From the first episode.
Spoilers Vince Gilligan's Pluribus starring Rhea Seehorn
- Thread starter The Grinch Doctor
- Start date
From the first episode.
it was lol in episode 6 seening johnny cena as one of the aliens and telling carol about why they eat humans
Manousos is just as stubborn as Carol, traveling as far north as he could on his own without any of the Others's help, regardless of the dangers. Unfortunately, that stubbornness led to foolishness. Not because he ignored the Others' warning, but because when he saw the danger of the chunga palms, he didn't proceed with the utmost caution. He had no business trying to walk precariously on top of those rocks, certainly not without testing their sturdiness. Granted, I've never walked through jungles as dangerous as Darién Gap but I have enough backpacking experience to know how to traverse safely through hazardous landscape and I found Manosous' blundering painful to watch.
Conversely, despite their shared stubbornness and a desire to the save the world, the two of them couldn't be further apart in mindset. Carol's wanton destruction and thievery (I knew she was going to steal the O'Keefe before she did) in this episode alone stands in stark contrast to Manousos' selfless acts of paying those he takes from (even those people are gone) as well as his accusation that the Others stole the world.
But now they might have an even bigger gap between each other: Carol's abject loneliness left her yearning for Zosia's return. Does this mean she's more...accepting (for a lack of a better word)...of the Others now or does her tears only extend to Carol's obvious attraction to Zosia? Either way, when Manousos finally meets her, he's not going to like her attachment to Zosia or the Others.
...although perhaps Manousos's feelings might soften a little after the Others rescue him and presumably nurse him back to health?
Conversely, despite their shared stubbornness and a desire to the save the world, the two of them couldn't be further apart in mindset. Carol's wanton destruction and thievery (I knew she was going to steal the O'Keefe before she did) in this episode alone stands in stark contrast to Manousos' selfless acts of paying those he takes from (even those people are gone) as well as his accusation that the Others stole the world.
But now they might have an even bigger gap between each other: Carol's abject loneliness left her yearning for Zosia's return. Does this mean she's more...accepting (for a lack of a better word)...of the Others now or does her tears only extend to Carol's obvious attraction to Zosia? Either way, when Manousos finally meets her, he's not going to like her attachment to Zosia or the Others.
...although perhaps Manousos's feelings might soften a little after the Others rescue him and presumably nurse him back to health?
I noticed the Joined made a point of all the dangerous bacteria on the chunga palms' spines. They're so pacificistic are they even capable of delivering antibiotics? It would kill billions of life forms.
If the show stays consistent on that point, maybe they'll deliver a still-ailing Manousos to Carol and she'll have to do it.
Oh, that's an excellent point. I didn't pick up on the importance of the Others mentioning the bacteria on the spines.
Nor will they be around for long.
Lots of reviewers are saying this was the best episode of the series so far, and I can see why, but for me it's had the counterintuitive effect of totally putting me off the show's pace. This was a real straw-meet-camel episode for me.
Pluribus is a weird show. The way it's generates its ongoing conflict is pretty unusual: if it weren't for Carol digging in her heels, there would be no show. How do you write ongoing conflict when one "character" is so nice, so passive, so damned agreeable that they can't resist or pose any real threat? (You might, say, introduce a ticking clock element, first with the conversion threat and then with the reveal that the Joined will (eventually) starve to death. But both of those are pretty abstract, the first with no timetable and the second with a timetable of a decade. And then they wrote out that first ticking clock entirely, at least for now...)
I wondered after the second episode how on earth they would get multiple seasons out of this premise, and unfortunately the answer seems to be by padding the episodes. I call it the "Mike disassembling a car in the desert" approach, because Gilligan et al did this during BCS too, where material that any other team would have trimmed or cut is shown in excruciating detail.
But, fine, Carol is carrying the whole thing so I'll cut them some slack here. Except, now..maybe she isn't and I can't.
Based on where this episode left things, suddenly we have the potential for Carol to have internal conflict. And for her to have real, meaningful ongoing conflict with another character (Manousos.) This is much better! And, to me...it just makes the rest of the show look so, so much worse. I don't need or want to watch five minutes of Manousos hiking and saying the same mantra over and over when the potential for better, more engaging storytelling is over the horizon. It feels like the writing has its head up its own ass.
Pluribus is a weird show. The way it's generates its ongoing conflict is pretty unusual: if it weren't for Carol digging in her heels, there would be no show. How do you write ongoing conflict when one "character" is so nice, so passive, so damned agreeable that they can't resist or pose any real threat? (You might, say, introduce a ticking clock element, first with the conversion threat and then with the reveal that the Joined will (eventually) starve to death. But both of those are pretty abstract, the first with no timetable and the second with a timetable of a decade. And then they wrote out that first ticking clock entirely, at least for now...)
I wondered after the second episode how on earth they would get multiple seasons out of this premise, and unfortunately the answer seems to be by padding the episodes. I call it the "Mike disassembling a car in the desert" approach, because Gilligan et al did this during BCS too, where material that any other team would have trimmed or cut is shown in excruciating detail.
But, fine, Carol is carrying the whole thing so I'll cut them some slack here. Except, now..maybe she isn't and I can't.
Based on where this episode left things, suddenly we have the potential for Carol to have internal conflict. And for her to have real, meaningful ongoing conflict with another character (Manousos.) This is much better! And, to me...it just makes the rest of the show look so, so much worse. I don't need or want to watch five minutes of Manousos hiking and saying the same mantra over and over when the potential for better, more engaging storytelling is over the horizon. It feels like the writing has its head up its own ass.
There are shows out there that I would absolutely agree with you. Because there are very few shows like this, it really stands out and sets a nice pace of its own. From my POV.
Thinking back on the episode I see where the Others crossed an important ethical line with Manousos. He made it quite clear he wanted nothing from them yet they chose to ignore his wishes and rescue him at the end. It may seem noble but what happens when the Others find their “cure” and decide the noble thing to do is ignore the wishes of the unjoined and “rescue“ them?
Manousos should have picked up some DEET, and a backpack water filter at a sporting goods store on the way.
Interesting that they show him driving across South America but also show him driving through the old railroad tunnels in the Jemez Mountains outside Albuquerque. It’s a beautiful area but it took me out of the scene for a bit.
I guess that’s the danger of watching a show filmed in your backyard. Lol
I guess that’s the danger of watching a show filmed in your backyard. Lol
I wondered if that might have been the case. A fair amount of the jungles looked broadly generic, but that particular bit of landscape stood out to me and I wondered if that was actually Arizona and not South America.
Everyone should listen to the Pluribus podcast. The whole concept of the show is "what if you could get everything you wanted and hated it?" Vince was inspired by I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched .
Oh, that's fascinating!
I wish I had more time for podcasts. This is definitely one I would listen to regularly.
They can and do kill bacteria, we already know that. They consume food, all food is crawling with bacteria, most of which are killed in the stomach. They might draw the line at complex life.
Well, New Mexico, actually, but we honestly get that a lot.
Erm, yes, I knew that! 
