Plur1bus Is Pluripotent Science Fiction

I guess I have to explain the headline. Omnipotent means “all powerful” and pluripotent means “powerful in multiple ways.” Which is the best word to describe Vince Gilligan’s new science fiction series on AppleTV (nee AppleTV+) titled Plur1bus. Even the title is a visual representation of the traditional motto of the United States, e pluribus unum, Latin for “out of many, one.”

This review of the first two episodes which launched the series will be brief, because it would be very difficult to explain in depth why I think the show is so good without getting into real spoilers. Let’s see how far I can get before I censor myself.

Up above I called the show “Vince Gilligan’s” Plur1bus and that’s because it is, so far, almost entirely the work of the person who created Breaking Bad. Like that show, Gilligan created Plur1bus and both wrote and directed the premier episodes. His direction is deft, even if he does at times make shot composition choices that make you think, “Ooh, that was a cool directing decision.” But it will be no surprise that the writing is outstanding if a bit facile in some trope-like plot elements. OK, two — there are two points where I had in my head the Deadpool 2 “That’s just lazy writing” meme. But for each of those there were a half dozen moments where Gilligan surprised me with the way the story went, so I can overlook those weak moments.

The lead, Carol Sturka, is played wonderfully by Rhea Seehorn, who was a breakout performer in Gilligan’s Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul. Her acting captures both the pathos and the humor inherent in having a very troubled person as possibly humanity’s only hope. That humor is one of the things that makes this show stand out from something similar, the HBO series The Leftovers. That show was consistently serious in tone to the point of being depressing, but Gilligan — while having many very dark moments in Plur1bus — doesn’t shy away from the ridiculous elements of the situation Carol and the world is in.

So, the character writing, the story, the directing and the acting are powerful, is there anything else? Yes, the themes. I’m not sure I can list all of the themes touched on by Plur1bus, but clear ones include grief, addiction, sexuality and even the basic definition of humanity itself. Oh, and the temptation of isolating oneself in a bubble of ideas.

There is one thing that concerns me about the future of the nine-episode series and that is the fact that it — so far — hangs its success entirely on the performance by Seehorn. As of the first two episodes, it seems unlikely that it could possibly expand into as many amazing secondary characters as Breaking Bad did, because of the nature of the plot. I do look forward to seeing if Seehorn can pull it off, or if Gilligan’s story will allow Plur1bus to get its own Gus Fring, for example.

I give the first two episodes of Plur1bus (Sony Pictures Television; TV-MA; 9 eps.) a 4 out of 5.