Pluribus

[raw beacon]

Honey wake up new social anxiety nightmare scenario just dropped

|| Being left out of the hivemind || absolutely fucking end me or I'll punch my own ticket

Also I'm really pleasently surprised by the || RNA galactic transmissions, such a novel concept I love it ||

[ebon dagger]

This show immediately hit S tier and we’re still in just the first two episodes

I am HERE for it

[raw beacon]

Grabbing the Helen look-a-like to be a "friend" is so fucked up, really shows they're not as "human" as they say

[raw beacon]

The biggest question is why is she flying economy....

[ebon dagger]

To stay as far away from the infected people on the plane as possible

But having established that I'm immune, I would've done first class XD

[zealous thicket]

I would've thought you were here for the ponies and community. I see how it is

[kind pecan]

This show is fascinating

For one, I enjoy how, even though it's easy to agree with Carol's point of view, the morality imposed by the whole situation isn't so clear-cut

||An apocalyptic scenario crossed with moral dilemmas, where most of the non-hivemind people don't even agree that it's an apocalypse||

But besides the story, production-wise I can very much feel that this is a Vince Gilligan show. The way that they stay focused on and draw out the tension is very good. It is confident enough to let it linger on certain scenes, carrying out every little thing in excruciating detail, and letting that be the drama and tension. It's very well done

Doing a lot to say things without relying too much on words

[raw beacon]

And Rhea remains the best at what she does

[ebon dagger]

Samsung fridge ads showed up

Extra distressing if your name is Carol

[raw beacon]

Great/terrible time for all Carols in the world

[regal elk]

best scene so far

[regal elk]

LMAO

[raw beacon]

Oh jesus christ for a second I thought we had skipped forward 7 years

[raw beacon]

|| Maybe have just been out of spite ||

[raw beacon]

Another great episode they just don't miss

[raw beacon]

The || heroine || bit is too fucking funny

[ebon dagger]

That was great

[raw beacon]

Well, I doubt that this is a case of || if you undo it, they die ||, but this certainly makes things interesting

Also I honestly don't want that ending, I know it's premature but from the start it seems like the most probable one. I'd rather || something more daring than everyone going back to normal. But I trust Vince, knowing him the journey and the end will be complicated but full of meaning ||

[kind pecan]

When Carol was ||talking to Zosia in the hospital, and Carol revealed having been forced into conversion therapy as a kid||. oof

||I enjoy that Carol being a lesbian isn't there just for representation, but it's also turning out to be a crucial motivator for how Carol feels, and why she's miserable. ||

||Her childhood was filled with shame for being who she was.||

||And now, confronted with idea of being converted into the hivemind, it's like she's reliving the worst period of her life, not to mention an awful present with losing Helen. They effectively want to kill everything she worked to build up for herself, after all that shame when she was young.||

||So, yeah, of course she's bitter. The broader morality is still complicated, but if I were in Carol's shoes, how would I not be bitter?||

[ebon dagger]

||Yeah, that detail is a fantastic buildup of her character and the context of what she’s feeling and facing. Very good writing. Love it love it love it.||

[regal elk]

4 episodes and this thing is already a masterpiece

That last shot was so beautiful

Every shot in this series so far has been cinema

[ebon dagger]

I've been noticing that too. Every shot has such intent

This is convincing me that I really need to watch Breaking Bad

[regal elk]

Oh def

and Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul is one of my fav series of all time

[kind pecan]

BCS is technically a prequel, but was made after BB. Definitely watch BB first

[kind pecan]

Saw today's episode (released early this week because turkey day in the US). On a surface level I was intrigued. Then I read some discussion on it, from people who are far smarter than me at detecting symbolism and themes. I definitely appreciate this episode even more now

The theory I've seen: mega-spoilers even if you've seen the episode because this might plausibly be what's going on
||The hivemind is consuming dead human bodies for sustenance. Throughout the episode, it shows a crucial juxtaposition. We see Carol chasing off coyotes from Helen's grave, and then covering it with concrete slabs. Then she makes art to honor her. Uniquely human sentiments. Meanwhile, in a scene where Carol comes across the bags of mysterious powder, we see crows picking away at it. Crows that tend to symbolize the dead in media.||

||Additionally, in earlier episodes, dead bodies were seen being loaded onto dairy trucks.||

[raw beacon]

omfg

|| Ghosted by the hivemind ||, an even newer social anxiety hell from the one in the premiere

[raw beacon]

omg this show is unreal

[regal elk]

What an insane show

We literally see them drinking the “milk” last episode

also every shot in this series is pure art

holy fuck

[regal elk]

Minor? Spoilers?

