Sci Fi TV Review: Pluribus

Pluribus is a slow burn of a series, but it is very well written, has an outstanding cast, and certainly seems to be on track to count as a sci-fi TV great.

What Is It?

Pluribus follows Carol Sturka, a best-selling historical romance author who calls her work “mindless crap.” But her world is upended when, in the middle of a promotional book tour, a mysterious virus spreads across New Mexico, transforming humanity into a mass of cheerful, content individuals. Unlike everyone else, Carol is somehow immune and trudges through this altered reality with a mix of rage and confusion.

Streaming: Apple TV

Starring: Rhea Seehorn, Karolina Wydra, Carlos-Manuel Vesga, Samba Schutte

Created By: Vince Gilligan

Johnny Jay’s Thoughts:

For the description above, I went with the official synopsis because—even though I’m not much of a spoiler-phobe—it’s best to go into this one with as little prior knowledge as possible, and I’ll keep the review mostly in line with that. This series comes from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, and because of that it received a fair amount of attention upfront and is considered a high-profile entry for Apple TV. I usually put together my reviews after watching about four episodes of a season, but this time I watched the series all the way through because I really wanted to see how it paid off before finalizing my opinion.

A common criticism I’ve seen online directed at Pluribus is that nothing happens for long stretches of time. That’s not really true, though I can see how some viewers might feel that way. A lot happens in the first episode as we learn about the virus that overtakes much of humanity (and Gilligan introduces a hard sci-fi justification for it). After that, though, things do slow down as the show focuses on Carol’s interactions with the “Others” (those affected by the virus) and how she decides to deal with the situation. The pace certainly shifts, becoming glacial at times, but there’s still plenty happening to move the story forward. And while this is definitely not a comedy, it does deliver some genuine laugh-out-loud moments along with some very dark humor.

Basically, I would compare this to slow-burn sci-fi like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Andromeda Strain, Silent Running, and Moon. Sure, it’s not as cosmic as some of those, but it is sci-fi through and through and takes a very original approach to its subject matter. There’s a lot of grumbling these days within the sci-fi community about reboots, remakes, and rehashes, and the lack of truly original stories, but Pluribus definitely falls into the latter category, even if its story does progress at a slow pace. It does borrow its central idea, but it puts a very original spin on it, and has set itself up as another potential standout genre entry for Apple TV+, following in the footsteps of Severance, For All Mankind, Silo, and others.

Central to the series is the performance of Rhea Seehorn, most recently seen on Gilligan’s Better Call Saul. The show rests almost entirely on her shoulders as the main focus, and she plays a fairly surly character, which could have gone very wrong. Instead, we learn more about her as the series progresses and gradually come to sympathize with her and identify with the situation she’s thrust into. If we were in her shoes, would we follow the same path, or choose the route taken by the other immune group? That’s just one of the many questions the show raises, and Seehorn’s performance successfully pulls the audience in and gets them on her side.

Karolina Wydra (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) is another key presence as Carol’s “chaperone” and the primary connection to the newly transformed humanity. She comes across as genuinely sympathetic at times and makes the Others seem almost tolerable, despite some grisly revelations about them. Still, there’s always the underlying knowledge that they have an agenda to eventually bring Carol and the remaining holdouts into their “joining”, and Wydra plays the character with such a straight-faced sincerity that you are looking for the potential sinister underside that she seems to be masking.

Carlos-Manuel Vesga’s Manousos Oviedo—another immune individual and the only other person who wants to actively resist the Others—doesn’t get much screen time in the first season, but the groundwork is clearly laid for him to become a major player going forward. He’s a surly character as well, and when he eventually crosses paths with Carol there’s an immediate clash of personalities. Still, Vesga brings enough sincerity and drive to the role that the audience ultimately roots for him.

I know Pluribus has received some negative feedback online, especially as the season progressed, but I personally loved it. At this point, I count it as another Vince Gilligan masterpiece, and at times it delivered some of the most brilliant writing I’ve seen on television in recent years. We’ll have to see how it continues and whether it delivers the payoff it’s building toward, but given Gilligan’s track record and how strong this first season was, my expectations are high.

What’s Next?

I apparently missed the memo, but this show was picked up for two seasons in advance by Apple TV, so the second year is currently in the works. However, we will have to wait a while for it to arrive. There were talks that filming would start in May 2026, but Vince Gilligan put a damper on that saying “No, I don’t think so. I wish. Just like the Others, I’m not going to lie. But we’re working very hard.” He went on to say:

Yeah, it’s going to frustrate some folks, just to be honest. We work at the speed we work at, much like glaciers melt at the speed that they melt at. For my own sake, as much as anybody, selfishly, I wish we could get this job done quicker because I don’t know how many years I’ve got left. I still want to do more things, but I go slower than I used to. So it’s going to be a while between seasons; it just is. Unless we invent a time machine or figure out how to stop time, it’s just the nature of the beast.

So it looks like we might have a Severance-style wait between the first and second seasons which will only further annoy those who felt like very little happened in the first year. But at least we do know that a second season of this strong sci fi entry will be hitting the schedule at some point along with more solid genre content from Apple TV.

Are you watching Pluribus, and do you think it counts as a standout sci fi series? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments section below.

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