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Ready for "Pluribus" season 1 from Vince Gilligan of "X-Files" and "Breaking Bad" fame? Streaming now, it looks funny and fascinating.
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0:00
It's from Vince Gilligan, creator of uh
0:02
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saw. And it
0:05
stars uh what's her name? Ria
0:09
Ria Seahhorn,
0:11
who played uh she played Kim in Breaking
0:14
Bad, right? And she's the star of the
0:16
show and uh you she she seems great in
0:19
it. Very uh you know, sarcastic and
0:22
fun to watch. But uh yeah, so if you
0:25
watched any of the the teasers, it's all
0:27
about, you know, like she's like the
0:30
only happy person on Earth. Like that's
0:32
what it's about. And like everybody's
0:34
trying to get her to be happy. Even like
0:36
there's like a you know,
0:38
she's the only miserable person on
0:40
earth.
0:40
Yeah. She's Yeah. What did I say? She's
0:43
She's not happy, but you
0:44
Oh, sorry. She's the only not happy
0:46
person. Sorry. Yeah. And uh there's even
0:49
like a a a White House broadcast, you
0:52
know, directly at her like, "Oh, we
0:54
really want to make you happy, Carol."
0:55
And she's just like, "What is going on?"
0:58
And and the whole show is is like, if
1:01
you haven't watched it, I mean, all the
1:03
teasers are very vague, very kind of
1:05
atmospheric and interesting and clever
1:08
and and all that. The first two episodes
1:11
came out last week. I watched them both.
1:13
Obviously, all those teaser things are,
1:16
you know, they're in there. It the the
1:19
sort of like discussing it without
1:21
spoiling it. I don't know how you can do
1:22
it really. I mean,
1:23
how did you like it? Is it good? Is it
1:24
compelling? Did you enjoy it?
1:26
Uh, you know what? I I I definitely
1:29
liked it. It wasn't as completely out
1:32
there as I was expecting it to be, you
1:34
know, like I I the whole sort of the way
1:37
the teasers worked made it seem like
1:39
what in the world is going on here? what
1:41
is this story about? And now that I
1:44
watch this, it's kind of not that far
1:48
out of a sci-fi kind of trope in my in
1:51
my uh my estimation. I mean, I I felt
1:55
like there were a lot of things that
1:56
like not that surprising. The writing's
1:59
great. The cinematography is fantastic.
2:01
The acting's good. there. There's some
2:03
really excellent stuff in it, but it
2:05
wasn't like the whole story, what it's
2:07
about to me was not as uh sort of
2:11
original as I was hoping.
2:13
I'll say I didn't watch any of the
2:14
trailers. All I knew was this is Vince
2:17
Gilligan's new show. I heard it's really
2:18
good. I should put it on. I'm really
2:20
curious about it. Uh so I didn't have
2:22
any expectations. I didn't know what it
2:24
was about. I was surprised when I saw on
2:26
Apple TV that it was categorized as
2:28
sci-fi because like, oh, you know, he
2:30
he's the guy from Breaking Bad and
2:31
Vertical Call of Salt. Two very real,
2:33
grounded shows. I wasn't expecting
2:34
science fiction whatsoever. Um, and it
2:37
isn't really like, you know, science
2:39
fictiony really at all. It has a it has
2:42
a vague science fiction concept, but,
2:43
you know, it is still another like very
2:45
realistic grounded show kind of like The
2:47
Leftovers.
2:48
Um, not not really. you know, the
2:51
there's a science fiction element to it,
2:52
but the the show itself isn't, you know,
2:54
spaceships and, you know,
2:56
right and blasters and
2:58
the foundation. Yeah.
3:00
Yeah. It's it's uh
3:02
it uses sci-fi and this is, you know,
3:05
this is itself kind of a, you know,
3:08
classic sci-fi trope. It uses this
3:10
sci-fi setup to talk about the human
3:12
condition. And it's it's definitely
3:15
worth watching. I I I just say it's not
3:17
as like mind-blowingly
3:19
creative wild like you know it's it's no
3:21
severance. Let's put it that way.
3:23
Severance. When I watched Severance the
3:25
first time, my mind was actually blown.
3:28
It was like this is this is a amazing
3:31
concept. I've never seen a story like
3:33
this. It was just completely original.
3:37
This one to me is like fun and great and
3:40
well done. But the at least so far, you
3:43
know, first two episodes, the concept is
3:46
not as not as,
3:48
you know, surprisingly original as I was
3:51
hoping.
3:51
I'll be more positive than you. I
3:52
thought this was excellent. I I loved
3:54
every minute of minute of it. And, you
3:56
know,
3:57
we've only seen the first two episodes.
