★★★½ (3½ out of 4)
Saving the world from the joy that comes from being brainwashed into bliss is the topic that drives “Pluribus,” the nine-part Apple TV+ series that thrives on pulling the rug out from under you. I’m not going to spoil the ending. How could I since the crafty folks at Apple didn’t send critics the last two episodes? But trust that series creator Vince Gilligan, the maestro who noodled around writing sci-fi on “The X Files” before changing television forever with the crime drama of “Breaking Bad” and its prequel “Better Call Saul,” isn’t messing with you. Well, he is, but not just to mess with you. As always, Gilligan has a master plan that I need to tell you about without giving away too much or, really, anything.
“Pluribus,” I can tell you, is derived from the Latin word meaning “of many” or “from many” as in “E Pluribus Unum”—"out of many one”—a phrase the U.S. government liked so much it engraved the words on all its currency. Gilligan doesn’t like it quite so much, feeling a hive mentality can be hell on individual thinking.
Out of that feeling comes “Pluribus,” a Gilligan joint about a global virus that infects almost the entire planet, turning humans into happy drones who want, insist really, that everyone else becomes as happy as they are. It’s like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” but without the overt menace. Still, the insidious smiling in the face of disaster is scary as hell.
The “what if” of the series is what if someone or a few someones decide they don’t want to join the club? That’s a good description of Carol Sturka, a self-loathing author of more than usually nauseating romance bestsellers for whom trust is not easily given. Carol, a born skeptic, does not believe in keeping her skepticism bottled up.
Carol is a great role—a balls-to-the wall freethinker whose first instinct is not now or ever to go along with the crowd. In his wisdom, Gilligan has gifted that role to Rhea Seehorn, who starred for all six seasons on “Better Call Saul” and should have won an acting Emmy for every season. Seehorn never won a damn thing, an egregious oversight that should give Emmy voters a permanent place on the wall of shame.
Rhea Seehorn’s brilliant tour de force as a lone resistor to hive mentality makes this potent provocation from Vince Gilligan one you don’t want to miss.
Seehorn’s brilliant tour de force in “Pluribus” is a chance to rectify past sins. I’ll be watching. And you should be watching too as Seehorn seizes the role of her career and runs it to glory from her very first scene. That moment takes place right after a book tour when Carol and her wife and manager, Helen (the superb Miriam Shor), are infected by a crowd of rabid fans. Helen is no longer Helen, but Carol, impervious to the virus, is as prickly and determined as ever and she wants answers.
Apple’s aversion to spoilers stops short of direct threats, but the streaming service is right about “Pluribus” hitting hardest the less viewers know going in. And since a second season has already been promised, let’s agree to stay mum until Emmy time next year when we will meet again to compare notes and watch Seehorn take home her first gold statue.
Despite a few momentum-killing missteps and a reluctance to confront its thorniest themes head-on, “Pluribus” is the kind of potent provocation that adds up to must-see TV. Don’t wait another minute.