Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan returned to sci-fi after working on The X-Files.
Apple TV’s new series “Pluribus” resembles “The Leftovers.” Here utopia turns into nightmare, and happiness becomes a virus. The series asks a simple question: does humanity need happiness?
Plot
Scientists receive signals from space. Decode them as a chemical formula. Test on mice. One bites a researcher — he gets infected with “happiness.”
Writer Carol (Rhea Seehorn) is one of 12 immune people on the planet. She writes fantasy about pirates, but now must save the world from universal bliss.
Mystery
The series keeps viewers in the dark. No one knows what’s happening or how to react.
Gilligan raises questions of individuality and freedom. Carol doesn’t understand why she’s special. She considers her books “nonsense,” but fans line up in queues.
Dark Utopia
The “happy” promise a vaccine for Carol. Everyone is polite and ready to help — from excavators to presidential planes. They say they don’t kill anyone.
But Carol learns the truth: a billion people died during the “transfer of power.”
Actress
Gilligan created the project specifically for Rhea Seehorn from “Better Call Saul.” For the first time, she got a leading role.
Seehorn brilliantly plays a contradictory heroine. Her anger causes seizures in the “happy,” some even die.
Verdict
Happiness is contagious, but Carol resists. Gilligan showed where the desire for isolation and indifference in the modern world leads.