Pluribus season 1 starts with a banger, where the entire population of the Earth is affected by the virus that has reached Earth in the form of a deep-space radio transmission. The data was decoded by the astro-physicists and found to be RNA. During the scientists' experiments, the virus spread out from the lab and began to infect the entire population.
The protagonist, Carol, played by Rhea Seehorn, freaks out when her friend Helen gets affected by this virus as she tries to save her by taking her to the hospital. Everyone in the hospital, including the doctors and the patients, is in a kind of trans and starts to have a seizure. In the end, her friend doesn't make it. There are only 12 people in the entire world who are not affected by this planet.
These affected populations have a hive mind, where everyone communicates without speaking, instead using internal telepathy and shares everyone's memories among themselves. There are no leaders, no concept of money, and no understanding of human emotions; everyone is just happy, and it appears they are saving the planet.
These affected people try to send a woman who resembles the main character in Carol's novel. She flew in from a different country to reach Helen's house to advise her to drink water, as she is trying to bury her dead friend. Carol finds that these affected populations work in tandem to help her, conserve resources on the planet, and try to connect with her by sharing personal memories about her deceased friend.
Her chaperone, Zosia, played by Karolina Wydra, explains everything and tries to calm her down as Carol loses her temper during a conversation; the whole hive stresses out. It has a seizure again, killing 10 million people.
Carol meets with English-speaking, unaffected individuals and tries to convince them to join her in restoring the world to normal. However, everyone denies it, as they are afraid of losing their privileges, and they seem to believe the world is much better now, without any fuss or mess.
Then she finds out that there is one guy in Paraguay who is also like her and tries to change the population back to normal. Still, as time passes, she falls in love with her chaperone and tries to enjoy the situation she is in, but her chaperone asks Carol to join them, as they believe the virus can affect her through her stem cells, which they have accessed through the frozen eggs. And the series ends with Carol deciding to change the world back to normal with the help of the Paraguay guy and an atom bomb.
Overall, the series requires patience to watch, spanning 9 hours, and the screenplay progresses at a slow pace. This is a new kind of series where you will love the concept, and there are a few scenes where you will appreciate the lengths to which these affected people are going to ensure the unaffected are happy. This season is designed to show how these affected people behave and how their minds work. There is no particular protagonist, and yet, you feel both the good and the bad sides of the affected people at the same time, which is the whole planet.
There are a few scenes in the first episode where it makes no sense how scientists have created this virus from the data they received from deep space. The writers seem more interested in the connection between the carol and her chaperone, Zosia, than in the scientific and technical aspects of how the virus has spread from one lab to the entire world.
This series should not span more than three seasons, including the first, unless the writers come up with a scientific war against the virus and other interesting elements, such as an alien invasion or similar plot points. This affected population behaves as if they are wiping out the population on Earth to make way for their species to occupy.
I suggest watching this series on a free day when you don't have any other work to do, as it requires your full attention to understand a few scenes. You will also get to know the storyline even if you are watching and doing your work at the same time.
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