Left open to interpretation
Pluribus has a bizarre theme, as it toys not only with the sci-fi aspect of contact from outer space, but also with what it says for humanity.
There’s a cliché in any creative work of audiences going over the top with any interpretations, but there’s always something to be looked at in the work of someone as creative as Gilligan.
With inspiration taken from works like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Truman Show, among many others, it’s clear that Gilligan is intentionally going for something unsettling and uncanny with his work.
But what else is there that he’s trying to say?
One thing Gilligan has said during his media promotion for Pluribus is that he made one big mistake with Breaking Bad in that he went out and explained how fans should be interpreting his work.
He wants it to be different this time around, letting fans make their own conclusions from the story he’s provided.
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The hive-mind itself isn’t necessarily painted as good or bad.
It makes people happy, eliminates crime and makes everyone efficient.
On the other hand, it’s also got the disturbing idea of none of your thoughts being private, as well as nobody having the autonomy or freedom that is held in such high regard in modern culture today.
One parallel that seems to be drawn by many viewers - including myself - is that the show could be a statement on the rise in artificial intelligence, something that feels a deliberate parallel given Carol’s career as an author.
Carol is thrown into a world where people no longer think for themselves and where agency or creativity has vanished, in a world of pooled consciousness and knowledge, something that feels to me a statement on modern technology and artificial intelligence that Gilligan has spoken out against in the past.
Closing Remarks, a mini-review
Pluribus is a show that just feels unique.
It’s more than your typical science-fiction show with aliens and the like.
It feels like the genre is being reinvented in a way that still somehow feels very (ironically) human and grounded in the events that happen.
It’s a show that is hard to miss each week, and aside from the brilliant performances and cinematography, a lot of that credit has to go to the writing and how it is structured.
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As touched upon previously, the way the audience gets to follow Carol along the mystery of the hive-mind really does make the show.
It is incredibly addictive seeing Carol’s creative methods of investigation into the way the virus works, and the way viewers only find things out as she does keeps each episode fresh and full of intrigue, something that is a credit to the brilliant concept and the way it’s been executed.
Don’t get it wrong, Pluribus is not a Breaking Bad, or a Better Call Saul, and probably is not going to be another X-Files.
But what we do have here is the beginning of a show and story that will probably be spoken about for years to come, one that feels fresh and different and something that I would highly recommend giving a chance now before it takes off.
Pluribus releases weekly and is streaming now on Apple TV.
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