So there is something on google maps

that spoils something in the show

[regal elk]

first few seconds of the new ep

what a beautiful as fuck shot

[raw beacon]

The French guy or whereever he's from is such a fucking loser

[raw beacon]

Every week they get me excited for the next episode without fail

And everyone is a banger

[kind pecan]

Yes. And also ||I think he's the most likely to move over to Carol's side of things when it comes to the Hive. That scene with him and Carol having breakfast together? They didn't say a single word as he basically mirrored Carol's way of consuming it, but in contrast to the scene earlier with his elaborate roleplay with the Hive? Carol gave him a real human interaction. Something new. Something the Hive can never give him. Eventually he'll get bored of living in his perfect fantasy.||

[raw beacon]

That sounds like him yeah

And at least he's decent to Carol, all things considered

[kind pecan]

||There's also a crucial loophole that the Hive might be taking advantage of. When Carol asked, the Hive confirmed that they need consent to get stem cells from her body. But the keywords here are from her body. An off-hand thing that was mentioned in an earlier episode's flashback with Carol and Helen in the ice hotel, was that Carol had her eggs frozen.||

[raw beacon]

|| Well yeah, it's the same episode where they say they won't pick an apple, but if it falls off the tree it's free real state ||

They're not being subtle

[regal elk]

This show is fucking amazing

[light kindle]

Only 1.5 eps in so far. I really like the idea that this is ||just humans with telepathy, no aliens whatsoever. Already it makes for this interesting implication that most humans, or at least "the" statistical average human, struggles with why individuals would find all this creepy. Kinda implies we're fundamentally bad at perspective.||

ah, I see; with a scenario like this one of my immediate questions is "why is this our point-of-view charater?" and obviously the immunity was part of it, but now I realize it's also because ||of the independents, she's the angriest, the most staunchly anti-collective||

so I'm definitely not a comparative anthropologist but I'm 80-90% sure that ||the other five|| are all from cultures significantly more collectivist than ours, which... yeah this was inevitable

[light kindle]

I like and dislike everyone and I love that so much

[light kindle]

ponies mentioned

on an emotional level, this feels an awful lot like ||what if you and ChatGPT were the only beings left on Earth||

ha, they caught on that ||multiple simultaneous speakers weirds her out, but then they do multiple sequential speakers instead ||

[kind pecan]

Yeah, a lot of online discussion brings up this parallel. Not intended from Vince Gilligan funnily enough, but it fits

[light kindle]

oh yeah, Vince is too good at this; if it was intentional he'd have made it obvious in the show somehow

...jesus christ ||they actually got her a grenade||

||yeah I'm on Carol's side, they have lost more humanity than I originally thought||

||one wonders if the beings who sent the signal are still alive at this point||

[light kindle]

oh boy, it's time for some ✨ BIOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE ✨

[ebon dagger]

It's fun watching Ix's reactions to this show

[light kindle]

unfortunately my family agreed to stop at episode 4 for this week so that's it for reactions for now

[ebon dagger]

Goodness. Every damn shot in this show is awesome.

