On the front of the Great Seal of the United States – the spatchcocked eagle that adorns everything from passports to the dollar bill – are three words: E pluribus unum. It’s a Latin phrase meaning “out of many, one”, and a reminder of America’s commitment to individual rights and freedoms, and how those constituent parts create the all-singing, all-dancing whole. It is also the phrase from which Apple TV’s new dystopian sci-fi, Pluribus, takes both its name and its dread-inducing set-up.
Rhea Seehorn is Carol, a best-selling author of lowbrow smut (“Should I know who you are?” a taxi driver asks; “That depends,” Carol responds, “are you a big fan of mindless crap?”). She resides in Albuquerque with her manager and partner Helen (Miriam Shor), living in blissful cynicism until, suddenly, everyone in the world turns into a single omniscient presence (except for the people, like Helen, who died during “the joining”). Humanity has caught a virus – or a “psychic glue”, as the US Under Secretary of Agriculture tells Carol – which means they now operate as a contented, efficient hive mind. Except for Carol, who, for some reason, is immune. Why, though? Are there others like her? And can the giant obsequious organism that is the world’s population succeed in bringing Carol into their great intellectual harem?
