If you haven’t heard of Pluribus, get ready for a show that’ll blow your mind and make you cry at the same time.
The first two episodes of this sci-fi thriller, created by Breaking Bad‘s Vince Gilligan, were recently released on Apple TV.
The bombshells dropped so far are shaping it into a promising entry into the world of sci-fi.
In recent years, some promising entries in the sci-fi genre have included dystopian shows like Severance and zombie-apocalypse series like The Last of Us.
While those shows feature stories full of character growth and emotional themes, Pluribus explores emotional isolation and grief honestly and creatively.
The Relevance of Emotional Isolation
It’s been five years since the pandemic swept across the world, prompting many lockdowns and months of isolation.
Pluribus takes that feeling and flips it on its head by asking what it would feel like to be surrounded by people yet still be lonely.
Carol is one of the 12 people who haven’t become part of the hive mind, and her interactions with everyone who seems to be under this “happy” spell show how she just can’t seem to connect with them.
Part of it is that she’s terrified of being joined to the rest of the world, but the other part is that she fundamentally can’t understand their goals.
Even worse, the rest of the 11 people who aren’t affected refuse to see where Carol is coming from in her determination to oppose everything the hive mind stands for.
In this way, Carol can’t emotionally connect with either group of people and finds herself completely alone in her journey to save the world.
That feeling of loneliness is something Pluribus captures in a relatable and accessible way, especially in a world where so much technological connection can sometimes lead to even more emotional isolation.
Carol’s journey with grief is even more tragic than Carol’s struggle to find anybody to bond with emotionally.
Even in a Perfect World, You Can’t Escape Grief
Part of why Carol is so resistant to those who are part of the hive mind is that she lost her wife, Helen, to the joining.
Her grief is persistent throughout the narrative, particularly with how she seemingly has constant reminders of her loss while living alone in the house.
While Pluribus is a sci-fi show that dedicates a significant amount of time to worldbuilding and fleshing out what the happiness virus actually seems to be doing, it also spends considerable time with Carol’s quietness at home, surrounded by reminders of Helen.
Additionally, the comparison of everybody else’s seemingly perfect joy compared to Carol’s grief is a powerful contrast that illustrates how grief itself can be a form of emotional isolation.
Even though people may be willing to do anything to make sure that Carol is happy, they fundamentally don’t understand that all she wants is her old life back with her wife, something that they cannot give her.
Of course, that doesn’t necessarily justify how Carol often treats those who are trying to help her with cruelty, but it certainly explains her behavior.
By contextualizing Carol’s emotional state, Pluribus does an effective job of portraying a nuanced protagonist to root for, especially since the audience knows that she’s fighting through her grief to save the world.
While it’s still relatively early on in the season for Pluribus, the show seems like it will focus more on this intersection between emotional isolation and grief as a prominent theme.
On top of that, maybe as the season goes on, we will also get to learn more about the mysterious virus and why it’s making people act so cheerful.
Have you been tuning into Pluribus?
Are there any sci-fi shows that this new series reminds you of?
Comment below!
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