[elfin meteor]

I need more

[regal elk]

That sums it up so well

[regal elk]

It is so beautiful, every single frame

It is insane how they manage to get insane shots out of the most mundane things

There is one of Carol just doing the dishes

THEY WENT SO HARD ON THAT FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON

[regal elk]

Most recent episode spoilers, HOLY SHIT THIS MAKES SENSE

[raw beacon]

Damn

[kind pecan]

||The question is, what happens when you detach from the hive? Do you retain the hive's memories up until the current point? Do you remember everything that the immune people did to "you"?||

[raw beacon]

|| I also think this episode showed that you can recover some individualism without leaving The Hive, from Zosia's ice cream story. In the end the solution is probably gonna go down that path ||

[kind pecan]

||I feel that things can't truly go back to the way they were before, in any case. Everyone will remember this, and a lot of people have died.||

[raw beacon]

Yeah

[regal elk]

if the ending of this show be like BB and BCS

Will be bittersweet as fuck

and will be pure cinema

Cant wait to see it in like 25 years

Because the creator wants this series to go on for 10 seasons or something

[light kindle]

ep 5: ||"we just need a little space"||

[raw beacon]

The recorded message is so good || and it never gets old I was actually surprised Carol never requested for it to get shortened or a skip button or something ||

But it wouldn't be a Vince show if she did

[regal elk]

|| we always hear the whole msg, every single time, sometimes twice in a roll. It is peak. ||

[raw beacon]

Wouldn't change it for the world

[light kindle]

(got hard interrupted there but finally back to it)

wow they keep playing the message in full every single time

[light kindle]

Vince gets so much mileage out of dramatic shots of people failing to perform mundane tasks

oh god ||is it made of people||

[raw beacon]

sip

[light kindle]

||"We're John Cena"|| I can't even

[raw beacon]

see him?

[light kindle]

I'm glad I know enough Spanish to hear the uncanny "we"s

this seems like a relatively inexpensive show compared to most of what I watch, I wonder which if any parts actually did cost them a lot to do

[raw beacon]

Rehearsing the coordinated scenes

[ebon dagger]

Probably Carol's neighborhood? They built all of that for the show in the outskirts of Albuquerque

Shot on location!

[light kindle]

with a story like this, one of the inescapable questions is always "what would I do"

and man, I could not do what Manousos is doing, not even close

||he's gonna be so disappointed when he sees what Carol's been up to lately||

[ebon dagger]

Spoilers up to the current episode, personal theory based on revealed information up 'till now: ||I'm pretty sure the frequency Manousos noted is the frequency at which the communication happens between infected people. Also, this shows they communicate via the EM spectrum. Therefore you can separate someone from the hive mind by placing them in a faraday cage or by using a jamming device. What would happen, then? Would they regain their individuality?||

[light kindle]

hm, my best guess, especially after these last few episodes, is ||a re-individuized drone would be:||
||1) functional by typical adult human standards||
||2) highly distressed, suffering something similar to Carol's isolation-induced depression||
||3) only able to access information stored within that particular body's memories, though that likely includes any "memorable" info from The Collective it'd accessed before re-individuization||

[livid bluff]

i was having a similar thought after the episode

[ebon dagger]

Man.

Season finale was excellent

[light kindle]

oh crap that's today

[livid bluff]

damn what a fucking season break

[kind pecan]

when
is
season 2

||They quite literally dropped a bombshell on the finale||

[zealous thicket]

so is this show any good?

should I subscribe to apple tv?

or apple plus?

or whatever apple flavored thing this is ?

(They haven't started calling it HBApple yet, have they?)

[ebon dagger]

Yes and yes, especially if you're into sci-fi. Apple TV+ has all the good scifi shows.

[light kindle]

I still need to watch the finale but yes so far it's just as great as BB/BCS

[zealous thicket]

BB?

[light kindle]

Breaking Bad

[zealous thicket]

oh

[light kindle]

"we talk in the casa"

||does he... not know what airplane mode is? or just think "they" have already infected the phone so that wouldn't be good enough?||

[light kindle]

"we didn't put it there"

[livid bluff]

That bit was kinda heartbreaking

[light kindle]

hmmmm

||So, neither of them have a particularly diplomatic or sunny personality, much of the friction so far was kinda their own fault (maybe they both got over it because they're both like that? ). But I was not expecting Carol to be so... possessive? of Zosia specifically. That seems like a move Manuoso genuinely had no way of knowing would be an issue.||

[ebon dagger]

||I think Carol is still grieving and it’s showing up as possessiveness of Zosia, who has sorta become a substitute||

