Pluribus

⭐7/10

This show seemed primed to be perfect ending to a great year of TV. A truly original sci-fi on the best streaming service for sci-fi, and made by Vince Gilligan? And after that first episode, I was completely sold. It was dark, unique, gripping and introduced a super cool concept. I also loved the first few episodes as this idea starts to dominate every thought in your head, all the ramifications and what-ifs. It's a great show that really gets you thinking. 

I don't think it necessarily got worse, but this is a slow, slooooow show, and that started to grate on me after a while. I've always loved the Gilligan style, super meticulous, super intentional, letting us really settle into the show, letting scenes linger before and after the action. I love that, and loved it in Breaking Bad, but after a while I almost feel like this show becomes a parody of his style, super painstaking for pretty much no reason, and by the end I was starting to lose my mind a little. 

It's hard to discuss this show without spoiling, but in brief, it's about a unique type of apocalypse occuring, and Carol being one of the few remaining people that can fix things. You spend a ton of time with her, pretty much every scene, and the problem with that is that Carol is a very tough hang. She is generally unpleasant, always angry and sarcastic, and if you knew her in real life you probably wouldn't want to be her friend. So really the main issue I have with this show is that it's just not fun to watch, especiallycombined with the pacing. There is a 2 or 3 episode arc where Carol needs to leave messages on the phone, and each time she calls we get the answering machine recording. It drove me truly insane, especially because I don't get the point of it! I don't get what the show is even trying to convey with this ridiculous decision. I distinctly remember hearing that answering machine for the hundredth time and turning to Jess and shouting "this is too much!!"

It's a shame because otherwise I do think this show is excellent. I had some other complaints because I don't care for world building, and this whole season seems to be all about about establishing rules for this universe, and I also thought some of those rules or the human reaction to them were odd. But yeah, the show is still immensely smart and creative, a concept that I think spurs the imagination as good as any sci-fi greats. It reminded me of Severed where I'm always thinking about applications of this show in the real world - how would this or that work if it were true? It's an awesome show that explores a cool concept. 

There's other things to love. Like Tim says, the show looks fantastic and has some unique techniques that we come to expect from Gilligan. I thought the acting was also pretty great despite not actually liking many characters. The final episodes also picked up the pace again and convinced me that I will be seated for season 2 where I'm praying some more actual stuff happens and we aren't sitting around listening to answering machines.