Breaking Bad creators Pluribus is a sure Emmys contender if you can handle how depressing it is

Breaking bleak. “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan’s new show “Pluribus” is off-the-wall, unique and sure to be an instant Emmys contender — if you can handle how depressing it is. Now streaming on AppleTV+ (with new episodes out Fridays), it stars “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” alum Rhea Seehorn.It may appeal to viewers who enjoy shows like “The Last of Us” and “Severance,” with a dash of “The Walking Dead” and “The Good Place” sprinkled in. It’s got an eye-popping 100% on Rotten Tomatoes — in contrast to TV’s current worst show, the dreadful “All’s Fair,” which has a paltry 4%. The plot follows Carol (Seehorn), a cynical romance author.

After a mysterious global event turns the population into a hive-mind of cheerful zombies, she’s one of the only people in the world who is immune.They’re not real zombies — nobody is undead or eats brains — but everyone loses their individuality.

Everyone Carol meets refers to themselves as “we,” and has the same startlingly upbeat shared personality and shared consciousness. “’Pluribus’ is my twist on a post-apocalyptic zombie tale,” Gilligan told Men’s Health.“The big difference is these people are not zombies.

They’re really, really happy people who still have all their faculties.” Carol is one of only about a dozen people who is still herself.She’s filled with confused rage and grief, especially because her longtime partner, Helen (Miriam Shor), dies during this zombie-esque takeover event.To make matters worse, when she meets the handful of other people who are also immune, she finds that she’s the only one who has any urgency to restore the world to how it used to be. “I am not convinced things are as bad as you say,” one fellow immune man tells her, pointing out that issues like racism and crime no longer exist.

There’s peace on earth… and Carol is having a terrible time. There’s no doubt that “Pluribus” is un...