Pluribus Review: Thinking Outside the Vox
If there’s any justice in this world, Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus will be remembered as a singular work of art that captured humanity’s complete ennui in the face of obsolescence.
Gilligan’s new sci-fi series debuted with 2 initial episodes last Friday on Apple TV, challenging viewers over two taut hours to consider the ramifications of a world without individualism, critical thinking, and autonomy. The series title refers to e pluribus unum, a Latin phrase meaning out of many, one. We don’t have to squint too hard to see the parallels to our global preoccupation with Generative AI, and and the myriad ways in which we are sleep-walking our way towards a cultural precipice.
Although Gilligan refuses to explain or confirm Pluribus’ motifs, preferring to “Just tell a good story, and let the audience figure out the theme,” he did make his stance on AI clear in a Polygon interview this week.
Gilligan commented “I hate AI. It’s the world’s most expensive and energy-intensive plagiarism machine. I think there’s a very high possibility that this is all a bunch of horse shit. It’s basically a bunch of centi-billionaires whose greatest life goal is to become the world’s first trillionaires. I think they’re selling a bag of vapor.”
Cheekily, the show’s credits display the advisory “Made by Humans” at the end of each episode. No doubt additional themes will emerge as points of discussion over the season ahead. Multilayered patterns and thought provoking ideas are the hallmarks of good TV after all. However for now, the ease at which humanity has been charmed into handing over the fruits of its artistic and cultural labors confidently takes center stage.
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In Pluribus, Rhea Seahorn (who fans of Gilligan’s work will remember as Kim Wexler from AMC’s Better Call Saul) stars as disillusioned fantasy romance writer Carol Sturka. Carol is living a lie, penning steamy hetro romances (she literally signs her books with a purple pen) while hiding her life as a lesbian, along with hiding her long-standing personal relationship with her manager and wife Helen (Miriam Shor). Carol and Helen’s relationship is grounded in realism and practicality. In an airport book store, Carol wordlessly nudges Helen to surreptitiously shift fantasy writer Diane Gabaldon’s new bestseller to the bottom shelf, and stack the top shelf with copies of Carol’s latest work instead. At a bar later, Helen later asks Carol if she’d like to come clean to an online fandom about the inspiration behind her many books’ very male pirate captain character, but despite Helen’s playful prompting, Carol chickens out and orders Helen to say “George Clooney” instead. It’s a throwaway moment made sad in retrospect, as it’s the last exchange the couple will ever have.
Carol’s disillusionment over her lack of authenticity and creative control is brought to a sudden and shocking end by the arrival of an alien virus that rapidly infects all of humanity, transforming the planet into one single seemingly benevolent Hive Mind. This “Joining” is not without casualties. Our protagonist later learns that in the brief window of time it took for the virus to gain control of each temporarily paralysed host, almost one billion lives were lost. (Imagine planes falling from the sky, roadside pile ups, drownings, and all manner of deaths caused by losing control of your body and mind for several minutes.) Among them is Helen, who dies of head trauma after hitting the ground hard during her own Joining.
As a traumatized Carol navigates a post-apocalyptic landscape in the aftermath of a series of road, air, sea, and other disasters, she wonders why she alone has been spared from the Joining.
Carol, it seems, is immune.
It appears the conjoined minds of planet earth are just as perplexed as Carol. So much so they send a representative, Zosia (Karolina Wydra), to reassure her that they mean no harm, but at the same time want to let her know they are months out from figuring out why Carol is immune, and finding a way to bring her into their global collective.
It’s not lost on her that Zoisia is a remarkably accurate look alike for Carol’s swashbuckling Pirate Captain — albeit in female form. The likeness is so accurate that Carol forgets to ask her new guide’s real name, instead sourly referring to her as “Pirate Lady” throughout the show’s opening hours.
Zoisia/Pirate Lady wants Carol to know this new “We” cares about her (while working on a way to force her into the fold), wants only her happiness (while viewing the demise of almost one eighth of the planet as acceptable losses), and is invested in her mental and emotional wellbeing (while being unrepentant about erasing individualism, independence, and the right to self determination in a single devastating planetary-wide sweep).
But it’s not only the Hive Mind who doesn’t care about what humanity has lost. Carol soon discovers there are 11 other immune humans who somehow slipped the Joining net too. She immediately jumps at the chance to meet them with the aim of planning a way to put an end to this absurdly complacent new normal.
However Carol soon discovers the last remnants of humanity have no real burning desire to change the status quo. Some of them are happy to live the hedonistic lifestyle the Hive Mind can grant. (Wanna borrow Air Force One for a day? Done!) Others don’t want to upset the apple cart if it’s likely to endanger their families, who look kinda ok post-Joining — from the outside at least. Others are simply happy at the prospect of being part of a happy, contented collective where isolation, doubt, loneliness, and all manner of other barbs to the heart and spirit will soon be salved.
One objective is clear. Everyone wants the 12 outliers to be as happy as possible in their final months as individuals. In fact, it’s imperative that they are. Intense angry emotions cause a short circuit to the Hive Mind that has the knock-on effect of returning people to a brief state of twitchy paralysis. In fact, Carol later learns one such angry outburst of hers caused the collective to lose over a million people through various global accidents. (Sidebar: Do not underestimate the number of people operating heavy machinery on this show!)
“I do love the idea of my character’s anger being problematic for people, though,” Seehorn said in a recent interview. “I feel like I have mostly been taught to tamp it down. I love the idea that a woman’s anger can be dangerous.”
Facing into a future in which she is the only person left on Earth with the ability to think critically, mourn what has been lost, and think deeply the repercussions of billions of individual experiences now all subsumed into one homogenous learning machine, Carol is unlikely to feel anything but rage any time soon.
Pluribus’ 2-episode debut is part of a 9 episode first season. The show has already been renewed for a second.
Catch Pluribus Friday, on Apple TV.
This Pluribus review was written by a human.
