Even if you’ve caught the teaser trailers that have appeared for Apple TV+’s Pluribus—Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan’s latest show—you are still almost certainly none-the-wiser what it’s actually about. That’s because the deeply peculiar snippets appear to be setting up something much more unusual than even the elevator pitch suggests. Plur1bus, as it’s styled in its logo, is about an author who also happens to be “the world’s most miserable person” (played by Rhea Seehorn of Better Call Saul), attempting to save her fellow humans from a virus that’s causing uncontrollable optimism and happiness.
Returning to Better Call Saul‘s Albuquerque, New Mexico, Pluribus is not an offshoot of the Breaking Bad universe, but rather an entirely separate sci-fi show. That’s despite its lead character being best known as Saul‘s Kim Wexler, fellow attorney and romantic interest of the eponymous Saul. So scrub all that from your mind, much like the inhabitants of Albuquerque, who all (but one) become infected by a plague that induces contentedness and positivity.
It’s such a splendid premise, with Seehorn’s Carol Sturka apparently immune to whatever is happening to the rest of the world—and she’s well-placed to be, given her previously established misanthropy. While we know very little about the show just yet, Entertainment Weekly was able to discover that Carol was the author of historical romance novels, which she describes as “mindless crap.”
According to EW, Vince Gilligan sums the premise up as “the world’s most miserable person is desperately trying to save the planet from happiness,” but he also says that it won’t be that straightforward. “Complications will ensue,” he added. “It’s a show that takes a couple of surprising twists and turns.”
As for the name, “pluribus” is Latin for “many,” and the show is being stylized with a “1” instead of an “i”. Rather than being spurious and tiresome marketing (Se7en, ScreaIV), this instead looks to me like a rather clever rebus: It’s “1 among many,” right? Geddit?
I suspect a good deal of the show’s tone is being hinted at in the deeply odd teasers that have been released so far. The Apple TV trailers are all notably melancholy, with protracted scenes of mundanity deliberately creating a sense of unease. It’s reminiscent, for me, of one of the greatest television programs of all time, Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta’s The Leftovers. Both shows are about the aftermath of an inexplicable and life-changing incident (in the case of The Leftovers, it was two percent of the world’s population suddenly vanishing in the same instant).
So let’s put all the teasers in one place.
The earliest I can find was July 25, and it’s one of the weirdest. Called “Date Announcement,” the uncannily quiet clip shows a woman in pink scrubs picking up all the donuts from a box and licking each before replacing it. And that’s it.
A few days later we got a super-strange 20-second clip of an out-of-focus Carol walking toward her telephone (while carrying a gold club) as words appear on the screen in a very Apple font saying, “Hello Carol,” then, “Call us,” and finally, “No pressure,” before a phone number appeared on screen: (202) 808 3981. Apparently if you texted it, it would reply, “Please know your life is your own, Carol. You have agency!”
Next up was August 19, and we finally get to see Rhea Seehorn’s face. And clothes, covered in blood. Once again the Apple font words appear. “Hello, Carol,” they begin, “We’ll put things right.” And then, as Carol reaches the camera, “Sorry about the blood.”
Things then went quiet until September 23 when Welcome, Carol was uploaded. Another 30-second teaser, it shows us Carol in a car, looking up through the windshield at the sign for the Westgate casino in Las Vegas, where the large LED screen has the words, “WELCOME CAROL.” It cuts to a wide shot that reveals Carol’s driving a police car, which she quickly pulls away in, disappearing around the corner.
The most recently, appearing yesterday, was Taking Out the Trash. Still giving us absolutely nothing to go on, this latest—and my favorite so far—has Carol standing, arms folded, as she watches a drone flailingly attempt to pick up a bag of trash from the sidewalk. After a full 18 seconds of failing to grab it, the drone then attempts to lift the trash, only for it to be too heavy. Carol stares on, expressionless but for the tiniest hint of disgust. And that’s it.
What I love so much about all this promotional material is that none of it even vaguely alludes to the show’s premise. In fact, apart from the donut-licking lady, it’s stark that not a single other person appears in any of them. It looks post-apocalyptic in its quietness. So what’s that about? If everyone’s so unendingly positive and upbeat, where are they?
We’ll get to find out at least some of what’s going on come November 7, when the show will begin on Apple TV+. It seems very likely that like The Leftovers, From, and various other shows like it, a great deal of the mystery will be left ambiguous, and all the better for it. We already know that Gilligan isn’t particularly interested in answering the question of why Carol is immune to this condition that’s afflicting everyone else—she just is. People sometimes are. Move on, enjoy the mystery. Sometimes it’s OK to just not know. (This is a fine line, of course. Shows with unexplained central puzzles need to make sure not to deceive the audience by hinting they’ll reveal things if you just keep watching; a phenomenon we scientists call Lost Syndrome.)
Given Gilligan’s prior successes with Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, there’s good hope for a well-planned ongoing story here. The only risk is the mercurial nature of streamers like Apple TV+ and their frustrating habit of cancelling shows even when they’re seemingly enormously popular. However, Apple seems to have some recent good form here, giving shows like Foundation and Silo plenty of room and time to keep going where the likes of Netflix or HBO Max may have cut and run far too soon. Only a month and a bit to go.
