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This article contains spoilers<\/strong> for “Pluribus”\u00a0episode 1.<\/em><\/p>\n We’ve seen the collapse of society due to an encroaching cataclysmic force occur dozens of times before. Between disaster movies, alien invasion flicks, zombie apocalypse films, and pandemic thrillers, we have a trope-filled template of how these events tend to go. As such, we are rarely gifted a story or sequence in this vein that feels almost wholly unique. This is why it’s such a treat to encounter something like “Pluribus,” showrunner Vince Gilligan’s new series on Apple TV.<\/p>\n The bulk of the series is a grounded sci-fi satire about Carol (Rhea Seehorn) dealing with her newfound status as one of the last human beings with autonomy left after a mysterious virus transforms most of the population into a hive mind organism. To get to this point, however, the pilot episode, entitled “We is Us,” (written and directed by Gilligan) presents us with a combination pandemic apocalypse\/alien invasion thriller, and it’s one of the most exhilaratingly fresh examples of that type of story yet.<\/p>\n The freshness that “Pluribus” brings not just to television but these well-worn genre ideas<\/a> can be seen in greater contrast when compared to the pilot episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us.” That series also begins with a terrifying collapse of society in real time, albeit one that skews much closer to the zombie outbreak narrative originated by George A. Romero in his “Dead” films<\/a>. The episode, entitled “When You’re Lost in the Darkness,” not only hits most of the expected-by-now beats of the zombie subgenre \u2014 societal norms being ripped away, sudden, shocking violence and loss, etc. \u2014 it also sticks way too close to its video game source material. “Pluribus” is proof that originality can still happen while referencing and homaging what’s come before.<\/p>\n