Plur1bus Season 1
I sadly haven't been watching as much TV recently as I've been gaming more. But I had to catch Pluribus, being a fan of Vince Gilligan's work with Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. I really enjoyed how much better the payoff was in Better Call Saul with its slow burn making that payoff feel so much more captivating to watch. Pluribus goes in that same direction but I feel that Gilligan has learned from his previous show and gave more of a payoff that comes sooner at the end of the first season of Pluribus. Of course one thing Better Call Saul had going for it that made it more forgiving for waiting longer for its payoff is it was riding off the back of Breaking Bad with exploring deeper into who are two of my favorite characters from Breaking Bad, so watching to see them developed more was all I needed, especially with Mike. But with this said, the fact that Pluribus is slower from episode to episode and still kept me watching is an even greater feat as there were no previous feelings for any of the characters. On top of that Carol is a relatively annoying person to watch. I feel for her dealing with grief and all but at times it is just so painful to watch. But I feel there will be further development with her character that will make sense of her actions and reactions and will likely be totally and tragically catastrophic.
One big thing I'll give the show is how it uses its slow pacing with purpose. It gives this immersive feeling of isolation which is what builds the biggest connection to Carol and her grief in how lonely you can feel. Even when you have others around you, when you lose someone that was so central to your life and memories, it can feel like you are living in another world that's been taken over by people who are just able to be happy and continue on like nothing is wrong. For me this is one of the things I like the most is the visual representation of showing the feeling of grief. It's not just in Carol's sadness, anger, or loneliness. It's in the world around her and how it reacts to her. How it feels like any showing of emotion poisons the surrounding world and makes even the nicest and most caring of people not want to be around you. It makes nothing feel real. It makes you not feel real and question the purpose of being when everything is seeming just fine without what you lost so then you think they'll be just as fine and carry on with you gone. But that's not the answer and being there still can feel like its own blessing granting a greater purpose to find and continue on.
The one character I am excited to see more of in the future episodes is Menousos. He is the perfect partner for Carol to find and enact her purpose. He is similar to her but also so different. A very rough around the edges kind of character than her but arguably more rough as he gives absolutely no trust to the hive mind and even crosses treacherous terrain to reach Carol traveling from South America to the US, refusing help from the hive mind the entire time. He is very analytical as he studies the science of what has taken over humanity and has absolute hope in turning the world back to how it was with even leaving IOU's at any places he's been where he might have used something in desperate need, showing that his refusal to accept help from the hive mind isn't actually as much about refusing them but rather seeing the people as being people are not of their right mind and being forced to do things without their will or say and so it feels like Menousos refuses help because he refuses to use people without their consent just like how the hive mind took over without people's consent. In the end, Menousos is the perfect opposite of the hive mind. They are nice and kind and can never hurt anyone even just verbally or by saying no but Menousos doesn't care as long as he's doing what he believes is right, he will do all he can to get where he's going. I feel it was brilliant to also wait to introduce him because what I feel that makes his character feel like an interesting breath of fresh air is having him come in after having half a season of the hive mind being so overbearing with their "love." They believe they love and say they do to convince the remaining people who didn't assimilate but upon further review their love is very selfish. It's absolute domination to their beliefs and personality and because it works for them they believe it works for everyone.
The only thing I enjoy as much as the show is all the theory crafting I see online. There's been so many interesting projections for where this show will go from here. My favorite of these theories or at least a general idea is how Carol will use her profession and skillset to fight and maybe defeat the hive mind. Similar to how Walter in Breaking Bad uses his knowledge of chemistry to get himself out of problems and Jimmy in Better Call Saul uses his wit and essentially lawyers his way out of his problems with speaking and twisting perspectives. Carol is a writer and what seems to be the biggest weakness of the hive mind is emotion, especially negative emotion. So as a writer her job is to be able to get people to feel emotions so maybe she'll use her skill in interesting ways to fight the hive mind and maybe with Menousos help, they'll find a way to get humanity back to being itself again. Either way, I can't wait for more seasons of this show and see what Vince Gilligan has planned for us.