Pluribus
I had high expectations for Pluribus because I loved Breaking Bad (and I liked Better Call Saul, although I got bored and gave up around season three). But after five episodes I'm disappointed. I was already disappointed after the first two or three, really.
It's too slow. Not much happens.
There are very few characters. Why isn't Carol interested at all in what happened to her relatives and friends? That is not believable. The plot seems completely lineal: no parallel stories, no hint of what's to come, no interesting connections across time or space. So far, there are just two conflicts: that between Carol and the body snatchers, and the one between Carol and the other immune people. That's it. Compare that with the rich cast of characters in Breaking Bad, their varied interests, and all the clashes and twists in their relationships.
On top of that, Carol is arrogant, capricious and short-tempered. And it irritates me that she seems so short on ideas.
I mean, what would you do in her situation? Yes, you are “alone”, grieving, and very confused. But you are safer than you have ever been, you have at your disposal an inexhaustible supply of solicitous servants who adore you, you can have instantly any item you desire, and you can tap the wisdom of the entire humanity.
How come she's not already headquartered at the local library (or at the Library of Congress, or at the United Nations building), having arranged for all her bodily needs to be automatically met, researching day and night with the help of a dozen individuals, consulting with the best scientists on Earth, and holding daily conferences with all the other immune to try to understand what happened??
Anyone in her situation would be bursting with important questions they would want answered. Ask the pod people where all the hidden treasures of the world are, what the real state of the economy is, what the weakest links in the nuclear risk chain are (and ask them to fix that), whether there is still famine or torture anywhere… stuff like that. And, of course, everything related to the incident that started it all: related research, classified files, new messages received from the stars, how their hive mind works, and what exactly it feels like to be one of them. If nothing else, get answers to all your petty and morbid questions, for goodnes' sake: did that girlfriend of mine actually cheat on me as I always suspected, show me the minutes of that meeting where my boss decided to reject my promotion, who killed Jeffrey Epstein, was the coronavirus engineered, who's Satoshi Nakamoto.
Also: get the best four or five vehicles in town to use in your excursions, get the best food delivered to you on a fixed schedule, arrange for your trash to be picked up daily, stock up on everything that could be useful (electronics, batteries, tools, manuals, weapons), and set up news briefings to be delivered to you daily so that you stay up-to-date on the state of the world.
That's what I would do on day two. I think.
Instead, Carol wastes her days curled up on her sofa with a drink, roaming the city in some crappy car to run stupid errands, and being bossy and nasty to everyone she encounters — blissfully ignorant of what's going on in the rest of the planet.
The pod people, on the other hand, are (so far) helpful and peaceful. The hive mind seems to be a utility maximiser, which is lovely. What's not to like about a world without war, violence or cruelty? I think I know what the big reveal in the sixth episode is going to be, and if my suspicion is correct, it'll be yet another reason to like the pod people and to boo Carol.
The production and the photography are superb.
But I am rooting for the body snatchers.