Every Wednesday felt like a holiday during the release of “Pluribus.” Vince Gilligan, the masterful showrunner, succeeds yet again in creating a gripping, tense and reflective television series. Rhea Seehorn’s impeccable performance, paired with a compelling narrative, makes it easy to see why she earned her first Golden Globe.
The first thing you notice from the opening episode of “Pluribus” is the eerie quiet that falls over the world of the show. After months of research, a team of scientists finally crack the code on a genetic sequence received from outer space. When one of the lab rats spreads the engineered virus to a researcher, all hell, surprisingly, doesn’t break loose. As the virus spreads, the nature of the disease makes itself clear: Those infected are joined into a hive mind, sharing consciousness, being and self. The upside? Unending happiness for those infected.
Given enough time, the hive mind eventually unleashes the virus upon the world in an event they dub the “Joining.” By the end, approximately one billion people perish, yet the Joining succeeds in assimilating nearly everyone — except for 13. Among them is Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), dubbed by the show’s synopsis as “the most miserable person on Earth,” who must now save the world from happiness.
The first season takes its time in establishing the world that Carol inhabits, with long, stretching shots of the desolate landscape of Albuquerque, N.M. Gilligan could have leaned on the classic science fiction trope of a hostile hive mind, hell-bent on converting (or even eliminating) the unconverted, but he subverts expectations completely.
The hive mind, at least in demeanor, appears to be absolutely benevolent. They don’t kill for sustenance (even farming is harmful in their eyes); instead, they collaborate. Even all the deaths that occurred during the initial joining were due to virus-related seizures rather than violence. As for the unconverted, the hive mind seems to want to take genuine care of them, even offering them anything they could ever want — and the word “anything” isn’t hyperbole.
From this subversion emerges an interesting relationship between Carol and the hive mind, one of forced dependence despite her unyielding rebelliousness and desire for autonomy. Rhea Seehorn conveys this internal conflict perfectly, with every facial expression and dialogue delivered with an unflinching realness.
However, this doesn’t mean the season was perfect. Gilligan clearly sets up for a larger narrative to be played out in successive seasons (Apple TV has already ordered a second season), as the first season features a lot of worldbuilding. It matches the pace of his previous show, “Better Call Saul.” There are points in the show where it feels like some of this worldbuilding lags behind the more intriguing plotlines of the hive mind. One episode in particular (which I’ll refrain from speaking of in detail as this is a no-spoilers review, after all) was such a slog that I dropped the show for a little while after watching it. This isn’t to say that the episode was bad, necessarily, but the ambitious sci-fi elements demanded a slightly faster pace.
When the worldbuilding hit, though, it left me speechless. There’s a vulnerability to Carol that is uncovered slowly, revealed the more you dig into her character. The show accomplishes this through long scenes featuring only her mannerisms and how she behaves. Carol’s wife passed away during the “Joining,” and her actions, whether she is reaching out to the other people who are immune or interacting with one of her assigned chaperones from the hive mind, reveal an underlying desire for connection. On the other side of that spectrum, the hive mind has the unending task of spreading their infection far and wide, regardless of whether the person wants it. This push and pull to become one with the hive mind or maintain one’s individuality is what makes “Pluribus” so compelling.
In order to avoid spoilers, I have omitted a lot of truly magnificent moments of this show, but if even a little bit of this review is intriguing, I recommend watching it. It’s one of those pieces that can’t be fully understood until you actually sit down and immerse yourself in it. Vince Gilligan has succeeded yet again in creating an immersive world with characters so well-written that they make the show feel indiscernible from reality. Though it occasionally suffers from pacing issues, overall, it’s a strong introductory season into the thought-provoking world of “Pluribus.”