[light kindle]

yeaaaaaaaaah

||which is a weird thing to juxtapose with Carol gradually realizing her relationship with Helen wasn't what she thought it was||

hm, Carol also seems to have forgotten that ||he has no way of knowing that being mean to them kills them... unless she's assuming that was included in "todo"?||

||did Carol just leave with The Collective?||

[ebon dagger]

Yep

[light kindle]

I need to revise an earlier statement of mine

[light kindle]

this was only partially right, it's actually that ||she's both angry enough to start off as a Manuoso, and simultaneously lonely enough to let herself turn into Laxmi||

wow

||"it's because we love you that we have to do this" I bet that's exactly what Helen would've said if pressed about the booze sensor or her opinion on the books or...||

[ebon dagger]

||…and she probably heard that before when she was sent off to conversion therapy.||

[light kindle]

that's how you end this!?

[ebon dagger]

||The line that shattered her illusions||

[light kindle]

season 2 can't come soon enough

[ebon dagger]

HAHAHA RIGHT?!

The writing is just 10/10 the whole way through

[light kindle]

||is she kidding or is there a genuine reason to want a bomb in this scenario???||

[ebon dagger]

||My take is that she would rather die in nuclear fire than be assimilated||

||But also, nuclear weapons are also very good EMP devices, if also very destructive… maybe it’s relevant?||

[light kindle]

oh that's a good point

[ebon dagger]

It was greenlit before the show started airing, but they haven’t scheduled filming yet

It’s going to be a while

[livid bluff]

I was surprised it was a 9 episode season.

Curse streaming sometimes
26 used to be the norm the you had half seasons or a season became 13.

Then to 10 episode seasons

And now 9 or sometimes 8

[light kindle]

to be fair, it is good that season length is flexible, and no longer forced to pad out stories that don't have the magic syndication number of material

it does suck that the gap between seasons is so long... but I'm not sure if that's unique to streaming? I'm not sure if I was following any shows that closely before streaming became normal

the pre-streaming TV experience I'm used to is being lucky to catch any episodes in order, much less have the choice to binge a whole season

[livid bluff]

I was just expecting episode 10 next week until I saw it was 9 and damn then it hit how long S2 will tske

[light kindle]

for me these days, it's just part of starting a new show to google the episode count and airdates, partly so I know if I even can binge it yet, but also so I know how much I'm in for before it'll be time to move on to something else

[livid bluff]

I added it to my downloader ages ago and at the time all it's episodes for TBC title I didn't check up on It if it was just missing metadata until today

[light kindle]

oh right, I don't have a "downloader" because most shows I'm either binging or getting from a streaming service

[raw beacon]

Finale: This meeting is going as terrible as I hoped it would go

[raw beacon]

Holy shit

[light kindle]

I still have no idea if she's kidding

[raw beacon]

I definitely believe she would blow herself up if she saw them rushing at her with the conversion mist

You don't need an A-bomb for that but the message is sent

[light kindle]

||oh yeah, they showed us exactly what the conversion looked like, so we know what the mechanics would be if that became a serious confrontation...||

[kind pecan]

||First season: figuring out how the hive works, building up the stakes. Second season: A war fought not with bloodshed, but with smiles and passive aggressiveness||

[regal elk]

|| Atom bomb ||

That was to be one of the most badass lines I seen on a TV show

It is pretty much her saying || “leave me tf alone while we cook, or everyone goes down ||

[raw beacon]

|| We've seen how strong the Biological Imperative is. I'm sure holding yourself hostage is effective, but definitely not for long or forever. Or at least, I don't want to overestimate it. ||

|| when The Collective meets an obstacle they've proved already they'll say they respect your boundaries and then work around them or push on them ||

[regal elk]

Best way I can describe this series is that is slow, but never boring

[ebon dagger]

It's a gradual burn, yeah

[regal elk]

Please dude, Breaking Bad had 13 episodes every year

Did hollywood unlearn how to make series that does not take 4 years between season?

and is not even about greenlit stuff, they already had S2 greenlit for pluribus

[raw beacon]

By S2, Laxmi's gynecologist son will be of the appropriate age

[regal elk]

If Breaking Bad was released in the rate of modern TV shows, it would still be airing new episodes to this day

