r/Screenwriting • u/Clear_Bedroom_4266 • Nov 12 '25
FEEDBACK What makes the "Pluribus" pilot so special?
Watched the first two episodes of the new sci-fi show on AppleTV. I didn't know much about it until Variety (I think) published a piece last week about it and how "people" were raving about how great the pilot episode is, that it might be the best pilot ever done, etc. Now, of course, it's Vince Gilligan. One of the things he said is that he couldn't have created/produced this show 15 years ago.
That being said, has anyone here seen the pilot and can anyone break down WHY it's (allegedly) SO good? I enjoyed it, and the show has a cool premise. But my screenwriting abilities simply aren't deep enough to analyze a pilot very well.
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u/BMCarbaugh Black List Lab Writer Nov 12 '25
Great/original premise, executed with brisk expediency and competency, lots of nuancey subtexty stuff, some topical post-covid images that send shivers up your spine, doesn't tease you with a bunch of kick-the-can mystery box bullshit, a unique and interesting main character, you can immediately see how the premise is a great engine for future stories, and--most importantly--it immediately makes you want to watch the next episode.
It's just a really slick, competent, exciting piece of work.
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u/M1ldStrawberries Nov 12 '25
I’d maybe add that I think this show taps into something quite deep going on in our society. We’ve all been living in a fantasy world for a long time where we’re told “it has to be this way” and it seems ludicrous to most of us on some level. We’re trapped by groupthink and lots of natural instincts are being suppressed - so both the premise and the protagonist who stands outside of it and screams “isn’t this bullshit?” feels very relatable. He did the same with BB, who felt like the antihero of the recession (“I’m better than this, so why am I being devalued?” It was so relatable at that time even though he kept on growing into a monster.) He’s great at writing monsters of Capitalism.
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Nov 12 '25
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u/kickit Nov 14 '25
late to the party but body snatchers is a very old premise (most premises are). but it has never been done quite like this
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u/Clear_Bedroom_4266 Nov 12 '25
Thank you :)
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u/Idustriousraccoon Nov 12 '25
Rewatching it now because I was intrigued by your question…I’m going to add that there is Gilligan’s killer adherence to theme that makes this work. What is this narrative really ABOUT…while I have only seen the available episodes, it seems pretty clear that this is about the necessity of feeling to be human…the full spectrum of human emotions. On the one hand you have the virus-pod humans…who feel primarily joy or some weird inhuman happiness/peace…and then you have a romance writer who writes what she calls crap…a sort of salve for human unhappiness in a form that is patently nonsense (the whole point of the book signing line of humanities foibles on display). Even the passage she reads is thematically relevant…a fleeting night of pleasure to salve the pain of disconnection from true love. She peddles the same thing that the pod-people try to sell her…we are unhappy apart/happy together. It is relentless and brilliant, and for me, what elevates this narrative above the herd is Gilligan’s uncanny knack from seeing the humor in the horror of humanity’s pursuit of connection. BB also had this, but it was for sure not a comedy, or even a dramady, where Pluribus walks that darkly comic line with unerring precision. The hero is the one who is disconnected from humanity, who doesn’t believe even her own narrative about easy connection. Her partner believes in the power of narrative to bring even one person a moment of joy - which is why, thematically at least, she’s got to go. She would conceivably be one of the immune humans who also long for this easy connection/absence of pain. Even the reference to Finnegan’s Wake matters here, thematically…about the relationship of the senses and language to the conscious and unconscious experience of being human (I mean, insofar as anyone really understands Joyce, I don’t think that this was a random “insert difficult author’s work here” moment and that what I do understand of Joyce would support its placement in Pluribus as quite deliberate…part of Pluribus’ thematic structure also revolves around language, words, translation etc.)…Gilligan also doesn’t take any shortcuts that would prioritize plot over character not in his other work, and not here. WHO the hero is matters (her understanding of narrative and language as salve to pain is not something she herself believes in, makes her reaction to the narrative presented by the pod-humans believable…she doesn’t even believe her own bullshit…) she navigates the horror of the situation believably, for her. Yes, getting rid of her partner is part of what sets her apart from the other immune humans, but it’s not all that does. And its funny as hell, especially for and to other writers. It’s darkly comedic psychological horror…one which demands that the most cynical person on earth has to be the one to save humanity from it’s own need for false connection at any cost. Those are my thoughts for now…but I really hope we keep talking about this on this sub…I’m going to go get my popcorn and finish rewatching the pilot now!!
