Pluribus

Episodes viewed: 7 of 9
Streaming on: Apple TV+

Just when you thought it was no longer possible to do a new spin on the world ending, here comes Vince ‘Breaking Bad’ Gilligan. Despite its heart-on-sleeve influences (hello, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers), Gilligan’s follow-up to Better Call Saul feels not only impressively fresh but also ripe with juicy satire.

While the source of the big Episode 1 earth-shattering event is extra-terrestrial, this is no invasion by beings from another world. They’ve just sent us a long-distance gift. And though most of humanity remains profoundly changed by this viral outbreak — barring 13 inexplicably immune individuals including main character Carol (Better Call Saul MVP Rhea Seehorn) — they are not mindless, flesh-craving zombies. Quite the opposite. Via the mysterious application of some “psychic glue”, they all now share the same memories, expertise, thought processes and emotions. And with this comes sudden, blissful enlightenment: an urge to do as little harm as possible to any other lifeform, especially Carol and her fellow ‘survivors’. This is the cosiest of apocalypses. An overnight Utopia. But, you may well ask, at what cost?

Rhea Seehorn carries the whole show with a deeply resonant performance.

Without pushing all its thematic buttons too hard — and without us wanting to give too much away — Pluribus is likely to get you thinking about, among other things, happiness (and the value of unhappiness), individualism versus community, creepy-friendly AI, pandemics, neurodivergence, loneliness, Communism and the philosophical conundrum of goodness not always being good. So, yes, there’s a lot to digest. But, unfazed by the shift from crime-drama to kinda-sci-fi, Gilligan serves it all up at his usual enjoyably slow-burn pace, while always being sure to put character before plot.

Of course, you need good characters for that to work, and the tricky thing about Pluribus is that its characters are so few. After all, close to 100 per cent of its globe’s population is effectively a single person, albeit in seven-odd-billion different bodies (primarily played by unfamiliar but impressive actors). And while the other immune folk are certainly encountered, the focus is very much on Carol and her relationship with this weird new world.

Gilligan wrote the part for Seehorn, and she proves the ideal choice. The former Kim Wexler carries the whole show with a deeply resonant, powerhouse performance that takes us from harrowing tragedy to dry-wit comedy, as Carol — who, for better and worse, is a good old-fashioned cynic — kicks back against the caring ‘oppressors’ who just want her to be happy. You might say she is Breaking Sad. She’s also one of the least-likely world-saviours imaginable. If indeed this is a world that needs saving… See, we told you this show would keep you thinking.