Released in 2008, 5 seasons.
4x5 = 20…. We would be getting the season finale in 2028

[regal elk]

Hear me out

Rhea Seehorn = Carol
Karolina Wydra = Zosia
Carolos Manuel Vesga = Manousos

ITS ALL THERE

[regal elk]

What years without new episodes will do this people

[regal elk]

https://youtu.be/9C5Un2ikvLQ

its plubin time

this video is very cool

thank god they know the audience is not a bunch of tiktokers

this series is simply a breath of fresh air

the contrast of watching this series then stranger things was something

[raw beacon]

I missed the simple fact of letting a scene or shot breathe, let it sink in

[regal elk]

Rhea Seehorn is an insane good actress, holy shit

[regal elk]

Exactly, that what made better call saul and BB so fucking great

[raw beacon]

As much as I love something like The Bear where the silences are rare (but louder for it), I like the abundant silences of a show like this thay you just soak in

In the middle of that spectrum is where we most often find a show though

[regal elk]

It is insane how everything is hecc pratical

they build the whole neighborhood

they set a car on fire, they set a house on fire

helicopter, fireworks, everything

[raw beacon]

Practical always pays off, even if it ends up doing nothing but informing a fully CG replacement.

Not that it's the case here, just saying. Pluribus probably has some hidden VFXs but it's gonna be Mad Men level or so. The marriage of the two is what matters on this topic

[ebon dagger]

Such an incredibly basic thing, but yeah, it's infuriating how so much media today just tells you what's happening and how you're supposed to feel about it rather than just letting the thing speak for itself.

People are capable of thinking for themselves, thank you

[light kindle]

to be fair, it's also infuriating when media makes the opposite mistake and you can't tell what the plot is supposed to be

but overstating is definitely the more common issue these days

[ebon dagger]

Yeah, but that's quite rare these days

[raw beacon]

And then there was Good Place, which had to explain things to the audience AND you also had to digest it

[ebon dagger]

We need more shows like The Good Place

And Pluribus

[raw beacon]

That was such a once in a lifetime show

[ebon dagger]

And The Expanse, even.

[raw beacon]

Once is 20 years at least

[light kindle]

I haven't seen Good Place, but Death Note comes to mind as a "they explain everything out loud and you still need your brain firing on all cylinders" experience

[ebon dagger]

We need shows that are difficult

Death Note was unexpectedly good, yeah

[raw beacon]

In anime I only ever used my brain that much for Death Note, Galactic Heroes, Gundam 79-through-CCA and Apothecary

Oh and anything by Naoki Urasawa, but that's a manga-only medium for me

[light kindle]

oh yeah AD can be like that if you're trying to anticipate Maomao

[raw beacon]

Or anyone. But mostly if watching week to week

I don't know I would've gone as insane if binging

[ebon dagger]

A friend just made me watch a movie called Primer this weekend and it was perhaps the most confusing movie I've ever seen

[light kindle]

oh god Primer

[raw beacon]

Oh god Primer (affectionate)

[light kindle]

Ixrec — 12/18/25, 23:22
For me 2001 [A Space Odyssey] is a lot like Primer. If it had spent a few minutes explaining wtf was going on, it might be one of my favorite things ever. But without some supplementary material to explain it, it can quickly fall apart into a mess that just washes over the confused viewer ineffectually.

[ebon dagger]

One of those films where you need a chart and you need to watch it six times to grasp what happens

[raw beacon]

No, supplementary material does not help

[ebon dagger]

I was following it alright until the last 20 minutes

[raw beacon]

But it was still fun to rewatch while trying to follow along with the supplementary material, and a notepad and pencil

[light kindle]

I mean, it "helped" in that the movie does make sense to me now that I have read it. But that just enables me to rephrase the problem as e.g. "it's missing 90% of its own plot"

[raw beacon]

If I remember right there's that one movie with Bruce Willies that's the same but even worse

Something about his old self and his younger self

[light kindle]

Primer is probably the most prominent example I've seen in a while actually

[raw beacon]

Yeah

[regal elk]

Something that bother me on Stranger Thing is that every single shot was center framed. Every single fucking shot was center framed.

