Think Vince Gilligan Crashed Apple TV First? Kate Winslet Beat Him By Four Years
Apple TV+ buckled under the debut of Pluribus, crashing around 10:30 p.m. ET Thursday just minutes after the first two episodes dropped and knocking out viewers across the U.S. and Canada. The brief but widespread outage marred the splashy launch of Vince Gilligan’s new series.
Apple finally dropped Vince Gilligan's new series 'Pluribus' on Thursday night and, within minutes, Apple TV+ face-planted. Great timing, truly.
What went down last night
- The first two episodes of 'Pluribus' hit Apple TV+ just before 10:30 p.m. ET. Within minutes, viewers in the US and Canada started seeing outages, per Bloomberg.
- Nearly 13,000 users logged problems before Apple admitted there was an issue on its status page.
- The whole thing lasted about an hour and a half, then service came back.
- It was not the night you want to crash, given how hyped this show is and how long fans have been waiting.
Quick primer on 'Pluribus'
New series from 'Breaking Bad' and 'Better Call Saul' creator Vince Gilligan. It is streaming on Apple TV+. There are 9 episodes, and early reception is wild: a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes as of now.
Gilligan's decade-long slow cook
Gilligan didn't just whip this one up after breakfast. He has been noodling the idea for years, literally on lunch breaks during 'Better Call Saul,' letting a very specific, very odd premise grow into a full series. The seed of it is this melancholic sci-fi hook about big emotions and bigger consequences. He described the core idea like this:
"The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness."
From there, he imagined a guy who suddenly becomes universally adored for no clear reason. People would do anything for him. He couldn't dent their enthusiasm even if he tried. That unsettling thought experiment morphed into the show we just got.
Yes, we have seen a streamer buckle like this before
Four years ago, 'Mare of Easttown' blew up HBO Max so hard that the finale night turned into a queue of error messages. As viewers piled in for the ending, the service choked on the traffic, per BBC. It took a few hours to sort out, which gave fans plenty of time to be annoyed and post jokes. The final laugh still belonged to the show: the finale was hailed as one of the best TV endings in years, and Kate Winslet took home an Emmy.
Where things stand now
Apple's outage was shorter—roughly 90 minutes—and it is fixed. 'Pluribus' is up and streaming in the US on Apple TV+. If you tried to watch and got stuck in the chaos, I feel your pain. If you made it through, let me know if the show lives up to the hype.