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Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for Pluribus; read at your own caution.
Overview
Pluribus is a science fiction television series by Vince Gilligan, best known for Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, about an extraterrestrial RNA virus that turns almost everyone on earth into a hive mind, with the exception of 13 people, including the protagonist Carol Sturka, a best-selling author, played by Rhea Seehorn. The show premiered with its first two episodes on Apple TV on November 7th, 2025. It was met with largely positive reactions and reviews, inspiring memes, fan art, fan theories and other content about the show. In mid-November 2025, some people online shared complaints about the slow pacing of the show, which were met with retaliation by fans of Gilligan's work, stating that slow pacing is a staple of his previous two series', Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The show's hive mind has been hypothesized to be a critique of artificial intelligence's growing acceptance among people.
History
On September 22nd, 2022, Deadline reported that Apple TV had picked up a two season order for a new show by Vince Gilligan starring Rhea Seehorn, who previously co-starred in Gilligan's show Better Call Saul alongside Bob Odenkirk. In 2025, leading up to its release, Pluribus was teased with a number of cryptic trailers.
On July 25th, 2025, the first teaser for Pluribus was posted to the Apple TV YouTube channel, garnering over 819,000 views in four months. In the teaser, a woman is seen picking up and licking multiple donuts before returning them to the box. In the context of the show, the woman is infected with the RNA virus and is looking to infect others.
On October 22nd, a full trailer for the series was uploaded to the Apple TV YouTube channel, garnering over 6.9 million views in a month. The show's first two episodes premiered on November 7th. The IMDB description for the series reads:
In a world overtaken by a mysterious wave of forced happiness, Carol Sturka, the only person immune, must uncover what's really going on – and save humanity from its own bliss.Online Presence
Reception
By the time the third episode of Pluribus aired on November 14th, 2025, the show had gained significant praise from critics and viewers, holding an 8.7/10 star average on IMDB by November 17th based on 24,000 reviews. An early review released by BBC called it one of the "smartest" shows of 2025. By the same date, the show held a 100% Fresh critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with an 80% audience score.
Pacing Complaints
On November 15th, 2025, X user @szgoldner made a post complaining about the pacing of the show, sharing a GIF from the third episode of Breaking Bad where Walt chokes Krazy-8 to death, writing, "still waiting for pluribus to do anything interesting meanwhile here’s where we were by episode 3 of his other show," garnering about 2,300 likes in two days.
On November 16th, X user @shortnsevered quoted the post with another perspective, summarizing the events of the past three episodes of Pluribus to highlight all the things that have happened, garnering over 3,900 likes in a day.
On November 17th, X user @akeltheartist shared a We Clown In This MF meme responding to the pacing claims, writing, "People complaining about Pluribus being slow paced only three episodes in," garnering over 5,100 likes in under a day.
Fandom
Pluribus grew a significant online fandom in November 2025 during the weekly releases of its first season, inspiring discussions, memes, fan art and other content. By mid-November 2025, the /r/PluribusTV subreddit amassed over 52,000 members.
On November 6th, 2025, X user @lionesspike posted screenshots from a scene in the show's second episode where the hive mind sends a woman, Zosia, to Carol's house to speak with her, believing Carol will be able to relate to Zosia as she looks similar to a man on the cover of her latest book, writing, "the entire world conspiring together to find the woman on the planet you’d be most attracted to is crazy work," garnering over 6,000 likes in 11 days.
On November 7th, X user @NebsGoodTakes praised the show and drew comparisons to its plot and the rise of AI in everyday life, writing, "Vince Gilligan perfectly captured how maddening it feels to watch everyone around you surrender to AI, while they act like you're the crazy one for having critical thinking skills," garnering over 29,000 likes in 10 days.
On November 15th, X user @evaelroy posted a version of the why dis n**** look so mad meme referencing the contrasting emotions of Carol and Zosia, garnering over 3,800 likes in two days.
Later that day, Redditor u/No_Pizza_6040 posted a piece of fan art to the /r/PluribusTV subreddit referencing a scene in the third episode where Carol requests a hand grenade from Zosia / the hive mind, garnering over 1,500 upvotes in two days.
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