[raw beacon]

Even when people complaing about Tenet, I watched it once and it was enough to mostly get it

[regal elk]

So they could make shorts/tiktoks/etc about it

[raw beacon]

Though the movie really only exists for the cool effects/scenes and for Nolan's privilege of saying he did it

[light kindle]

oh yeah, Tenet is mind-bending but it doesn't screw anything up the way Primer did, all the information you need is in that movie and it's ultimately a skill issue if you can't follow it

[raw beacon]

Probably better to watch it at home and not in theatres tho

[regal elk]

The issue with Tenet for me is that I could not understand shit they saying

[raw beacon]

Same solution

[ebon dagger]

That was intentional, apparently

[regal elk]

being intentional does not make a good idea

[ebon dagger]

Tenet was easy for me to follow, though

[light kindle]

I don't remember having any issues with that...? but I do usually watch these things at home with subtitles

[regal elk]

that sucked

[ebon dagger]

Except for the one error it makes

[raw beacon]

It's a question of how much Nolan saying "intentional" means "actually intentional" or "I'm perfect I can do no wrong", answer is probably somewhere slightly closer to the latter

[ebon dagger]

And yeah, I saw Tenet in theaters and a couple times at home

[raw beacon]

But yeah, subtitles are always welcome

[ebon dagger]

Subtitles help

[light kindle]

I keep thinking of rewatching Tenet but haven't gotten to it yet

[raw beacon]

Watching it whole once seemed like enough to me, but I certainly rewatched some scenes

[ebon dagger]

I will deifnitely call out the audio engineers being forced to make spoken audio quieter than the entire rest of the film these days

This is a modern age problem

[raw beacon]

That reminds me, is this the year where I have to rewatch both Spiderverse movies, or is it postponed to next year?

[ebon dagger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJtb2YXae8

"Because we're just tuning for the theater and mics are good these days" is pretty shit reasoning

[light kindle]

I should probably rewatch that, I remember the answer making sense but I forgot the answer

[ebon dagger]

Yeah, it's a complex answer

But still, I think it's still an issue that needs solving

[light kindle]

it probably is

I don't have a horse in that race since I've always preferred subtitles anyway

[ebon dagger]

It's a nontrivial issue, I will grant

Yeah

[light kindle]

I'm that weirdo who finds reading subs less mentally taxing than hearing the voices, even in my native language

[ebon dagger]

I would just like to not need them

[raw beacon]

Yeah since digital release is now "Send the file as-is to the streaming platform of choice", it makes sense there's only the one tuning

I had a year-long project for a streaming platform and the backend Tb-large files before importing confirmed it for me

[ebon dagger]

Indeed

[light kindle]

in fact it's not uncommon for me to play a game or watch a show/movie with audio in one language and subs in the other, as a way of comparing the two versions; obviously that takes more brainpower but the subs take so little that as long as I'm enjoying it it's no big deal

[light kindle]

oh, apparently it's every Nolan movie, nothing specific to Tenet

[raw beacon]

It may have been a trend that was worst at Tenet yeah. I think Oppenheimer was fine? We'll see about Oddyssey

[ebon dagger]

Oppenheimer did indeed avoid the problem

Dunkirk does it too

[raw beacon]

Though Oppenheimer is a mostly quiet movie with nothing going on in the way of conversation, like action or whatever

But if Dunkirk was fine yeah

[light kindle]

I suppose if I were in a position to do anything, I'd nerf the dynamic range aspect so dialogue can actually be louder. I really don't get that much out of dialogue being quieter than explosions, in fact it's quite common that I find myself turning the volume up and down and back up depending on the scene, so I'm pretty convinced they're just completely overdoing it.

[regal elk]

next year

[raw beacon]

The rewatch lives on

[regal elk]

we dont even have a teaser yet

I still expect one more delay tbh

[elfin meteor]

i will note this predates tiktok taking off, netflix has been doing that for a bit longer. By making everyone state what's happening and what emotional state they're in, people don't have to give a show attention, they can watch it on the side while cooking or similar.

[regal elk]

https://www.reddit.com/r/okbuddypluribus/s/KnYR2EcO1f

This is the best thing I seen from this community