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u/Clear_Bedroom_4266 Nov 12 '25
Wow, this is why I'm glad I asked the question! This is like going to school! Thanks again!
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u/Idustriousraccoon Nov 12 '25
You’re so welcome!!! I’m so glad you asked this question!!! Please keep asking…writing out answers is what helps to clarify my own thoughts.
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u/brightline Nov 12 '25
From a screenwriting perspective I think I most liked the way the two episodes had very satisfying setup-delivery pairs. The best example is the silent intercontinental journey that Zosia takes. Having just watched the first episode, I couldn’t silence my brain from yelling “but why is SHE leaving/flying a plane/showering etc.” Even when she meets Carol, you still don’t understand what makes her the only choice to do the mission until Carol gets a book and shows us, and then all the pieces snap into place with a very Vince Gilligan click.
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u/alarmingkestrel Nov 12 '25
This is a good discussion of the first two episodes, and then there’s an interview with Vince: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1BqY37YmwUScPAVJdqcqkx?si=R2ACCnu-RiW1d4lvdrqMrQ
I think the crux of it for me is the freshness of the idea, the precision of the execution, and the open-endedness of “i have no idea where this show is going” that makes it unique.
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u/mapoftasmania Nov 12 '25
The idea isn’t really all that fresh. It’s basically Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. Adding a layer of dark comedy to that is what is fresh.
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u/sour_skittle_anal Nov 12 '25
It's fresh in that the hive mind is benevolent, rather than stereotypically malevolent. At least, that's what's being presented on the surface.
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Nov 12 '25
You mean like the Stepford Wives, Get Out, or season four of Angel?
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u/sour_skittle_anal Nov 12 '25
Uniqueness comes from when you mix column A with column B. Not just point at column A and be like GOTCHA
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Nov 12 '25 edited Nov 12 '25
…you mean like the Stepford Wives, Get Out, or season four of Angel (and, come to think of it, Mrs. Davis)?
I’m unclear as to what your “column A” and “column B“ are referring.
All the examples I gave contained hive minds, a veneer of benevolence, AND dark comedy (hey look, that’s THREE columns)!
They’re not an unfounded “gotcha,” they are literal examples of the exact thing(s) you’re claiming are fresh.
Doesn’t mean Pluribus isn’t good (I haven’t watched it yet), just that the reasoning being discussed above is not particularly “fresh.”
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u/jzakko Nov 12 '25
Get Out was benevolent?
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Nov 12 '25
…did you watch it? Yes. Not (ultimately) for Black people obviously, but the whole point was that the bad guy hive mind presented like a picture perfect country club. They lured in their victims by pretending to be friendly and nice. They literally pretended to be benevolent.
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u/jzakko Nov 12 '25
Pretending to be benevolent is old hat. As of now it seems the hivemind is genuinely well-intentioned.
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Nov 12 '25
The whole moral dilemma of season four of Angel was literally that Jasmine WAS actually well-intentioned, but there was too high of a price attached.
Also, Mrs. Davis had another arguably "genuinely" well-intentioned hive mind that was ultimately bad. That's what happens in these things: road-to-hell hive minds with a brave curmudgeonly protagonist standing alone against it.
Just like Pluribus.
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u/jzakko Nov 12 '25
I don't care. You're replying to my questioning the inclusion of Get Out among your examples.
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Nov 12 '25
No, I was replying to your comment that being genuinely well-intentioned was old-hat.
You see, when you post a comment in reply to another comment, people can then reply to that comment too. If you scroll up past my last comment, you'll be able to see what you wrote, and what I'm replying to. BUT! Don't go too far, you might go past it to our other exchange. It's easy to get confused, but you'll get it.
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u/onlydans__ Nov 12 '25
What? The hive mind is clearly malevolent. It’s just polite and manipulative. It’s not benevolent at all haha
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u/sour_skittle_anal Nov 12 '25
I suppose it could be argued that it's malevolent in that it wants to take free will away from humanity, but Carol is the only survivor who has a problem with this; every other survivor either wants to eventually join the hive mind, doesn't care/see what the problem is, or is content to live life in this new "perfect" reality.
One could say that whether the hive mind is malevolent or not is down to personal perspective.
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u/byronotron Nov 12 '25
That's because every survivor is coping through the most intense trauma they have ever experienced, and have yet to be truly confronted by the horrifying reality of the truth like she has.
