The sixth episode of Apple TV+’s Pluribus dropped this week. If you haven’t heard of the new series, you may want to check in. It starts like the movie Contact, has elements of 3 Body Problem (including the clock), and turns into The Last Man on Earth, though in this case its an angry, lone woman dealing with Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Interested? Oh yeah, it comes from Vince Gilligan, the same guy who also gave us on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. It also stars Rhea Seehorn from Better Call Saul.
It all starts when a radio signal from a civilization about 600 light-years away is intercepted by Earth. This signal contains a RNA sequence. Of course, the dumb Earthlings find it necessary to recreate this sequence, lose control of the experiment (alla Jurassic Park), and thereby release a virus that turns the human population into the Borg. The rest of the story is how one woman and twelve other unaffected humans make their way in this new world.
It’s an odd start to a very odd show, but it is fun and thought-provoking in its own way. It also doesn’t have simple story lines where the everyone agrees there is a problem with the new human state, or at least not all of the 13 remaining people agree. We know the collective mind seems to work in nature, be it bees or ants, so it is not impossible.
It is too early to know whether this show has a soft landing or even a future, but it’s the type of show, like Severance, that is sure to be discussed at the virtual office water cooler.
Okay, that’s enough references to other shows and movies. I counted eight, but I can also say that Pluribus is unique enough that none of those references really does it any justice.
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