In 'Pluribus,' isolation is the price of a frictionless life
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In the poem that gives Nikki Giovanni's 1978 poetry collection Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day its title, she wrote: "They have asked the psychiatrists psychologists politicians and social workers / What this decade will be known for / There is no doubt it is loneliness."
This decade, too, might be known for loneliness, driven by everything from social media to political disempowerment, collapsing public health to prejudice, poverty, land use, media consolidation and the willful undermining of community ties. If loneliness turns out to be our legacy, Vince Gilligan's haunting new show Pluribus might be one of the era's most relevant works.
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Both Gilligan and Apple TV have been cagey about revealing what Pluribus is actually about, although if you stare at that title for long enough (and if you look at how it's sometimes styled as Plur1bus), you'll get clues. What feels fair to reveal is that Rhea Seehorn, so brilliant as Kim in Gilligan's Better Call Saul, stars as Carol Sturka, a defiant misanthrope
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