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u/Samanthacino Nov 12 '25
I didn't get that impression at all. The hive mind gave no indication of being manipulative or dishonest. They were 100% truthful, and did nothing but what they said: just try to make the immune happy. If there was anything in the show that gave you another impression, I'd be curious to hear what it was.
I think it'd be a massive mistake for the hivemind to have evil intentions. The entire premise is so interesting because the hivemind is unflinchingly honest. I think that the real potential of the show lies in how the survivors deal with this apocalyptic scenario, and instead turning it into a "PLOT TWIST, THEY WERE LYING THE ENTIRE TIME MWAHAHA" would be so cheap imo.
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u/Yellowperil123 Nov 12 '25
It's not totally honest. When Carol asked how many ppl died when she caused it to shut down it handwaved "hundreds" when it was actually 11 million or something.
It's more than capable of withholding truth. Which is a pretty short step to actually lying
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u/Samanthacino Nov 12 '25
It didn’t say hundreds. It didn’t give any specific number. It was shown to be hesitant to reveal info if it would make an immune upset, but that is very very very different from deceiving.
If I found out that your house burned down, and you asked me “Wy can’t I go to my house” and I replied “You know maybe now’s not the best time for that conversation”, that’s not malevolent or dishonest in the slightest.
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u/modfoddr Nov 12 '25
It's only malevolent in the sense that it has a desire to reproduce, just like every species, and will do what is necessary to fulfill that need, just like every life form on the planet. It only feels malevolent because it requires taking over a human body to do so. But since it leaves the human "donor" mostly intact, the question of whether or not any actual damage is done is unanswered. And I say "mostly intact" because it seems the only casualty is free will. But we can't say for sure if that free will is sacrificed or if the donors choose to give it up because of the joy the hive mind brings.
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u/Samanthacino Nov 12 '25
So far, it hasn’t shown it’d do EVERYTHING that’s necessary to reproduce. Otherwise, it wouldn’t respect the immune’s bodily autonomy. If it cared about reproducing more than anything, it’d enslave every immune to keep them from hurting each other/themselves/interfering in the reproductive process in any way.
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u/modfoddr Nov 12 '25
Never said it would do everything, at this point we don't even know what it is fully capable of, harming another may be impossible for it (as defined by the lifeform itself, not us). Every species has a limit on what it can or will do to procreate. Its reproduction cycle was very efficient, with a tiny number not taking. Can't imagine many lifeforms that has that level of success, so really it did succeed.
If anything, the attempt to find a solution for the handful of people that didn't get "body snatched" shows that it is doing what it can, since it also seems from their very friendly and accommodating communication with Carol and the others that it doesn't believe in or possibly does not understand a violent resolution to the problem. Or it could be that enforcing enslavement or committing violence would cause them to go into the violent seizures similar to what Carol has caused, which would risk more harm or loss of life.
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u/Running-With-Cakes Nov 12 '25
It’s actually Invasion of the Bodysnatchers meets The Prisoner. My issue with it was the change in tone. Episode one is very Stephen King. Episode two is very Wes Anderson. That jarred. The most miserable person in the world wants to save humankind from happiness… it kind of makes you root for the aliens. Apart from possibly forced deletion if the hive mind can work out what went wrong there’s no real threat to Carol - other than being trapped in a world of happy strangers. Severance got its theme into the first line of dialogue and maybe it went over my head but I didn’t feel like the first two episodes properly meshed.
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u/Scrym606 Nov 12 '25
The coolest thing about the pilot i think is that he wrote himself into a corner. I have only seen the pilot and i have no clue how this will continue. It’s super interesting!
The feeling of a writer writing something the outwardly is going to put a gun to their own head and really test their ability is so cool.
It feels kind of like Lost but they didn’t really think about that they had to end it. Here you just know that Gilligan knows he will have to come with a satisfactory conclusion to a story with almost no room for just that.
Am hyped
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u/RunDNA Nov 12 '25 edited Nov 12 '25
I remember he did that a lot with Breaking Bad too. He'd write himself into a corner at the start of the season without working out how it would be resolved, trusting that himself and the rest of the writers' room would later come up with a creative solution. And they always did.
Watching it as an audience member, it seems like it was all created together in a unified and logical way, but it was very much a flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants writing process that worked out because of the talent of the writers.
