Pluribus - The new show from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan

[Dragged Into Sunlight]

>the ayylmao hive mind virus came from Kepler-22b
Raised By Wolves season 3?

Still so fucking mad I got sucked into that and it was canceled.

 

[buying gf]

The glacial pace is starting to get to me.

Next episode predictions:
Carol will reveal to the other immune that the hive has been eating the dead. They won't believe her. She will confront the hive and they will say that they do not want to waste food and call back to the vegetarian scene in episode 2. 43 minutes of filler.

 

[#lurker]

Minor Episode 5 spoilers:

They jumped the shark with the barcode thing. She has no reason to believe that the exact same bag would be used to store a common grocery item. Yes, the milk cartons implied they were using existing infrastructure (no shit!), but big paper bags could literally be used for anything. But not only does she somehow instantly deduce that the bag was a common item, she also instantly finds it in a stock-full grocery store. Bullshit. And remember, the only reason the grocery store was even filled in the first place was because the show forced that whole sequence two episodes ago.

This perfectly encapsulates why this show is really starting to smell. The main character is not acting like how any rational person would. The story will either have her be extremely stupid or extremely smart depending on how they want to move the narrative, not because it's anything essential to her character or something a logical person would do. The only reason she demanded the store be stocked was because the show needed it to be so she could find the bag later. It's extremely forced, and this hacky writing is right throughout the show.

Edit: Also, if the ending is implying some Soylent Green shit, then they've really jumped the shark. Just lame.

 

[GradeAGobbleDeeGook]

i dont know else they could be going for there
one detail that stood out was that the crows were eating it, nothing else, just the white powder stuff
writers also drew attention to it by making the crows make a noise that Carol had to go investigate, then check the bags to find the same powder
dont know what else it could be other than a soylent green type theme?
why was she shocked after thinking about it for a second, and why were the crows eating it?

 

[buying gf]

i dont know else they could be going for there
one detail that stood out was that the crows were eating it, nothing else, just the white powder stuff
writers also drew attention to it by making the crows make a noise that Carol had to go investigate, then check the bags to find the same powder
dont know what else it could be other than a soylent green type theme?
why was she shocked after thinking about it for a second, and why were the crows eating it?

Crows are scavengers and opportunistic feeders, they'll eat anything. You know what else is a scavenging animal? Coyotes. Like the ones digging up Helen's corpse.

VRAVO BINCE

 

[GradeAGobbleDeeGook]

Crows are scavengers and opportunistic feeders, they'll eat anything.

do you think thats why they put them into the scene, to show they are scavengers, or do you not think they were putting them there as a clue?
they are trained birds that were paid to be there and put into that scene for a reason, and my guess the reason is its a clue that its dead body powder

 

[testnameplsignore]

Edit: Also, if the ending is implying some Soylent Green shit, then they've really jumped the shark. Just lame.

This foreshadowing was pointed out on /tv/ - not exactly subtle.

 

[MadStan]

I'm only through the second episode and it is hard to navigate the net without spoilers. But it is interesting that signal came from 600 light years away. Thats about where about betelgeuse is. Theory is an advanced civilization needs a new home as their current one is in danger. Sent out probes, found Earth, did analysis on our genome, sent it back, they sent forward the code to enslave the human population so they can arrive later and take the planet.

They need to have the planet in is a good of condition as they can get it for occupation which would mean immense reduction of the human population as there is not enough protein content on Earth without animal matter consumption taking place (i.e. only farmlands). So procreation will probably come to a halt or be highly controlled.

Having people shut down due to negative emotions is probably a defense mechanism so that when humans at a future date are eliminated, they do not fight back.

Their high concern with those not within the hive mind would certainly center on the possibility that the hive mind possibly could be highjacked or influenced to perform preventative acts to prevent the takeover or not accept the probable outcome that a portion of the human population will be kept as a curiosity much like we keep zoos.

 

[CervixHammer]

This is autistic as hell:

(the subtitles replace "white" with a hex code for a shade of yellow, and color is one of Vince's special interests)

 

[Brutality]

Last episode was a nothing burger like ep 3 was but something that I noticed revisiting the earlier episodes was how there may be some subtle foreshadowing for what I assume is the revelation next episode that the hive uses dead bodies as nourishment. Some choice screengrabs I got from earlier episodes:


Also really appreciated the Patrick Fabian cameo

 

[bango skank]

I don’t see what else it could be, but I really hope it’s anything other than soylent green.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

It's definitely a soylent green thing, but I doubt it's going to be a major plot point going forward, just kind of a "shocking" moment to end an episode on. The show is definitely moving at a glacial pace though. Almost nothing has happened in nearly five hours of show.

 

[J0hnyApplesneed]

I think the central concept itself is really interesting and that they could still do slow-paced storytelling while showing more of the implications of a hive mind takeover, but they're really just wasting too much time on the lesbian seething in her McMansion. I'd much rather see more about how the hive mind society works.

Also, I know they're probably not going to reveal much about that Zosia chick yet for story purposes but its also just weird that Carol has not actually asked about who she is. She has asked about the former identities of some of the other hive mind drones, like that soy fag from the episode before this one, but she's not interested in learning about this woman who is her main point of contact with the hive and is also based off her secret novel idea.

 

[Terror Sandwich]

I just caught up with the show and I'm not sure if I like it. I guess my curiosity of where the fuck the plot is going is what is keeping me engaged and I'll finish season 1 at least. I just don't know how they can keep this up for at least 2 full seasons, or more.

