Is this a glorified X-Files episode (the show that gave Vince Gilligan his start)? Or is this the next game-changing watercolor sci-fi TV series?
Genre: Science Fiction (TV Pilot)
Premise: (spoiler) A bizarre signal from space creates a virus on earth that spreads to every single person, connecting them into a unified mind. Except for one person. Carol.
About: In an interview with Inverse, Gilligan recounted how he came up with the idea for his show ten years ago. “I started to ponder a character, who was originally male when I conceived it, who everyone inexplicably loves. He hadn’t done anything to deserve it, but everybody’s really, really nice to him suddenly, and they’ll do anything for him. They’ll bend over backwards to make him happy, and they love him. And that was kind of intriguing. And I thought, ‘Is there a story in there?’” Pluribus just debuted its first episode on Apple TV Friday.
Writer: Vince Gilligan
Details: 60 minutes
Breaking Bad.
Iconic.
Was it Gilligan’s opus? Or does he have something even better?
Gilligan, who started his writing career on The X-Files, said he never had some big plan to return to sci-fi. It’s just that when the concept for Pluribus came together, he realized that the only genre he could tell it in was sci-fi.
Gilligan has been adamant that nobody know anything about this show going into it. “That’s how I experienced The X-Files when I first watched it. And that’s part of what made it so cool. It came out of nowhere.” He hints that that was a big part of going with Apple TV over other streamers. Cause nobody knows anything about any of their shows.
Lol.
Just kidding.
But he does hint that being in control of the marketing was part of why he signed with Apple. He wanted to make sure people went into this series knowing absolutely nothing.
So, what’s it about?
A signal from space. Always the best way to start a story in Carson’s world. :)
Cut to Carol, who’s a bestselling romance novelist who’s just released her latest book. She’s promoting it at bookstores with her agent, a woman, who she’s also in a relationship with. The two head to their hotel after a book signing and, in the parking lot, her girlfriend has some sort of seizure.
Carol runs into the hotel for help but sees that everybody else is having a similar seizure, many of them stuck standing in place while they shake uncontrollably. Carol rushes her girlfriend to the nearest ER only to find the same thing going on.
(Spoilers) Carol’s girlfriend then dies. And, not long after that, everybody stops shaking and turns to Carol and asks how she’s doing. Freaked out, Carol drives home (with her dead girlfriend’s body) and proceeds to run into more people who inexplicably know her name and tell her that they’re there to help. Carol tells them to fucking leave so they do.
Carol starts checking the TV to see if there’s news on what’s going on. There’s only one channel, though. And, on it, is the president of the United States. Who proceeds to talk… directly to Carol! He explains that the world has become a unified mind EXCEPT for Carol and ten other individuals. They want to find out what went wrong so they can fix it. In the meantime, they’re here for Carol. Whatever she needs, they’ll give it to her. The end!
Exhibit A in how vague they’re keeping this promotion
There are a couple of smart writer things I want you to take note of right away here.
The execution of the premise was great. I’ve read ten million scripts that start with some sort of outbreak but none of them quite like this. This was weirder and, unlike the typical zombie-outbreak scenario, there was this mystery as to what was going on that was very compelling. People just stopped, stood in place, and shook. And then they’re okay again, then they’re kissing. Then they’re happy. And then they’re unified in the way they communicate. It really had you wanting to see what happened next.
Gilligan also did something interesting with his hero. He made her a super successful romance novelist… yet she’s gay. I bring this up specifically because a few years ago, this would’ve been tracked as a “woke” choice. But this is how you become a good writer. If you use irony, nobody can criticize your chocies. There’s something clever and interesting about a romance novelist who writes the big brooding men that her readers fall in love with, yet she herself has zero romantic interest in men.
Finally, Gilligan did something interesting with the threat. What do we usually associate with a threat? Aggressiveness. Violence. Anger. Cruelty. Evil. Gilligan went in the opposite direction. The threat here is kindness. Helpfulness. Happiness. Understanding. This is what good writers do. They flip things on their head to create a unique experience for the reader.
And, just, overall, I thought it was a fun pilot. It’s essentially a sci-fi version of Breaking Bad. Not in subject matter. But in tone and place. Just like Breaking Bad, it’s set in Albuquerque. Which gives it this unique big-town/small-city feel, where you could be in a city one block and in the country three blocks over.
So, it’s a slam dunk right?
Well. Not quite.
I’ve been burned by way too many shows that start strong and fade fast. So let’s take a closer look.
Whenever I read a pilot these days, I’m gauging whether it has legs. That’s the main reason the golden age of TV died out. 20 different stinking rich Hollywood entities were craving so much content that they didn’t care about questions of longevity. They just needed stuff NOW. So they bought all these shows that had good pilot scripts and good concepts, but didn’t ask if they could last. Turns out, very few of them had lasting power, resulting in a ton of failed shows. These entities then decided – we’re not getting burned like that again.
I’ll be honest. I’m still trying to figure out if Plubius has legs. The central gag – that this unified blob wants to find out what’s wrong with Carol so it can unify with her, and they’re going to be ultra nice while doing so – I don’t see how much longer you can play that gag out before it gets annoying. 3 more episodes? Maybe 4?
So, what else is there to look forward to? THE most reliable tool in TV writing is to establish a strong unresolved relationship in the opening episode. Bar none. Gilligan knows this! He did it with Walter White and Jesse in Breaking Bad. Most of the time, it’s done with a romantic storyline.
But Plubius has zero unresolved relationships in its pilot. That seriously worries me. Cause that puts even more pressure on the gimmick to keep us entertained.
Pretty much the only thing hinted at in the pilot that provides a long-term view of the story is the fact that there are 10 other people in the world like Carol. So, presumably, she’s going to team up with some of these people somehow and they’ll try to fight the system. But, outside of that, Gilligan may be in serious trouble. There aren’t a whole lot of avenues to go down here.
Now, I want to talk about what Gilligan can do well in the next episode, and where he can falter. If his strategy was that the pilot episode was going to be 100% about the hook and nothing else, and episode number 2 is where he introduces the main unresolved relationship in the show, then he can get right back on track for episode 3. He solves the very issue I just laid out.
However, if he starts doing that thing where he goes backwards and tries to establish lives before all of this happened, he will lose a huge chunk of the show’s audience. You can do that. But only after you’ve earned ‘flashback credit.’ You gotta give us a sustained entertaining experience before you start doing the old TV flashback thing. Cause that shit got old fast and audiences don’t like it anymore.
[ ] What the hell did I just watch?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[xx] worth the stream
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Even if your pilot lacks a strong hook, if you can create a kick-ass unresolved relationship in your pilot, that can be enough to make people want to keep watching. If they fall in love with two people whose storylines they want to see resovled, they WILL come BACK. It’s the most tried and true tool in TV writing. Let’s stay on brand here for our example, which is one of the best ever: Mulder and Scully.
