On The Editors podcast last week, I recommended the new show on Apple TV, Pluribus. It’s turning into a more divisive show than I expected. (Spoilers to follow!)
The opening episode is a mix of science fiction and horror. A signal from outer space aimed at Earth gives scientists an RNA sequence that they synthesize. It escapes from lab rats one night and eventually infects almost every human. This viral infection “joins” humanity into a hive mind and renders the species pacifistic. This new humanity is happy and seems purposeful. People provide for each other, each according to his ability and needs, seamlessly, like one organism. They cannot lie outright. Thirteen people on the planet remain immune, including our protagonist, Carol Sturka, a romantasy novelist and alcoholic. The “joining” temporarily included but also inadvertently killed her lesbian partner, Helen, whom Carol buries in the backyard in episode 2. The Others — the members of the hive mind — seek to please, appease, and care for the immune, hoping to study them and figure out how to join them into the collective as well. It’s a gripping series that is clearly inspired by and riffs on sci-fi classics like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Omega Man, Village of the Damned, the British television series The Prisoner, even The Truman Show, which portrayed a friendly utopia.
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