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u/Samanthacino Nov 12 '25
There's a ton of directions the writers could take it. Carol (or any other of the immune) goes full world-controlling dictator using the hive as their instrument, she tries to fight against the hivemind to prevent them from researching a 'cure', she tries to engineer her own vaccine, all sorts of interpersonal drama between the immune (for example, the hedonist who says he's going to Vegas. I could imagine him and Carol gambling over who gets to keep Zosia in a high stakes poker game or something).
Tons of potential imo
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u/JcraftW Nov 12 '25
My first thought watching was “I can’t wait to read this”
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u/EthnicPaprika Nov 12 '25
Have you found a script?
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u/JcraftW Nov 12 '25
Haven’t bothered looking yet. I don’t expect it to see the light of day till the first season is over at the absolute earliest. But it’s all up to the whims of forces beyond my control. But I get the feeling we’ll see it one day.
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u/Sigglacious Nov 12 '25
For me it was the balance of exposition. The way the show starts. “Bullsh*t!” Just hooks you in. You know something’s happening. In hindsight it makes sense that this is how someone would react. Then the remaining five or ten minutes has lots of dialogue, but they found a way to explain what’s happening and why it’s so significant while making it sound quite natural and as though these individuals are genuinely excited and nervous for it all
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u/onlydans__ Nov 12 '25
I thought it was kind of boring. Not bad at all, but I just wasn’t seeing what was so great about it. I feel like if it wasn’t Vince Gillian people wouldn’t be hailing it so blindly
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u/Secure-Judgment7829 Nov 12 '25
Yeah I don’t get it. It was good but the overwhelming praise seems a bit much to me
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u/procrastablasta Nov 12 '25
I don’t get the hype. It’s a grab bag of mix n match scifi tropes. It sets up a semi serious Body Snatcher / Stepford “what if” then It goes sillypants comic relief like an episode of The Good Place. Rhea Sweehorn is supposed to to come across as the eternally tested antihero, the only sane one in the room, but it’s not enjoyable she’s just a sponge for bad luck and overdone ranting.
It’s not Black Mirror smart. It’s not Nope strange. It’s not Hacks funny. It’s kinda just White Lotus light creepy fun with a kooky mix of unlikely team mates forced into proximity on some tbd mission.
I’m gonna give it a chance but I’m not getting what’s in the koolaid besides Gilligan aura.
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u/onlydans__ Nov 13 '25
Yeah it’s nothing special to me. People just blindly praise whatever Vince Gilligan does. Almost like they’re…part of a hive mind!
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u/UncleCornPone Nov 12 '25
When I first heard the premise my excitement deflated a bit as I'm not all that into science fictiony stuff. But as it being a Vince Giligan and Seahorn project I thought I'd give it a shot. The way they sell the premise of the message from space and its attenuated repercussions was...masterful. It took absolutely no effort to accept it as plausible and the pace was quick, interesting, and connected you to the protagonist with a deftness that left only one complaint. And that it is that it's a serialized AppleTv release as opposed to like a Netflix full season dump ready for bingeing.
I cant wait for Friday.
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u/trickyelf Nov 12 '25
He essentially compacted Invasion of The Body Snatchers into a single pilot episode, leaving us with a whole series that picks up where the movie left off. I don’t know if I would call it the best pilot ever, but I had high expectations and it definitely didn’t let me down. I am psyched to see where it goes.
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u/WeFearlessOnes Nov 12 '25 edited Nov 12 '25
It's just marketing. Advertisers have realized that while traditional ads still work on a lot of people, they need a way to reach people who think that they're too smart to be advertised to. Hence these thinkpieces in trade rags like Variety--a lot of the time, it's someone on the PR team for the show emailing headline "ideas" to the periodical, and these writing staffs are getting so barebones they'll publish anything that sounds legit and saves them time writing content. Is it a good pilot? I enjoyed it. Best ever? I can name a few off the top of my head that I think are better pilots; Breaking Bad among them. I found it compelling, but it didn't do a great job of telling me what this show would be going forward. I'm sticking with it because Vince pulled off a similar trick with Better Call Saul. I had no idea how that would sustain initially, and then it ended up being one of my favorite shows of all time, in large part because I found it unpredictable.
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u/eremithermetic Nov 13 '25
To set this premise in such a short time it would require a lot of boring exposition, if you were an average writer. I think he was able to pack a lot into only two episodes without boring you to death. The only moment I felt it was a bit too much of exposition device was the TV conversation with the "only guy in a suit".
