Vince Gilligan is a noted hater of AI. But he’s been very careful to say that his new show for Apple TV+, PluribusThis should not be seen as an open commentary on how big language models like AI and ChatGPT are taking over.
There are certainly parallels to be found in the ordeal that main character Carol (Rhea Seehorn) goes through as (mostly) the rest of the world assimilates into an infuriatingly altruistic mind. But as Gilligan recently told Variety, echoing the advice director Michael Mann once gave him, “Just tell a good story; let the audience figure out the theme. That’s their job.”
Reporting for work after this week’s episode PluribusOminously Titled “Grenade”, Audiences Now Have a New Theory to Connect WithPluribus AI is about “theory” (also “Pluribus “Pandemic” is about the theory and everything that the Internet has brought. how about: Pluribus Is it about influential people?
It exists perfectly alongside those other theories, which are still completely valid, in keeping with Gilligan’s encouragement to implement his own interpretations into his show. But Carol’s resentment towards Zosia (Carolina Wierda) is overblown as they sit together drinking at Carol’s house.
The last few hours were especially emotional for Carol extremely The sentimental “Grenade” begins with a flashback to a vacation Carol and Helen (Miriam Shor) took in a Norwegian hotel made of ice and snow. Helen is excited; Carol is irritable, not to mention worried about the release of her latest book. It seems to be a familiar dynamic for them: “It’s totally your bag,” Helen teases when Carol repeatedly points out that the hotel bed is a block of ice. “You Love Feeling bad!”
When we come to the present time the loss of Helen is still remembered. The main focus of “Grenade” is Carroll’s loneliness. that’s all Golden Girls The episode and the supermarket run – that “Sprouts restocking sequence” is exciting and oddly satisfying, isn’t it? – that can fill the void. After that, there’s wine and some awkward fellowship with Zosia, who knocks on Carol’s door to deliver the hand grenade she (sarcastically) wished for.
The grenade situation doesn’t end well, though, as it establishes that Carol can get whatever she wants from others, including a nuclear weapon if she decides she wants one (TBD on that). But her drunken conversation with Zosia brings out the rage deep in Carol’s soul.
Always pleasant, always kind, Zosia admits that they are “working around the clock” to figure out how to convert Carol to her cause. She compares it to saving a drowning person. It is a biological imperative. They to pass To try.
But Carol can’t and won’t attend the joining. When she lets herself slip into stream of consciousness to think about what it would be like to be part of the hive mind, it all sounds very pleasant: “What could be so good about this gentle mixture of yours? Actually, let me guess. It’s all beautiful scenery, and you feel nothing but satisfaction. Just wave after wave of bliss and peace, and everything is perfect.”
Zosia doesn’t correct him.
Carol adds, “It’s like living every second of every day in a postcard.” “You’re walking in the woods and it’s raining heavily and the trees are so tall you can’t even see the tops…”
Her thought process is interrupted when she remembers that ice hotel trip with Helen, and Zosia violates Carroll’s very strict rule of “only I get to remember Helen” by adding to the story. This makes Carol so angry that she starts messing with the grenade that gives the episode its title.
We are not in a hyper-minded state. But sometimes it feels too close. There is something familiar about Carroll’s feelings here. Consider social media and how it jams the ideal lives of friends and acquaintances — but often complete strangers — down your throat on a daily basis.
You know them: the people who make every moment seem blissful. They are always on vacation. Always eating fancy food and going shopping. Her hair and clothes are always perfect.
It’s tempting for a doom-scroller, even one who knows about Facetune, Photoshop, and AI, to be led to believe that this precisely curated, aspirational content represents that person’s reality. They stay like this day after day! Any other version of existence is ineligible! It may even be a biological imperative that Instagram, TikTok, or whatever platform you use is telling you to wear, buy, eat, do, or be.
“You’re a bunch of mindless people,” Carol declared. She is not talking about influential people in the context of PluribusBut Carroll’s words are deeply relevant, even if there’s no real mind blowing away everyone’s flaws and pretending to be perfect, And his anger is also relevant, although most of us don’t have access to grenades to literally explode things,
new episodes of Pluribus Arrives on Apple TV Friday.
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