Tag: Pluribus

A Fundamental Reimagining of Pluribus

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For some weird reason, I spent much of today asleep and dreaming and in doing so I spent a huge amount of REM sleep devoted to “fixing” the TV show Pluribus. This sort of stuff happens when you’re obsessed with writing a novel, like I am at the moment.

Now, I can’t remember everything, but here is what I do remember.

Make Carol a normal human being
What I would do is instead Carol being a mean, nasty lesbian, I would just have her be a normal fucking human being lesbian. I get why she’s the way she is — what if the worst person in the world had to save humanity? — but, lulz, if she was just an average person, that would open a lot more nuance. I mean, imagine if she was sort of friends with the hivemind from the beginning and then she found betrayed when she found out the “darker” side of things.
Make it so only part of humanity is infected
Actually, either you go this route or you have the entire world infected because the signal went directly into people’s minds. But given that you become catatonic for 15 minutes in-world, there is just no way the virus could take over the entire world as depicted in the show. This is really bad world-building to the point of being a plot hole. Instead, either allow for the interesting situation where only part of the world is infect, or go with the “direct to mind” route.
Make it so you can “cure” the infected with (good) music.
It would be fun — and crowd pleasing — if, say, Carol finds out that you can “cure” people by playing music, preferably good music with a heavy bass. That would be fun. Opens up all sorts of interesting avenues.

Pluribus Could Have Been So Much Better

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about the Apple TV series Pluribus is it could be so much better if it had better world building. It tests credulity to think the entire fucking world would be consumed by the “joining” space virus, given that people freeze up for 15 minutes when they get infected.

What I would have done is leaned into how realistically the virus would have read given the conditions of the scenario. So, instead of the whole world being taken over in some weird way, have MOST of the world or a big chunk taken over. Then, organically, figure out a way to make our heroine to be crucial to the communication between the two sides.

That would be interesting.

And, what’s more, instead of Carol just being mean and angry, have her be a normal human being. So there might be a real sense of betrayal with the…darker…elements of the “joining” virus.

Anyway, way, the point is, there was so much more that could have been done with not just the character of Carol, but world building.

Pluribus Has Me Thinking

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I had a very vivid dream during a nap this evening about how I might be able to write a story similar to Pluribus. It’s based on a novel idea I’ve had for some time, but I’m so fucking annoyed on a structural basis about Pluribus that I might return to it at some point in the near future.

But, of course, I’m not getting any younger.

So it all may be a lulz. I may have one solid novel in me and that’s it before I’m just too old to do anything. Sigh.

Some More Storytelling Musings About Pluribus

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Virtually no one reads the blog besides a few obsessives and maybe a stalker here or there, but I’ve been getting a steady tiny trickle of readers because of my ranting about Pluribus, so here goes (again.)

I really want to become, like, addicted to Pluribus. It’s just the type of high quality TV that I usually fall for. But there’s one central problem that grates on my nerves — the protagonist, Carol, at least right now, is something of a one-trick emotional pony.

She’s just angry all the time. An angry misanthrope.

While I get that this gives Carol room to grow over the course of the show’s run, at least for now it’s really fucking annoying. It would be a lot more interesting — an nuanced — if maybe she was more middle of the road.

Instead of being enraged, what if she was curious. That would heighten the betrayal when we start to figure out that (spoilers) we may have a Soylent Green type of situation going on.

As it stands, Carol is kind of a caricature of “the worst, most angry person in the world confronted by a chill hivemind.”

I get that vision. I even validate it. Yet I have to again say that it would be a lot more interesting if there was some nuance to Carol’s interaction with the hivemind.

Also, just in general, I would still like a more realistic version of the hivemind taking over the world, so there was maybe 30% hivemind and 70% individuals on earth and the story is how Carol, who is somehow individually befriended by the hivemind has to bridge the gap between the two worlds.

Now THAT would be quality TV.

But, alas, no one listens to me.

Pluribus Is Annoying

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I want to like the new Apple TV show Pluribus. I really do. It’s just…there are some things about it that really fucking bug the shit out of me. There are too many plot holes. And, to date at least, Carol, the protagonist has just been a misanthropic asshole.

She’s a one trick pony. She’s just angry all the time.

It would be so much more interesting if Carol had some nuance to her. I think that might have been solved if her BFF / lover / assistant had not died. Then there would be a face for her the hivemind that she did not want to hurt.

But, here we are.

I totally get what the point of the show is — what if the worst person in the world had to save humanity from being “chill.” And, yet, I don’t know.

Something about the lengths the producers have gone to make Carol unlikeable strike me the wrong way. But, if anything, Carol being such a fucking bitch at least gives her room to grow, I guess. 🙂

Is ‘Pluribus’…Bad?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t know what to make of the new Apple TV show Pluribus. On one hand, it’s really, really good. It’s thought provoking and interesting in an innovative way. And, yet, there are elements to it that really are grating to my would-be novelist nerves.

One is the premise — there’s a gaping hole in the basic premise of the show that could easily be fixed. All you have to do is just have the signal that is the origin of the hivemind space virus go directly into people’s minds instead of the middle step of humans using the aliens message to create a virus in the first place.

Now, I’ve only seen the first two episodes, so if this next element has changed or been softened, then, lulz, sorry.

But the heroine of the show, Carol, seems like a very bitter one trick pony. She is just angry. That’s her thing — to date, at least.

Be angry.

If I was writing the show, I would have Carol have a more conflicted relationship with the hivemind. That is a far more interesting situation than simply “I hate them.”

Anyway, I’m on the bubble if I’m going to keep watching the show. I may wait until it’s over for the season then binge watch the whole thing.

(SPOILERS) How To Fix ‘Pluribus’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I really enjoyed the first episode of Pluribus, there is a huge, huge, HUGE plot hole in it that really annoys me. (SPOILERS) So, you get the space virus by directly getting some sort of body fluid from someone else in you. Meanwhile, once you are infected you go into some sort of catatonic state immediately.

There is a huge amount of hand-waving away of how the virus took over the entire world so quickly given those conditions. In reality, the virus would be noticed very quickly and, what’s more, the non-infected would figure out how to prevent the space virus’ spread well before it took over the world.

So, if the show was scifi and not sci fantasy, it would focus on how the population of the world, now split between hivemind and individuals would come to grips with this new arrangement.

But that’s not the show the producers were aiming for, so, lulz.

Here’s how you fix it — you just have the virus transmitted directly over the entirety of the globe. Everything else stays the same. But in this version, the entire globe goes catatonic for a few minutes and then wakes up as part of the hivemind.

Problem solved!

Anyway, I really like the show in general, other than that severe quibble.

Looking Forward To Watching ‘Pluribus’ At Some Point

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The producers of the new Apple TV show Pluribus have managed to square the circle and come out with content that both Red and Blue like, but for the exact opposite reasons.

Reds think its about the power of the woke cancel culture mob, while Blues think it’s about the power of MAGA.

I haven’t had a chance to see it yet — I don’t have an Apple TV subscription and I’m very, very poor — but I probably will get around to watching it at some point. I already know everything about it, sad to say, but I just could not escape spoilers.

Anyway, the show looks really good. Very thought provoking. There are elements of it that seem a bit trite, but not so much that I’m not really eager to watch at some point in the near future.