With the rain and the cold we have been slightly more inclined to stay home and watch things on the small screen than to venture out to a theater… or dinner… or anything. Also, most things are noticeably more expensive than a year ago, so we have further incentive to stay home.
So I have a backlog of shows to at least briefly summarize in upcoming binge watching posts.
But I wanted to write about these two together because… well, I’ll get to that. First though, a bit about the shows.
Pluribus – Apple TV
Pluribus
Pluribus, which is written as Plur1bus in the title card for reasons… I get it, but it wasn’t worth the effort… is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico because it is a Vince Gilligan show and that is where he set Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
The premise is that an extraterrestrial transmission causes the “joining” of the minds of almost all humans on earth. Most are joined, though many die as part of the process… but a small handful of humans are neither joined nor killed, simply remaining as they are in a world where the rest of humanity is now a hive mind, sharing all thoughts, feelings, memories, and emotions.
We follow our protagonist, Carol Sturka, as she attempts to cope with the fact that almost nobody is “normal” now while her fellow un-joined either live in denial or take full advantage of the situation. And there is advantage to be taken as the hive mind humans love these unaffected humans and will do anything for them… while they work on how to get them joined into the hive mind as well.
However, the hive mind, for all of its collective knowledge, has issues… to the point that I decided that it is a metaphor for AI. That is my take and I am sticking to it.
Otherwise the show is… fine. I don’t get the universal acclaim. It isn’t THAT good. Maybe it reminded me a bit much of the show Last Man on Earth as a bit. Though I never watched that, reading the Wikipedia entry on it makes it seem oddly prophetic. I mean, a virus in 2020 devastates humanity… written in 2015?
Anyway, back to Pluribus. Sure, it is amusing, worth the watch, and has its moments, but it isn’t Better Call Saul, which the actress playing Carol Sturka is probably best known for. It is certainly where I know her from and I kept referring to her as Kim Wexler.
The whole thing wraps up after 10 episodes with a very blatant “Nothing is getting resolved this season, see you in a year!” final entry. We’re probably in for 3-5 seasons of this if they can keep it going.
The Beast in Me – Netflix
The Beast in Me
In contrast to Pluribus, The Beast in Me is a “limited” series, which is what we used to call a “mini-series” or a “television event” or something back in the day, which aims to tell a story and, at its conclusion, be done. There was no second season of Holocaust back in the 70s, there is no planned second season of TBiM either.
So, on the plus side, you get everything resolved in eight episodes with no cliff hanger or other tease to keep you involved.
Anyway, for this the protagonist is Aggie Wiggs, played by Claire Danes, probably best known for either Homeland or My So Called Life, is living in an upscale neighborhood when a wealthy real estate developer, Nile Jarvis, moves in next door and starts getting on her nerves right away, with his guard dogs roaming into her yard, his security being pushy, and with a plan to pave a jogging path through the somewhat pristine woods behind their houses, something that requires all the neighbors to sign off on, including Aggie, who is the only hold out.
So, bad neighbor tension right off the bat.
Then we find that they new neighbor is suspected in the unexplained death of his first wife.
Aggie gets tangled up in the life of Nile and his family, including his father played by Jonathan Banks, so there is another Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul cross over, and there is death and guilt and accusations and a possible book deal and a rogue FBI agent and a whole bunch of stuff happens and then we get to the final episode and yadda yadda past a bunch of complications that would have popped up in real life and a resolution is reached.
And it isn’t a surprise. Go figure.
As with Pluribus, it is fine. It didn’t get as many rave reviews as Pluribus, but was praised for the level of tension it brought, and there is no denying that.
Star Swap Thoughts
I have described what are two very different TV shows. The first is a multi-season alien invasion story with the other an eight episode and done murder mystery… though it was less of a “who dun it?” than a “how’s he do it?” sort of thing.
They also reflect, in some way, the network they are on here. Pluribus has all the polish of Apple TV, which prizes quality over quantity, while The Beast in Me is very much the Netflix “If you don’t like this, we’ll have something else for you next Friday!” vibe.
But, there is one pretty close overlap between the two, which are the protagonists.
Both are smart, hard working lesbian authors living a somewhat privileged lives based on their literary success… and much more successful than their partners… who are dissatisfied with the current state of the careers and who were longing for new projects who both are also coping with loss and the upending of the world around them.
Yes, they are both different in many ways both substantial and trivial… if we want to get to cliches Kim Wexler… I mean Carol Sturka… is something of a “lipstick lesbian” while Aggie Wiggs is more of a “sensible shoes” lesbian… I hope those terms haven’t become offensive in the last 25 years, if so I apologize… the former writing popular but not very deep bodice rippers for an audience of frustrated middle age women while the latter writes as an academic, but there is enough similar at their core that I was struck by the parallel.
So now what I want is to swap the protagonist in the shows. I want to see Aggie Wiggs dealing with the hive mind alien invasion and Carol Sturka having her life upended when the wealthy and murderous real estate mogul moves in next door.
Which I am sure is crazy talk, except when I mentioned this to somebody he said his mother brought up the same thing. So Gen X binge watchers unite!
I suspect, but obviously cannot prove, that this might make Pluribus more interesting. The Claire Danes character is more introspective and less impulsive. I feel she would view the whole thing through a very different lens.
On the other side of the coin, Carol Sturka might make The Beast in Me a bit more lively… or a bit more Vince Gilligan… or maybe a bit more Scooby-do… with Rhea Seehorn bringing more energy and less grim intensity to the role.
Anyway, that is my silly but impossible to test thought about the two shows.
Back to binge watching.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 