Reasons To Watch Pluribus, Ranked

Pluribus, the new Apple TV series from Vince Gilligan, debuted last week with two episodes. I think you should watch it. Here are 10 reasons why…

TEN: Vince Gilligan made Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, two of the best television shows ever, ones that mixed action and humor and grief and whimsy in a way very few pieces of art pull off successfully, and if you watched those shows and liked them, this should probably be enough to get you to give it a shot.

NINE: The reviews are incredible, across the board, from all the smart critics who have already seen a bunch of episodes, and while “the critics all like it” is not always a good enough reason to hop on-board, it is nice to have a big-deal show that lives up to the very secretive hype Apple was stringing along before the premiere.

EIGHT: The show is wild and ambitious as hell. You’ll sound like a maniac trying to explain the plot to someone. Dustin at Pajiba did a pretty solid job of it if you want to go in with an idea of what you’re about to see, but it’s also great to go in completely blind. That’s how I did it. I was sitting there for the whole first two episodes going “WHAT?!” and “WAIT… WHY…” over and over. It was great.

SEVEN: You’ll get to meet this guy, who has things pretty much figured out already, even if his idea of “having things figured out” raises a series of very murky ethical dilemmas that he does not seem to be concerned about in the least so far. Also worth noting: Contrary to what the screencaps imply, he is very much not the President of the United States

SIX: On that note, this is shaping up to be a fun show to talk about. Again, the necessary “only two episodes have aired so far” caveats apply, but still. Gilligan and the team dripped out information over the first two hours, slowly revealing things to the audience at the same pace the main character is discovering them, which leaves the door wide open for questions. And theories. And fun blogs about things that happened and what they might mean. And crazy flights of fancy for the show and audience to embark upon. It’s cool. We haven’t had a big fun show to do that with all together for a while.

FIVE: I suspect I’ll be writing and blabbering about the show a lot, so if you want to have any idea what I’m talking about, it could be useful.

FOUR: This is admittedly more of a practical consideration, but this show finally gives you a real reason to sign up for Apple TV, even if it’s only for a month or two, which means you can pop in and check out a slew of their other shows while you wait for these new episodes to come out. Slow Horses and Shrinking are my favs, and Loot is a lot of fun if you want to see Maya Rudolph run wild (who doesn't?), but there’s really a lot of surprisingly decent stuff in there.

THREE: The show stars Rhea Seehorn, which is important because Rhea Seehorn is awesome. She plays a novelist named Carol who writes space fantasy romance books and doesn’t enjoy it very much and has her whole life — well, everyone else’s lives, too, I guess — turned completely upside down by a world-altering event that happens not long into the first episode. I know I said I wouldn't get too into the weeds about the plot here, just because you really do deserve to experience it fresh if you somehow haven’t learned about it yet, but I wanted to say at least that much to give you context for this: Vince Gilligan is giving Rhea Seehorn Stuff To Do, in a big way. Stuff that lets her play angry and exasperated and confused and really dip into her whole acting bag. This has a chance to be a star-making role, man. You know how Jon Hamm became such a big star from Mad Men that he kind of just gets to be Jon Hamm now, in whatever project interests him in the moment? I want that for Rhea Seehorn. If we all watch this show and talk about it a lot and it lives up to the promise it’s already showing, that could happen. It would make me happy.

TWO: Not enough television characters tell people to shoo these days and I think that’s important.

ONE: It’s a pretty good show, guys.

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STUFF I CLICKED ON

— Mike Ryan interviewed Glen Powell

— Kathryn VanArendonk wrote a banger essay about The Lowdown and a world with no consequences 

— Sepinwall got weird (proud of him)

— Claire McNear wrote about Patriot, one of my favorite shows ever

— the Associated Press found the guy who was dressed like a 1930s millionaire outside the Louvre the day it was robbed and it turned out to be, incredibly, a 15-year-old boy who dresses like that all the time because he loves to be a little dramatic

— I’m still working my way through Death by Lightning, which is taking a while because period pieces often make me sleepy, but I do want to point out what incredible work Nick Offerman is doing in here

— ‘The Chair Company’ Episode 5 Ending: Can HBO Do That?”

— “Shetland knitting group ‘shocked and saddened’ by representation in Channel 4 show”

— vindicated iguana

— “Missing flamingo thought to be living in France”

— RIP inventor of the frozen burrito 

— Kim Kardashian officially failed the bar exam which I point out mostly so you can see the image TMZ ran with the story

— I will watch the insane new Jimmy Olson show from the creators of American Vandal 

— Sabrina Carpenter is working with the Muppets and now she’s making some crazy Alice in Wonderland movie

— people are fighting over a bear cup

— Francis Ford Coppola is selling his island

— the rights for Roger Rabbit have reverted back to its creator, which is cool

— I watched a soccer match that was played in a blizzard and it was one of the coolest things I’ve seen all year

Okay, that's it for this week. Please share and subscribe and watch the good show.