In November, a new sci-fi show called Pluribus will debut on Apple TV+. Apple has only released one official image. It hasn’t released a trailer despite the premiere being only a few weeks away. We only have a vague idea of what Pluribus is about, and yet people are already expecting it to be the show of the year.
But from what we do know about Pluribus, I can see why the excitement is building, and it’s time for you to get involved and feel the hype, too.
Pluribus comes from the guy who made Breaking Bad
Résumés don’t come more impressive than that
TV shows should stand on their own. Just because the creator made something universally beloved in the past doesn’t mean his next creation will be a hit. That said, when that creator is Vince Gilligan, attention must be paid.
Gilligan got his start as a writer on The X-Files before going on to create Breaking Bad, arguably the best show of the “Peak TV” era, when we were inundated with so many modern television classics that it was hard to keep up. Breaking Bad told the story of a mild-mannered high school science teacher turned meth kingpin. We shouldn’t expect the plot of Pluribus to resemble Breaking Bad, but if Gilligan brings the same sense of pacing, character, and depth, it’ll be worth watching no matter the topic.
Also, there are some Breaking Bad connections. Pluribus is set in Albuquerque, NM, the same city where Walter White built his drug empire. That by itself is refreshing; with every other TV show set in New York or California, it’s nice to travel off the beaten path every once in a while.
Plus, Pluribus stars Rhea Seehorn in the lead role; Seehorn played morally flexible attorney Kim Wexler on the Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul and earned a pair of well-deserved Emmy nominations for her trouble. Fantastic as she was as Kim, she didn’t actually win an Emmy, but Pluribus will give her another chance to show off her talents.
The premise of Pluribus is instantly fascinating
And possibly hilarious
So what do we know about Pluribus? Seehorn will star as Carol, a woman who lives in a world where everyone but her has been infected with a virus that renders them perpetually content. As Gilligan told Entertainment Weekly, “The drama of the show is that the world’s most miserable person is desperately trying to save the planet from happiness.”
That leaves Gillian and his team a lot of places to go. What is the nature of the happiness virus? Why is Carol immune? And how do you go about “saving” people from an affliction they don’t want to be rid of? This sounds interesting by itself, and fascinating when you imagine what the famously detail-oriented Vince Gilligan could do with it.
I’m sure there will be a lot of drama in Pluribus, but the few snippets released so far make it look more like a surreal comedy. Apple has been drip-feeding us little tastes for a while, and they often have an off-putting, Twilight Zone kind of flavor to them. Take the snippet above. Carol drives into the Westgate Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, the city so uncharacteristically quiet that you can hear crickets chirp. On the marquee flash two words: “WELCOME CAROL.” Put off by the cheery greeting, she tears through the intersection. Or how about this one, where Carol watches a drone fumble about trying to airlift away her garbage?
I’m sure we’ll all be having our trash flown away by drones soon, if it isn’t already happening in Silicon Valley. Maybe Pluribus is going to satirize the not-so-distant future, where tech is integrated into our daily lives even more than it is now. Perhaps a large tech company is responsible for the happiness virus. I’m speculating wildly because the marketing has given me very little to go on, which is making me even more curious.
Apple TV+ has a reputation for making great sci-fi
It’s easily the dorkiest streaming service
Good sci-fi is hard to make; just ask the people behind Alien: Earth, which recently wrapped up its first season on Hulu to polite golf claps. But Apple TV+ is determined to get it right. There have been a lot of quality sci-fi shows on various streaming services over the last several years, but no one does it like the nerds at Apple, who’ve produced giant hits like Severance and solid shows like For All Mankind, Foundation, Invasion, Silo, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Dark Matter, or Murderbot. Obviously, they live for sci-fi.
So it’s no surprise that Apple swooped in and picked up this offbeat idea from Vince Gilligan, where other networks may have balked. In fact, Apple is so confident that it’s ordered two seasons of Pluribus sight unseen, yet another thing that piques my interest. What about the show makes Apple willing to go all-in right at the top? I have to know.
Hopefully, Pluribus can break through
While Apple TV+ has produced the odd show that catches on, like Severance or Ted Lasso, a lot of its series remain criminally underseen. Apple has the money to keep renewing these series anyway, but I don’t just want Pluribus to be a cult hit; I want it to break out and become everyone’s new sci-fi obsession.
One common criticism of Apple is that while it makes a lot of good shows, it tends not to market them very much. For Pluribus, it’s chosen to mount a viral marketing campaign, with these little snippets tantalizing people. I hope that’s enough to get folks interested, because between the people, the premise, and the pedigree, Pluribus is a show everyone should be excited about.
The first two episodes of Pluribus drop on Friday, November 7, on Apple TV+. After that, they’ll come out once per week. There are nine episodes in the first season.
