{"id":2140393,"date":"2025-11-07T05:39:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T05:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2140393"},"modified":"2025-11-07T05:39:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T05:39:25","slug":"enter-the-creepily-cheerful-twilight-zone-of-pluribus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/enter-the-creepily-cheerful-twilight-zone-of-pluribus\/","title":{"rendered":"Enter the Creepily Cheerful Twilight Zone of \u2018Pluribus\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My idea of happiness: A new series from Vince Gilligan<\/a>, a master of the gloriously offbeat, as evidenced by his unlikely hit Breaking Bad<\/a><\/em> \u2014 it\u2019s hard now to remember that a drama about a milquetoast\u2019s evolution into a drug kingpin was anything but an easy sell \u2013 and its terrific sequel, Better Call Saul<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Before achieving that level of auteur success, Gilligan honed his craft on The X-Files<\/em><\/a>, where he earned his first Emmy nominations. That imaginative genre-blending spirit is alive and well in his latest creation, Pluribus<\/a>,<\/em> a sci-fi infused character drama that\u2019s simultaneously creepy and weirdly funny, thoroughly original even when it echoes classics like The Twilight Zone<\/em><\/a> and, more specifically, Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/a>.<\/em> I\u2019ll be surprised if this doesn\u2019t become Apple TV\u2019s next buzz-generating hit in the tradition of the much murkier Severance<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Gilligan has gifted his brilliant Saul<\/em> star Rhea Seehorn<\/a> with the role of a lifetime in Carol Sturka, who inadvertently becomes the last unhappy person on Earth. A snarky writer of romantasy novels (which she considers \u201cmindless crap\u201d), Carol soon finds herself trapped in a scenario she could never have imagined, isolated in a transformed world where everyone but her appears to be unusually and eerily cheerful. (To say much more would be risking spoilers, of which there are many.)<\/p>\n

In a twist that makes Pluribus<\/em> such a joy to watch, Carol is chronically allergic to anyone and everyone\u2019s well wishes. She keeps hearing people say, \u201cWe just want you to be happy,\u201d and she\u2019s having none of it. As a bewildered Carol rebels against this utopia of conformity, Seehorn runs the gamut of emotions from grief and confusion to fear and rage, only the latter of which seems to ruffle the composure of her fellow citizens, each polite and scrupulously honest.<\/p>\n

The contrast between the Stepford populace and Carol is hilarious but also deeply unsettling, which is the vibe that should keep viewers watching Pluribus<\/em> to see what happens next. From episode to episode \u2014 Apple made seven of the first season\u2019s nine chapters available for preview \u2014 I had no idea where the story would veer, which makes the ride even more exciting. The unpredictability is thrilling, and thanks to Seehorn\u2019s bravura performance, the fascination never ebbs.<\/p>\n

Her unhappiness is our bliss. May we all join as one (reflecting the show\u2019s title, parsed from our national motto \u201ce pluribus unum (out of many, one)\u201d to celebrate the arrival of what deserves to be our next streaming obsession. Make room,\u00a0Severance.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pluribus<\/em><\/strong>, Series Premiere (two episodes), Friday, November 7, Apple TV<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the latest entertainment news on TV Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My idea of happiness: A new series from Vince Gilligan, a master of the gloriously offbeat, as evidenced by his unlikely hit Breaking Bad \u2014 it\u2019s hard now to remember that a drama about a milquetoast\u2019s evolution into a drug kingpin was anything but an easy sell \u2013 and its terrific sequel, Better Call Saul. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2140394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[25317,359903,359900,347734],"class_list":["post-2140393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-apple-tv","tag-carol-sturka","tag-rhea-seehorn","tag-vince-gilligan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Enter-the-Creepily-Cheerful-Twilight-Zone-of-\u2018Pluribus.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2140393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2140395,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140393\/revisions\/2140395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2140394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2140393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2140393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2140393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}