That Vince Gilligan just didn’t get enough of the bleak, desolate suburban spaces of Albuquerque despite the sprawling slow burn seasons of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, is the feeling that I first had when I was mid stream, watching the first episode his new show for Apple TV, Pluribus. In fact, the proceedings early on had me wondering if this was a Kim Wexler spin-off again set in the Breaking Bad universe, for obvious reasons. On to this landscape, this time around Gilligan decides to paint a dystopian, post apocalyptic world, which I admit is not exactly a favorite genre of mine. Now that I am done with the first two episodes, the Albuquerque setting does make sense, there’s an unsettling palpable calmness to the air, that you almost want to be a part of, even in the midst of Armageddon. Especially if you happen to reside in a bustling city subjecting yourself to the corporate grind.
I think Contact when I see giant radars, as any sensible movie buff is expected to and Gilligan looked like he was in X- Files territory again, as the show unravelled. For a moment I wondered if Gilligan was straying into an absurd Kubrickseque setting, far removed from the grounded gritty transactions between characters that we are accustomed to as viewers of his brand staple. It also threatened to invoke memories of the pandemic. I found myself asking if I would’ve watched the show knowing the genre, if it wasn’t for the tag – “from the makers of, you know what”. That’s when the brilliance of the premise hit me, somewhere in the middle of the second episode, when I finally “joined” Gilligan’s vision.
Rhea Seehorn’s cynical, disenchanted fantasy fiction author probably is a representative of every individual on this planet today where we are connected to each other at unprecedented, unfathomable levels. Our thoughts, desires, dislikes and opinions are not just commodities to Silicon Valley giants but also ammunition to feed the rhetoric for political organisations and if nothing else just reasons for a stranger from the farthest corner of the globe to hate us outright. Leaders, thinkers and artists from Lincoln to Lennon have been attacked and assassinated throughout the history of mankind, for their ideas and opinions, just because they had a stage and a platform to reach far and wide. Today, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are those platforms to every individual on the planet with access to basic technology. Which is why Pluribus’s dystopia feels elapsed, not imminent.
gopakumarpurushothaman 