3:58
Anybody can write a good first episode.
4:01
Uh, not true. Well, you you can have you
4:05
can have a good first episode and then
4:07
have it and then have it uh like totally
4:09
fall flat on its face by the end, you
4:11
know, see the last two seasons of Doctor
4:13
Who. But I I thoroughly enjoyed what I
4:16
watched. The the directing was
4:17
absolutely fantastic. Vince Gilligan
4:19
directed both of those episodes. I don't
4:21
know how many in the whole season he's
4:22
going to direct, but uh so many great
4:24
shots in the first episode especially,
4:27
you know, there there's a there's a
4:28
slight like, you know, horror moment in
4:30
in in a few of the scenes where, you
4:32
know, you you see like the reflection of
4:34
somebody like coming up behind the the
4:36
the character watching. It's like, oo,
4:37
what's going to happen there? Like
4:38
really really clever camera work. So
4:41
many times people either drive pretty
4:44
much into or like directly away from a
4:46
camera. Like person's driving a pickup
4:49
truck and like the it it stops where
4:51
like you can fully clearly see their
4:52
face filling the screen and like that
4:55
truck must be inches away from the
4:56
camera they're shooting it. Like it's
4:58
really really impressive stuff. You
4:59
know, there's a in episode two there's a
5:01
lot of like really big real sets that
5:04
they had to build. Um you know they did
5:06
some of it practically which is which is
5:08
neat. like a a few scenes that take
5:11
place on like a like a a full-size like
5:13
commercial airplane, you know, really
5:15
impressive stuff. It's good to watch.
5:17
It's It's
5:18
Yeah, I I thoroughly enjoyed it.
5:19
I uh I wasn't trying to like down, you
5:23
know, knock it or anything. I I think it
5:25
was a great I loved it. I I mean, I
5:27
stayed awake for the entire entire two
5:28
shows, you know, on a Friday night.
5:31
Well, there you go. That's That's the
5:32
true measure of whether something is any
5:34
good or not. Did Did Lewis stay awake?
5:37
Two eyes open. Yeah. Uh it it was uh I I
5:40
I definitely liked it and the writing,
5:42
like I said, the writing is great.
5:43
There's it's it's funny. It there's a
5:45
lot of funny writing in it. And uh like
5:48
I said, she's super sarcastic in that
5:50
lead role and and it's
5:52
it's it's kind of, you know, her against
5:54
the world really. I mean, and it's I
5:58
wish I could talk about it because it's
6:00
it it is interesting. It's an
6:02
interesting
6:04
some spoilers. If if you listen to this
6:05
point, uh you know, if you want to see
6:07
it, you know, tune out and then if you
6:09
if you want to keep going, we'll we'll
6:10
do a little spoiler talk.
6:11
So, this is spoilers. Okay.
6:12
Oh, I'm going to tune out. Just give me
6:14
the thumbs up when you're ready to bring
6:15
me back in again.
6:16
All right. So, uh what the show the show
6:19
starts out with a very common sci-fi
6:22
trope of scientists using radio
6:24
telescopes and and here alien invasion,
6:27
very common. Uh hive mind, you know,
6:30
they're like it it's not an actual
6:32
invasion, right? It's a virus that
6:34
downloads into 99.99999%
6:37
of the human population. Makes them
6:39
super happy and super nice. It's they're
6:41
the world's nicest Borg. It's uh the
6:44
Mormon Borgs.
6:46
Yeah. They they can't uh they can't hurt
6:49
you. They can't do anything mean. They
6:50
can't even really like do anything that
6:51
will upset you. It's very strange. And
6:53
they they can't kill anything. They
6:55
can't even step on a fly.
6:56
Right. Yeah. and uh and they they go on
7:00
this charm offensive because there's
7:02
like what I don't know a dozen people on
7:04
planet Earth or
7:06
that that don't
7:07
there's like 12 of them that that
7:08
haven't been a part of it and five of
7:12
them speak English
7:12
haven't been assimilated right yeah so
7:14
so they get together and they they and
7:18
of course like she's the only one who's
7:20
like really like this is horrible we got
7:22
to fight these aliens this alien mind
7:24
virus the other ones are just kind of
7:25
like hey this is pretty cool. We got,
7:28
you know, an entire world full of uh
7:31
super nice people who are going to do
7:33
our bidding for everything, you know,
7:35
including the one guy, the that last
7:37
character, I can't remember his name,
7:38
but uh the dude who flies in Air Force
7:41
One. I mean, that that got a quite a
7:43
chuckle out of me, you know, and like
7:44
his whole routine is just like, "Hey, I
7:46
hit the big time, you know?