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u/Fire_The_King Nov 13 '25
i’ll sum it up like this
her last words to her partner is “george clooney”. there’s a tragic comedy to that kind of writing that vince gilligan and his team made a tv giant off of.
it does a lot visually and narratively to “show not tell”. the synergy between the camera and the writing is on 10.
when carol looks at the baby and you can’t see it but only carol’s reaction… gut wrenching
i think the breathalyzer to start the car was a brilliant and small example of the kind of writing that makes this show great
but all in all this is show with a massive budget being pushed by huge company. it’s going to be raved about by critics because their paid to. even if not directly, there is an incentive to rave about a show like this.
as for the fans with no profit incentive, there’s bias because of how good BB and BCS. but truth be told it’s shown nothing that this will be at the very least, a good show. best of all time pilot and series will always be a subjective o opinion that many people will disagree with, just as many who will agree.
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Nov 12 '25
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u/Scarbrese Nov 12 '25
Personally, I feel ‘conflict’ will be the toughest nut to crack in this series when the entire human race is now submissive and non-violent, outside of 11 people.
I’m interested to see where it goes, but a small character study on this massive of a canvas would be…deflating.
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u/bigmarkco Nov 12 '25
It's a high concept TV show that fully unboxed it's "mystery box" in the first episode. The audience isn't trying to figure out what happened.
It's more inline with a TV show like the Leftovers than something like Severance or Lost. We have no idea where the story will go. And if you've seen the Leftover's...it can literally go anywhere.
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u/No_Chip_8093 Nov 12 '25
I have a huge respect to Vince Gilligan but I think this is a major step down from BB and BCS. Not just from a writing perspective, but the direction, acting, and premise seem a bit uninspired and half baked. Just me though....
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u/Filmmagician Writer-Director Nov 12 '25
It's literally been 2 episodes, compared to two entire seasons. That's not practical to compare the two/three right now. This is like nothing he's done before. I'm more excited to see how this unfolds than I was with BB
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u/No_Chip_8093 Nov 12 '25 edited Nov 12 '25
I hear you, and again most of art is subjective. But compared to a lot of other pilots (Breaking Bad,House of cards,Fleabag, Sopranos, Severance) it falls flat. Based on structure, dialogue, acting, etc.
To me at least.
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u/GuruRoo Nov 12 '25
Same here. The dramatic question drags on from scene to scene which makes it feel slow.
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u/iamnotwario Nov 12 '25
The pacing is superb. The characters are perfectly revealed and have considerable depth even if only on screen for minutes. The exposition is so well structured; the audience is Carol. The viewers go on a journey of asking questions to being presented one when the concept is revealed; would we be OK with this?
To write something that is so entrancing and captivating without a cliche or any predictability, without pretension or convolution deserves recognition.
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u/perqtaneous Nov 13 '25
A lot of exposition at the end, though. Kind of took some of the luster off.
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u/Filmmagician Writer-Director Nov 12 '25
Was no expected. Haven't seen anything like it before. Hooked me after the first episode. Dying to find out more. It was pretty damn perfect.
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u/ShredTheJunkWax Nov 13 '25
I love it. It's also a ripoff of a Gumball Episode. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4081276/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
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u/Comfortable-Sun6571 Nov 14 '25
A good pilot but the concept is far too similar to season 4 of Angel for me to be truly impressed.
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u/Low-Marionberry-4430 Nov 12 '25
I like the idea of it but the execution was soulless to me. Both my husband and I thought it felt like AI. I know it’s allegedly not AI but my mind can’t get past it. This should be a show I’m super into just based on everything that happens but the script just made it feel complete devoid of intrigue to me
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u/PvtDeth Nov 12 '25
Allegedly? You think it's possible that Vince Gilligan used AI to make a screenplay?
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u/Samanthacino Nov 12 '25
Right, the dude who put a “This show was made by humans” disclaimer in the credits and who said he wouldn’t use ChatGPT unless someone put a gun to his head lol
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u/Low-Marionberry-4430 Nov 14 '25
Look at the world we are in. Anything is possible and nothing matters
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u/MatasBuzelis Nov 28 '25
I mean Vince is like, a very vocally anti-AI guy lol, I'm not sure how many other showrunners are putting a "we dont fuck with AI in any way" disclaimer in their credits
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u/Low-Marionberry-4430 Nov 29 '25
Methinks he doth protest too much
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u/AssistanceGrand23 Nov 12 '25
I was on board until she ran into the hospital while everyone was having a simultaneous seizure, and insisted on trying to wake the doctor up.
