Review: Rhea Seehorn Declares War on Joy in Pluribus, the New Series from the Creator of Breaking Bad

Vince Gilligan is back on TV, and no, it is not another meth opera. Apple has been teasing this thing with cryptic promos for months, and now we finally have a sense of what Pluribus is: big, strange, funny, and dead serious when it wants to be. It plays more like Gilligan’s old X-Files days than anything in the Breaking Bad universe, even though the visual polish will feel familiar to Better Call Saul fans. Also, Rhea Seehorn is front and center, which is already a good sign.

So what is it, exactly?

"A genre-bending original in which the most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness."

That’s the official logline, and honestly, it sets the tone. Pluribus opens with an event that instantly explains the bizarre behavior you’ve seen in the trailers. The why of it stays fuzzy for a long time. The story zooms out to a global scale but stays rooted in Albuquerque (Gilligan’s home turf), following author Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) as she tries to figure out why she’s different from almost everyone else and whether she can undo what just happened to the planet. It’s dystopian and apocalyptic without leaning on viruses or zombies or any of the usual suspects.

Tonally, it’s a surreal, darkly funny sci-fi stew that keeps shifting gears. Carol is sarcastic, angry, and very much a reluctant lead, pitted against an antagonist you can probably guess at if you stare at the title and those teaser hints long enough. Her push-pull dynamic with Zosia (Karolina Wydra) anchors a lot of the early episodes, and the show folds in others in a similar situation, including characters played by Samba Schutte and Carlos Manuel Vesga. There are also a few familiar faces that the show is clearly saving as surprises.

The feel of it

Early viewers who have seen seven of the nine episodes say the show reveals the mechanism behind its weirdness right away, then spends the season exploring the days and weeks that follow. Every hour digs deeper, answers a question, then throws two more at you. It’s deliberately paced, and the second half in particular leans on character choices that will get people arguing. That’s part of the appeal here: the weekly rollout basically invites theorizing between episodes.

Even with the mystery box stuff, this is very much a Gilligan joint: pitch-black humor, sharp character work, and that sunbaked Southwest vibe. The scale is bigger than his previous New Mexico sets, and some of the sequences are quietly impressive in how complex they are to pull off. The show is also more playful than you might expect, landing solid laughs alongside the dread.

Who made it, who’s in it, and how it rolls out

• Creator: Vince Gilligan. He wrote and directed the first two episodes. Last time he launched something outside the Bad/Saul world was the short-lived Battle Creek back in 2015. He also cut his teeth on The X-Files.
• Writers on the rest of the season: Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock, Ariel Levine, Vera Blasi, Jenn Carroll, and Jonny Gomez.
• Directors beyond Gilligan: Gordon Smith, Zetna Fuentes, and Gandja Monteiro.
• Cast highlights: Rhea Seehorn as Carol Sturka; Karolina Wydra as Zosia; plus Samba Schutte and Carlos Manuel Vesga. Expect some surprise familiar faces along the way.
• Setting and scope: Largely in Albuquerque, but the event is planet-wide. The tone leans sci-fi with dystopian edges, and it is absolutely not a pandemic/zombie retread.
• Season size and pacing: Nine hour-long episodes. Critics who previewed seven say each chapter packs a big reveal that reshapes what you think is happening.
• Release plan: Two-episode premiere on Apple TV+ on November 7, then weekly drops.

Bottom line

Pluribus is Gilligan and Seehorn trying something new while still feeling like themselves. It’s stranger than you expect, not really like anything else on Apple’s slate, and it asks you to pay attention. That weekly schedule should make the speculation pretty entertaining too.

If you want a quick temperature check, JoBlo’s early review called it great and slapped an 8/10 on it. Between the pedigree and the swing-for-the-fences premise, this one’s an easy add to the list.