Copyright Polygon
When I sat down to check out the premiere episodes of Vince Gilligan's new Apple TV series, Pluribus, I was honestly a little nervous. I've always been a fan of Gilligan's writing on The X-Files, and Breaking Bad is my favorite television show of all time. But as excited as I was for a new show from one of TV's biggest talents, I couldn't shake the feeling that Pluribus might fall into the trap a lot of sci-fi and horror media falls into: spending so much time focused on the science fiction premise that characters don't have nearly enough time to develop. I feared Pluribus would be too much like The X-Files, and not enough like Breaking Bad. I'm happy to report I was wrong. Pluribus blends The X-Files' search for the truth with Breaking Bad's phenomenal character writing to create something that feels familiar (and distinctly Gilligan-ish) without feeling derivative. [Ed. note: Significant spoilers below for Pluribus episodes 1 and 2.] Gilligan doesn't waste any time getting to the inciting incident. The first episode's opening moments depict astronomers receiving what appears to be a message sent to Earth by some sort of alien civilization, jumping right into the sci-fi of it all rather than slowly building up to a shocking reveal. But just as the world's best scientific minds are starting to decode the message, Gilligan brings viewers back down to Earth with the introduction of protagonist Carol Sturka (Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn), a romantasy author currently on tour promoting her latest book. Gilligan definitely hasn't lost his touch when it comes to creating extremely flawed characters who — in spite of their many shortcomings — are impossible to dislike. Carol is a difficult person. She's sarcastic, impatient, and seemingly exasperated by her own privileged existence. Her agent-slash-girlfriend, Helen (Miriam Shor), even points this out, giving Carol some good-natured ribbing when she expresses frustration with the book tour and the book itself. When Carol and Helen go drinking to celebrate the tour's end, Carol begins criticizing her own work, and it seems she views the subject matter as shallow. But Helen always has a comeback, a positive way to spin Carol's every negative thought. While Carol and Helen’s relationship feels unique, there are also shades of some of Gilligan’s other iconic couples in their dynamic, like the complex friendship and romance between Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim Wexler (Seehorn), which formed the heart of Better Call Saul. Carol sees all of her glasses as half-empty. Helen sees them as half-full. These two women fit together like puzzle pieces, and their believable dynamic makes it all the more heart-wrenching when Helen suddenly drops dead 28 minutes into episode 1, as the vast majority of Earth's inhabitants are overtaken by an unsettlingly happy hivemind. Even though Helen's death happens midway through the first episode, I was instantly reminded of Jane's death near the end of season 2 of Breaking Bad. We haven’t gotten to know Helen well yet, but Gilligan establishes her dynamic with Carol well enough that it's immediately clear her death is going to absolutely shatter her partner, just like Jane's death shattered Jesse. And it does: Carol immediately retreats into her addiction, the same way Jesse did after Jane's death. Most episodic works of science fiction leave behind questions about events, not emotions. Is this an alien invasion? How is it happening? Why is it happening? But with Pluribus, Gilligan takes a different direction. The first two episodes answer many of the basic questions about what's going on — episode 1 even ends with a member of the invading hivemind effectively hosting a personal press conference for Carol, cheerfully answering every question she can think to ask at the moment. By the end of episode 2, I wasn't especially concerned with questions about how the hivemind works. Instead, Gilligan's grade-A characterization had me searching for answers to questions that are far more grounded in reality: Why were Carol and Helen closeted? What led to Carol's car getting outfitted with a breathalyzer? And perhaps most interesting, as someone with a successful career and a devoted partner, why was Carol so deeply unhappy with her life to begin with? Questions like these kept viewers hooked on Breaking Bad, and they’re questions that can only come from watching complicated, three-dimensional characters like Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Gilligan achieves something similar with Carol: She’s a conundrum. Just as with Walt or Jesse, it’s easy to sympathize with her, even when she makes poor choices or frustrating decisions. Carol's a selfish, whiny navel-gazer, but her biggest crime in many cases is just refusing to pretend to be polite, selfless, and happy 24/7, the way society expects successful women to be. I can't hate her for that. And she does have moments of selflessness — she's concerned with saving the world from the hivemind, while the very small number of other unaffected humans all seem content to play house with zombified versions of their loved ones. Episode 2 even ends with Carol saving a member of the hivemind from the clutches of an extremely self-centered human who clearly has dangerous intentions. Pluribus uses a great sci-fi premise to hook viewers, but the personal trials and tribulations of Gilligan's funny, relatable, fascinating characters are ultimately what has me waiting on the next episode with bated breath. Gilligan had years to build characters like Walter White and Saul Goodman into the memorable protagonists we know them as today, and it's pretty impressive that he's managed to develop Carol, Helen, and their relationship so successfully in such a short amount of time. With season 2 of the show already green-lit, and Gilligan planning for at least one more season after that season, it’s looking like he’ll have plenty of time to go deeper into both these characters and this setting, continuing to mine what made both The X-Files and Breaking Bad work. The first two episodes of Pluribus are streaming on Apple TV now. New episodes arrive on Fridays.
