TV Talk: ‘Breaking Bad’ creator returns to his ‘X-Files’ roots with ‘Pluribus’

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

It’s impossible to write much about “Pluribus,” the new Apple TV series from “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan, without giving too much away.

Suffice it to say, “Pluribus” is the most original, unexpectedly thought-provoking and frequently funny series of 2025, thanks in large part to star Rhea Seehorn (“Better Call Saul”), who throws herself with gusto into almost every scene of the series.

The show’s title is taken from the Latin word “many,” known from the American motto “E Pluribus Unum,” “out of many, one,” as seen on U.S. coins. (Note the stylized on-screen title with a numeral one in place of the letter “I” in “Pluribus.”)

This long-gestating, nine-episode one-hour drama has been cloaked in mystery from its start. Apple’s first teaser trailer simply shows a woman licking donuts and returning them to a box with a “help yourself” sign as eerie music plays. Another trailer released more recently gives away too much; better to avoid it.

That first teaser suggests that with “Pluribus,” Gilligan returns to the sci-fi/supernatural genre, which is where he got his start in TV writing for “The X-Files.”

Apple’s only description of “Pluribus,” already renewed for a second season, says it’s about “the most miserable person on Earth (who) must save the world from happiness.”

That’s a reference to Carol Sturka (Seehorn), a self-loathing fantasy novelist who doesn’t seem to appreciate her own success.

And then … stuff happens.

Carol finds herself in a position she never contemplated and struggles to make sense of a world she no longer recognizes.

With the first two episodes — written and directed by Gilligan — now streaming, the show’s conceit will finally begin to trickle out, but we won’t spoil it here. (Subsequent episodes drop weekly on Fridays through Dec. 26.)

“Pluribus” rewards those who pay close attention and are curious. (Do call a phone number that appears on screen near the end of the first episode; you’re in for a treat.)

At one point, Carol flies on a Wayfarer Airlines plane, which suggests “Pluribus” takes place in the same universe as “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.” (In the season two finale of “Breaking Bad,” a Wayfarer flight collides with a private plane, raining debris into Walter White’s backyard pool.) If that’s true and Wayfarer is not just a nudge-nudge-wink-wink Easter Egg, then the events of “Pluribus” render any additional “Bad” sequels unlikely if not impossible.

With “Pluribus,” Gilligan concocts a scenario similar to those we’ve seen play out in plenty of films, TV shows and video games, but he twists it in a way that makes the whole thing feel novel and entirely different from anything that’s come before.

Gilligan’s dark sense of humor, often on display in “Bad,” is even more evident in “Pluribus,” a series that’s visually brighter and at least superficially more cheerful than Gilligan’s past efforts. His predilection for wide shots of broad, panoramic vistas remains intact and serves “Pluribus” even better than it did his past programs.

Emmy nominee Seehorn, who deserved but never won an Emmy for her role on “Saul,” once again turns in a performance that should earn her that trophy. As caustic, defiant Carol, Seehorn creates a memorable character and does so in ways that are so smart and so in tune with the material, it’s no wonder Gilligan cast her again.

“Pluribus” exists in the same sci-fi adjacent, novel realm as Apple’s “Severance,” but through seven episodes made available for review, “Pluribus” proves less beholden to mythology and conspiracy. “Pluribus” is more straightforward and accessible, lighter in tone but still thought-provoking enough that it should be a shoo-in for nominations come TV awards season.