7:48
I can just ask for whatever I want and
7:49
they give it to me all the time."
7:51
Yeah. And and the I think one of the mo
7:53
most uh I mean the whole thing of like
7:56
what what is this sort of you know what
8:00
is humanity and how what part of your
8:02
humanity is there if you're
8:04
you know whatever sucked into this hive
8:06
mind and she's fighting back because you
8:08
know he wants to maintain humanity which
8:10
is you know classic sci-fi trope. Uh
8:12
and the rest of these have their have
8:14
their families and like you know the
8:16
main character is like no they're not
8:18
your family anymore. Like I I loved in
8:19
the diner scene when she's like asking
8:21
these kids all these like questions
8:22
about surgery and she's like no stop and
8:25
this kid's like giving like these you
8:26
know PhD like
8:29
Yeah. Yeah. I to me like like one of the
8:31
most uh sort of surprising aspects you
8:34
know I I found this actually really
8:36
surprising was when Carol gets upset
8:40
like all the all the other people who've
8:42
been assimilated start like shaking and
8:44
going offline. It like what is that
8:46
about? I mean that to me that's the most
8:48
intriguing element of the entire show.
8:51
What is going on with that? How does
8:53
that happen?
8:55
Where's that going to lead? I mean I
8:56
don't know how how this show ends
8:58
obviously and they've already they've
9:00
already uh renewed it for a second
9:02
season which is encouraging.
9:03
Uh they did that before it even before
9:06
the first show uh ever even aired. So
9:08
they obviously Apple Apple TV obviously
9:10
believes in this show and why wouldn't
9:12
they? I mean, Breaking Bad was like one
9:14
of the most amazing creative TV shows I
9:17
ever saw. I loved that thing. Uh, and
9:21
that that to me is the the kind of like
9:23
the thing with Plurbus.
9:26
Breaking Bad, I was literally gobsmacked
9:29
when with that show, you know, like how
9:31
did anybody dream this up? this one. H I
9:35
feel like it's been dreamt up, you know,
9:37
maybe this is
9:37
the the concept is is is familiar, but I
9:41
I think they're taking it in a very
9:42
interesting way. It's it's kind of like
9:45
I see a lot of comparisons to The Good
9:46
Place where um it has like this big
9:50
grandiose like sort of metaphysical
9:52
premise of the show, you know, presented
9:54
as like this weird goofy sitcom and
9:59
they a lot of things that you might
10:01
expect, oh well, you know, this would
10:03
take a a different show like an entire
10:05
season to get to explore every single
10:06
aspect of this plot. like it moves at a
10:09
mile a minute and almost changes the
10:11
complete premise of the show every few
10:13
episodes especially in its later
10:14
seasons. And I can sort of see similar
10:17
notes of that in Plurabis where you know
10:19
a different show might spend twice as
10:21
long exp like showing every detail of
10:24
how the virus spreads. It skips over a
10:26
lot of that just to get to the good part
10:28
and like keep keep the show moving and
10:30
keep it active which is which is nice.
10:33
Yeah. I mean I I would definitely
10:34
recommend Plurbus and not just for
10:36
sci-fi fans for everyone. I mean, I
10:37
think it's it like you're saying, it's
10:39
not it's definitely a sci-fi show, but
10:41
it's not like sci-fi sci-fi. It's uh
10:45
it's I I call it a comedy more than
10:48
anything. I mean, it's pretty funny. And
10:50
uh you know, right, last time I checked
10:52
on Rotten Tomatoes had 100% uh critics
10:56
rating, like 85% with with audience
10:59
members, you know, uh still pretty high.
11:02
I think what I read was that uh like of
11:04
some of the reviews that I read they
11:06
they said that Apple had provided I
11:08
think the first seven episodes for
11:11
reviewers in advance. So these reviewers
11:13
are you know they have a fairly good
11:16
look at the show and and the reviews are
11:18
you know
11:19
all around great you know so I'm sure
11:21
this I'm sure it's going to be a great
11:24
show and I and I don't mean to dismiss
11:26
it or say it's not creative. It is
11:28
creative. It's just not as completely
11:32
How did this happen? Creative. Maybe it
11:34
gets there. Maybe it becomes even more
11:36
and more uh you know original and
11:38
because it's the writing is definitely
11:40
creative and and fun and engaging.