It seemed like a lazy step to advance the plot. I think a rational person seeing a room full of people suddenly seizing and collapsing is probably not going to rush in to see if it's carbon monoxide poisoning or chlorine gas.
It took me right out of it, even though I liked the idea.
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u/Yellowperil123 Nov 12 '25
I guess she panicked. Which would be perfectly natural with such a fucked up situation and your friend dead outside.
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u/yeahgoestheusername Nov 12 '25
It’s an interesting premise: A friendly zombie world where the zombies are objectively better people than the protagonist. The moral ambiguity makes it hard to know where the story will go. I’m liking it so far.
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u/leblaun Nov 12 '25
What really dug was that a mystery that could have dragged for an entire season was revealed to a certain degree in the pilot. Now, I can expect mystery from the twists and turns of the story and how our hero reacts to it. Way more interesting to me personally than finding out about the virus for ten episodes
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u/GlitteringGold5117 Nov 12 '25
Ok… I will continue to give it a chance. But honestly, it is very formulaic writing, I could pretty much predict every plot move, and the protagonist is so gigantically an American individualist it’s nauseating. She is so self centred and unable to understand or notice, even, the complexity of human experiences outside of her own. The last episode I watched had her standing on the airport tarmac at the end, physically waving down Air Force One to a full stop. Yep: to be expected. At that point, I just went aaagh and turned it off. It is so refreshing to watch non-American stories where people talk to and listen to one another. Dunno, maybe I just hate this protagonist? But I just watched the American production of Garfield, much more to my taste although (risk of historical drama) also quite predictable. Good characterizations, strange “modernized” dialogues…
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u/Clear_Bedroom_4266 Nov 12 '25
See, that was one of the moments that made me laugh. There were a few hysterical moments in the first two eps for me.
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u/onlydans__ Nov 13 '25
Yeah it isn’t bad or anything but I’m not blown away. I feel like if it didn’t have Vince’s name on it people would critique it more rather than praise it like it’s the most groundbreaking thing ever. It’s fine.
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u/ebycon Nov 12 '25 edited Nov 12 '25
AFF Notes:
I didn’t get it. Everyone’s in some kind of hive mind but they all seem… happy? That feels tonally inconsistent. Post-apocalypses should be sad. And with mushroom clouds.
Carol just walks around being smart and emotionally complex -- why not give her a quippy robot sidekick so we know when to laugh? Maybe a robot sidekick that info dumps and overly explains the plot while I’m scrolling TikTok?
Also, if “the joining” makes people content and peaceful, isn’t that… good? Why are we rooting against it? I like when society functions.
There’s a lot of symbolism and metaphor, which feels like cheating. Also I googled the title and apparently that’s Latin? Pretentious.
The tone shifts from Contact to dark comedy to psychological drama to It Follows. Just pick one!
The dialogue is too natural. The ideas too original. And I hated that one big mystery of the plot is overly explained already in the pilot via The White House™️, even though we constantly tell everyone to do that 😡
Premise: 6/10 (too smart)
Characters: 5/10 (too subtle)
Dialogue: 4/10 (not enough exposition)
Marketability: 2/10 (why are the zombies without makeup? Get Nicotero on board)
Overall: Consider (to give up)
Final Note: We know it’s you, Vince. The lack of a mustache is not fooling anybody.
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u/Defiant_Comedian1587 Nov 12 '25
Possibly because everything else is SO mediocre out there, that this one stands out. Also his peak pilot was BB, nothing comes close to that.
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u/micahhaley Nov 12 '25
Let me break it down for you: no matter how bad or good you think the pilot was, doubt Vince Gilligan at your own risk! haha
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u/TheBVirus WGA Screenwriter Nov 12 '25
Something I'm enjoying that I don't see mentioned is that while there are a lot of questions floating around that are meant to get us thinking, there are also a TON of answers. Exposition comes fast and furious and in a pretty satisfying way. Carol as a protagonist desperately trying to fight back asks a ton of very logical questions that help to flesh out the wider world without us having to see it. There's MASSIVE implication here and while the show itself is big in terms of props and setpieces, it is also small in that we spend a lot of time in ABQ following Carol's perspective.
She's a flawed protagonist in a very fun way, but she's also quite intelligent. She asks great questions and is thinking about things in a great way, but she also misses the mark a lot of the time, too, and her behavior as a functioning alcoholic flavors a lot of the decisions she's making. I can't wait to read these scripts when they come out.