after a few episodes of vince gilligan’s pluribus, I’m starting to form a few suspicions about the discourse(s) the show’s intended to be engaged with, as well as what its possible contributions to said discourse(s) might be.
I find it helpful to start any media analysis by thinking what my mom, tammy, would takeaway from the experience if it “didn’t have all that cursing” and she watched it. this is the lobby of a large building: images of the building hang on the wall, musak plays softly in the background, and plants calm the mind. it introduces you to the structure. most people stay here, and that’s fine. it’s critical for a deeper analysis because there’s an innate tension between the rest of the building and the lobby. it must be considered.
tammy’s lobby
vince g (et al) has given us some points of reference that help us out here. to put it plainly:
- contemporaneous humans discovered a signal from (probably) space that, when decoded, turns out to contain genetic or organic information. like a toddler immediately eating whatever they can bring to their mouth, the scientists decide to build the organic material. continuing the toddler metaphor, it turns out not all holdable objects should be eaten, and the alien organism escapes the lab and infects one of the scientists. uh oh.
- the virus quickly spreads to the rest of the humans at the test site, causing its hosts to stop whatever they’re doing and enter into a convulsive trance. after a few minutes of seizing, the infected individuals awaken and suddenly appear to work in perfect harmony with each other without saying a word. working toward what? well it looks like they’re mass producing the virus. not good.
- and ultimately spreads from the workers at the test facility to military sites, and before you know it, it’s spread to everyone, everywhere, causing textbook end-of-the-world stuff.this virus-like alien technology has spread to everyone except our dear protagonist (carol) and 11ish others.
- the discovery of the code is obviously referencing the film adaptation of sagan’s contact.
- it’s surprisingly hard to describe or name what’s happening to this fictional world. putting the fact that the show is categorized by apple as a comedy/sci-fi, we know that carol has experienced a personal tragedy by losing her partner. by episode two, we know 800 million died the first few days and another 11 million die when carol’s display of emotion causes the . so in addition to it being a personal tragedy, the event is also anis this a pandemic? at one point carol has wondered whether it’s an invasion.
- it’s surprisingly hard to describe what the cause of supermind is. the dialogue has exposited enough to keep us satisfied for now: “it’s like a virus.” but we’ve also been told it’s a technology. carol herself can’t find adequate descriptors, and frequently defaults to “you people,” the plural “you,” “whatever you are,” or in the case of her chaperone, the indistinct “pirate lady.”
- relatedly, we can’t even say for sure what’s happening. is it a pacarol wonders at one point if this is an invasion.
facts about the cause of the supermind
- began as signal, then mutated into code, then materialized as some kind of disease that expressed itself through the human body.
- it behaves like a virus: not only was the signal transmitted from one place to another, but once embodied, it’s transmitted between people. or in the case of the mouse bite, inter-specially.
it’s like a virus. transmitted by bites, before in film. but it’s also been called a technology. carol seems to believe it’s an invasion. and let’s not forget it started out as a code from the sky.
- we know nothing about what’s causing all this. poopoo! you say? at this point, it’s certainly meant to look like or refer to a virus. but at the same time the information about the virus began as a seemingly harmless code. aka information, knowledge. and as far as we know the code originated from beyond the solar system, but when we learned that, it was framed in a way that invites us to doubt it: someone who wants to believe it’s coming from beyond the solar system trying to convince someone less willing to jump to conclusions. that doubt was never quite resolved.
- when pirate lady
- the conversation between carol and her partner right before the world descended (ascended?) into