11:42
So I have high hopes for
11:43
when you were watching the first episode
11:45
um I almost expected them to spend much
11:47
more time on the scientist. Like it's
11:49
sort of like an Aplot and a Bplot where
11:51
you see this discovery slowly unfolding
11:53
and then you keep cutting back to the
11:54
author who will eventually become the
11:55
main character of the show. And then,
11:57
you know, once the event happens, like
12:00
you don't you obviously don't see the
12:02
scientists anymore. Like it that was
12:04
just like a sort of the setup in the way
12:06
that you know, the first episode of any
12:08
show takes a lot of time just to explain
12:09
the premise and it isn't really
12:10
representative of what the actual show
12:12
is going to be like. Uh, you know, and
12:14
and that was a little sad because I
12:15
really liked a lot of those characters
12:16
that they had in those scenes.
12:18
Yeah. And and it's true. True. I mean,
12:19
if it was a normal sci-fi show, it would
12:22
have just been about those people and it
12:24
would have become them trying to figure
12:26
out why this happened and and deal. But
12:28
I mean, you know, the fact of the matter
12:30
is the way the show is, like they're
12:33
part of the happy crew, right? I mean,
12:36
everybody on Earth has instantly been
12:38
turned into a, you know, kind of happy
12:42
person. You know, to what effect? That's
12:44
the other the giant question. You know,
12:46
what the hell? Why why are they doing
12:48
this? Why? Why would they why would this
12:51
virus exist and why what's the ultimate
12:54
outcome obviously is the big question.
12:56
So
12:56
Mhm.
12:57
when you were watching the first episode
12:59
they take until the very end when the
13:00
guy in the TV explained everything to
13:02
the main character to like for you to
13:04
understand what was happening or because
13:06
for me like as soon as they said oh it's
13:08
not a quadrinary sequence I was like oh
13:10
it's DNA the it's the thing for a virus
13:12
and then that's going to spread.
13:14
Oh no I I didn't
13:15
I feel like I clocked was
13:17
Yeah. I mean I I don't know when I I
13:21
don't actually remember the exact
13:22
sequence of understanding how all this
13:24
all I mean what I have is this series of
13:26
memories of like people licking donuts
13:29
which was an amazing scene.
13:32
It's it's deeply unsettling.
13:35
uh the uh you know the Air Force One
13:37
showing up the the the meeting of the
13:40
five people or six people whatever it
13:42
was that haven't uh haven't been
13:44
assimilated.
13:45
Mhm.
13:46
You know, and the people flopping on the
13:48
ground when uh she throws a hissy fit,
13:50
you know. So, I mean, uh there's there's
13:52
some great stuff in there for sure. So,
13:54
I think Apple TV's got another hit on
13:56
its hand. It's kind of weird how they've
13:58
uh had this string of really great shows
14:01
come out that have actually I don't know
14:03
fulfilled the promise of like prestige
14:05
TV and a lot of it sci-fi oriented which
14:08
is awesome. So
14:09
they're really becoming sort of like a
14:10
sci-fi network between that severance
14:11
and they've they've tried so many ones,
14:13
you know, for all mankind is another
14:14
popular one, but they've also had
14:15
constellation and invasion and silo like
14:18
foundation.
14:19
Sci-fi is Yeah, Foundation. Sci-fi is
14:21
really becoming their bread and butter
14:23
in the same way that I think like
14:24
Netflix has been re uh really leaning
14:27
into comedy in the past few years as
14:29
well.
14:31
Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I I'm
14:33
still curious how all this uh streaming
14:35
stuff's going to pan out because uh
14:37
everything just keeps getting more and
14:39
more expensive. I looked at like YouTube
14:41
TV or something that was like $85 and I
14:43
I I actually almost fell over like what?
14:46
$85 a month. I I I still can't believe
14:50
that. I I don't know what that includes,
14:52
you know, but uh we recently got rid of
14:54
cable and so I'm like, "Okay, well I I
14:56
wouldn't mind being able to watch like,
14:58
you know, ABC or CBS once in a while." I
15:01
mean, sometimes something is on that. I
15:03
mean, it's it's literally like once
15:04
every six months, but you know, how am I
15:06
going to do it? You know, you have to
15:07
like kind of reinvision your whole
15:09
streaming life when you don't have
15:10
cable. And uh man, it's not cheap. It's
15:14
kind of crazy. And Apple TV, what's it
15:16
13 bucks a month now, right? So, it
15:18
started out at what, five? And they were
15:19
giving it away to everybody as as fast
15:21
as they could. And now it's I mean,
15:23
that's almost triple in price. It's
15:25
crazy.
15:26
But hey, somebody's got to pay for these
15:28
big production values. I mean, you see
15:30
it on the screen, you know, it's it the
15:32
stuff looks great. That that show, like
15:34
you were saying, the cinematography, I
15:36
mean, he it's if you ever watched
15:38
Breaking Bad, you know that guy knows
15:40
what he's doing and uh it's for sure
15:42
there in Plurbus. Oh.
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