I'm just annoyed at the writing. Carol finds out they can't lie and have all the human knowledge in the world and doesn't even bother asking the real questions™: 9/11 inside job? Epstein stuff? Trump blew Clinton? Moon landing was fake? Illuminati type shit.
Being serious, there are so many questions to make them that she simply isn't asking, I guess because the showrunners can't reveal them this early, but for me the number one question would be what is their actual end-game as humans now? With this hive, 90%+ of jobs are just meaningless, so what would the majority of bodies work towards? Human individuality is what creates our "dreams" and that's the end game for so many people out there, without that what are they striving towards? This is clearly something that will be revealed later on, but the fact that Carol isn't even thinking about this is so frustrating.
Also, they haven't even bothered talking about the elephant in the room that this hive mind has probably hundred of millions of murderers, rapist and psychos as part of their group.

The concept for the show brings forth so many possible ideas and discussions that they are just glancing over.

 

[AngryAboutInternets]

This show is such wasted potential, and it's really demonstrative of the modern writing problem: a complete misunderstanding of what the audience wants. You can't have a show with effectively two (main) characters when one character is an unlikable bitch and the other character is a stereotype, at least not when you are also writing a show under the pretense that your characters are the main draw because nothing interesting happens. This is science fiction, it's supposed to explore big ideas, that's the whole point. Even if you are going to do a concept that has been done a thousand times before, or just mash two concepts together, you should actually execute a proper science fiction story around those concepts.

I don't care that the character is a lesbian, it doesn't bother me. I don't even really care that she's a total bitch, it doesn't really bother me. I don't care that the hive mind is basically an alien pacifist stereotype, and I don't care that it is also basically just invasion of the body snatchers, neither of those things bother me. What bothers me is that all of this is executed in the least interesting way, at a glacial pace, and with so little thought put into the details that I know for a fact it's never going to wind up impressing me in any way or even entertaining me more than something I could read online for free written by an amateur author. No, it's just going to continue meandering around its own colon pretending that it's deep to waste everybody's time for 35 to 40 minutes per episode jerking itself off.

Show me people eating each other. Show me the hive mind mass-suiciding the ill and infirm by starvation. Show me the utter chaos caused by doing dumb shit like letting all the zoo animals (and presumably farm animals) free. Show me a fucking alien saucer hovering above the white house with a bunch of little green men laughing about how soon they'll own the earth. Ask some moral questions, actually ASK the questions don't just allude to them. Have Carol straight up tell the hivemind to its face that it murdered billions of people by taking over their minds and effectively wiping their brains clean and get hysterical when it tries to gaslight her otherwise. Have the hivemind say some wild shit like "free will is like an addiction to crystal meth and we had to detox you" because it's a weird alien intelligence (even if it's made of humans) and its morals don't make sense from a human perspective. Approach the idea that maybe the hivemind is also a sort of afterlife if it can back up the knowledge of everyone in it. Ask if the hivemind can "pretend" to be individuals, or if it can even comprehend the concept of individuality, or if it can maybe link everyone without nuking their free will. Do SOMETHING besides wasting my time with melodrama that I could get from any show on TV.

Fucking hell I could sit here all day coming up with shit more interesting than what they're doing. Bringing up an idea doesn't mean you have to agree with it, it doesn't even mean you have to take a side, it's just there to get people thinking and entertain them. How do A-list writers not get this?

Pluribus feels like an art student's first big project, with all the stupid ego tripping and pretense that would fit exactly such a thing. Except it's by a guy with a resume that indicates he should be able to wipe his ass with a piece of paper and make a better script than this. I can't believe I actually enjoyed Murderbot, a show about a snarky depressed security drone trying to protect a bunch of gigaleftoid space hippies, more than something by the guy who wrote FUCKING BREAKING BAD.

tl;dr How the fuck is sci-fi so bad these days?

 

[#lurker]

tl;dr How the fuck is sci-fi so bad these days?

I'm starting to be convinced that this show is just an Apple/Gilligan scam to boost streaming watch times. Start show with interesting premise > have audience chase carrots for ten episodes (aka nothing happens) > end on cliff hanger to bait attendance next season. Rinse repeat.

 

[florida_cat_enjoyer]

I think the central concept itself is really interesting and that they could still do slow-paced storytelling while showing more of the implications of a hive mind takeover, but they're really just wasting too much time on the lesbian seething in her McMansion. I'd much rather see more about how the hive mind society works.

I generally really enjoy “slow” television shows but they actually have to inch toward something happening. We don’t need to devote an episode to her burying her “partner” (whose name I can’t even remember). Especially when she’s already lusting over Zosia “subconsciously.”

 

[Betonhaus]

It's a very interesting premise, but was probably always doomed to be poorly executed. If you have a hive mind of the whole world then you need to be able to acknowledge your own biases on the nature of humans. It's really only possible because the plot is so railroaded that it even works at all. That necessitate the activist liberal white woman who has such a narrow understanding of what's going on that she can't even think of the obvious questions (such as what is the hivemind's end goal).

 

[Fig Kommandant]

Do SOMETHING

This really is the problem with shows like this. People call it a slow burn, but stuff isn't happening slowly, it simply isn't happening. So far each episode has had about 5-10 minutes of storytelling stretched to 40 minutes. But also, none of the episodes are their own stories about Carol or the plurbs, they're parts of a larger story stretched over a few weeks. Comparing House of Cards or Game of Thrones, it was actually rare for stuff to happen quickly, but each episode still had a complete story to tell while making the plot progress.

 

[dick brain]

for a moment I thought it was going to be about the old bullshit video game faux urban legend

Nah that was Pubiclice