Utopia Equals Dystopia in ‘Pluribus,’ Apple TV’s Latest Sci-Fi Standout

What if the biggest problems plaguing humanity vanished overnight—and there was no more violence, crime, discrimination, or conflict? But what if the tradeoff for all that positivity and bland happiness was outrageously intrusive and creepy? That’s the launchpad that Pluribus, Apple TV’s newest sci-fi series, blasts off from, with a wonderfully complex main character at its core.

Pluribus is the latest series from Vince Gilligan, who got his start writing on The X-Files and went on to become a producer and director on that show, then created two award-winning series of his own: Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The inaugural season of Pluribus runs nine episodes (io9 watched the first seven for the purposes of this review), with the first two streaming today and a weekly rollout thereafter.

Pluribus takes cues from each of those well-loved Gilligan titles. The setup is propelled by science fiction in that thought-provoking, surprisingly emotional X-Files way, but there’s also Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul’s anarchic, subvert-the-system energy, with Gillian’s signature sense of humor (wry, dry, clever, and observational) underpinning everything.

A fantastic Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul) stars as Carol Sturka, a successful author of “speculative historical romance literature†(think Outlander, but with pirates) who secretly loathes her books and is embarrassed by her fans. Carol’s able to stomach writing “mindless crap,†as she calls it, mostly because it funds the comfortable lifestyle she shares with Helen (Miriam Shor), her partner in life and business.

As we’re learning about Carol, Pluribus is also alerting us to another group of characters: scientists who’ve discovered something very unusual. The show periodically uses an on-screen timer to let you know exactly where we are in relation to the event that changes the world.

If you want to go in completely blind, here’s a warning (however, note that we don’t discuss any spoilers beyond the inciting event, hinted at in the show’s existing marketing, that propels everything that follows).

That world-changing event: a mysterious-in-origin phenomenon that links almost the entire population of the world into a single hive mind.

Think Unity from Rick and Morty, except in live-action, and Pluribus takes an astonishingly believable approach to what such a scenario might look like to an outsider—namely Carol, who’s unaffected by the outbreak. As humanity’s overhaul takes hold, it’s not unlike the opening scenes of a zombie movie, and Carol is left confused, terrified, and heartbroken.

There’s widespread death and destruction at first, but the chaos soon dies down and a placid new normal emerges. The affected, or “Others,†as Carol comes to call them, awaken with serene, irritatingly upbeat attitudes. They refer to themselves as “we†(the first episode is titled “We Is Usâ€), and since they share a single consciousness, everyone knows everything about everything. Any person, even a little kid, can perform open-heart surgery or pilot an airplane. And they know absolutely every little thing about Carol, thanks to their access to Helen’s mind and memories, as well as the surveillance drone they launch to keep tabs on her at all times.

The Others assure Carol they mean her no harm, though they are actively trying to figure out how to convert her. Dripping with benevolence, they place themselves at her beck and call. Carol, who was already a salty soul before being hit with this nightmare—and who has, she’ll have the Others know, seen many sci-fi movies that follow this exact plot, and it never ends well—responds with sarcasm and fury.

While Pluribus’ first two episodes necessarily front-load a lot of exposition, once we move past the initial shock of what’s happened, the show finds its true groove. We meet Carol’s “chaperone,†the elegant and accommodating Zosia (Karolina Wydra), who’s been hand-picked for hilarious reasons we won’t reveal here. Carol’s quest for allies doesn’t help much, including the flamboyant Diabaté (Our Flag Means Death’s Samba Schutte). He’s actually pleased as punch with the new status quo, especially the part about suddenly having beautiful women attending to his every need.

There’s also the remote Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga), who’s even more unwilling to engage with the Others than Carol is. Carol, at least, will pick up the phone when she needs groceries restocked or help flipping on the power in her hometown of Albuquerque—a favorite Gilligan setting and an ideal backdrop for Carol’s personal post-apocalypse, where surreal horrors and deep loneliness play out against stunning natural beauty.

As Carol vacillates between boozy despair, bursts of anger, inconveniences galore, and an investigative quest to dig up information on the Others—the latter a coping mechanism more than anything—we dig deeper into Pluribus’ exquisitely balanced existential crisis. Carol’s life is messy. She is miserable. Things weren’t awesome before, but they’ve definitely taken an extreme downturn in the aftermath. It would be so easy to just give in and join the Others’ collective crusade; it’s an option that Carol has, unlike the billions of others across Earth who became part of this without any choice or warning.

But she also knows that giving up everything that makes her an individual, even her many unpleasant qualities, means she’ll no longer be human. And that’s something she’s prepared to keep a death grip on—even if sometimes being a human really, really sucks.

Pluribus already has a second season in the works, so there’s no telling what kind of resolve we’ll get when this batch of episodes is over. But no matter what happens, it’s clear Carol is a new hero for our times: stubborn, impulsive, cranky, and short-tempered, yet also intelligent, funny, resourceful, and easy to root for. Not to mention, she’s determined to save a world that might seem superficially improved—but she knows is steadily spiraling into a dystopia even more disastrous than the one it left behind.

Pluribus’ first two episodes are now streaming on Apple TV; a weekly rollout follows.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.