Rhea Seehorn's Pluribus Character Echoes A Nightmarish Stephen King Story

Spoilers for "Pluribus" episodes 1-2 follow.

"Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan has said he doesn't want to be remembered only for writing antiheroes like Walter White/Heisenberg (Bryan Cranston). He's pitched his new Apple TV sci-fi series "Pluribus" as having a truly heroic lead: Carol Sturka, played by Rhea Seehorn (previously Kim Wexler on "Better Call Saul").

Now that "Pluribus" is here, it's clear that while Carol is nowhere near the monster who Walt becomes, she's still an unconventional hero. Carol is "the most miserable person in the world," per the show's synopsis, because she's one of the only individuals left on Earth. Almost everyone else has been hit with an alien virus turning them into a hive mind of blissful, polite, always smiling, helpful worker bees. 

Watching the "Pluribus" premiere, I started thinking of another misery — Stephen King's "Misery," that is. The 1987 novel (adapted into a movie in 1990) follows Paul Sheldon, a romance novel author who resents his successful but formulaic "Misery Chastain" books. Carol has similar hang-ups in "Pluribus."

A working title for "Pluribus" was "Wycaro 339" — "Wycaro" is the title of Carol's books, a historical pirate-themed romance series. She's introduced at a book reading/signing, wearing a smiley face as fake as the one on the "Pluribus" posters. When she leaves in a car with her manager and girlfriend Helen (Miriam Shor), the driver asks if he should know her name. Carol says it depends: "Are you a fan of mindless crap?"

"Misery" is King venting about his struggles with being a writer. After a car crash, Paul is "rescued" by the reclusive Annie Wilkes, his so-called no. 1 fan. Annie is infuriated when she reads Paul's new manuscript and learns Misery dies at the end, and demands he write a new book to "correct" the ending.

Carol doesn't get kidnapped or tortured by any of her fans like Paul did, but she still finds them exhausting and her success from "Wycaro" frustrating. During the book signing, one fan presses Carol on if the book's hunky pirate lead is truly dead, so Carol whispers in her ear the page number where he returns.

Written from a place of experience with obsessive and controlling fans, "Misery" was a perceptive book. In the years since its publication, the internet has only made toxic fandom even worse. Take how, for example, Reddit is filled with fans who often try to play script doctor when writers don't give them the story they wanted. In "Misery," even before Paul is abducted, he still feels chained to Misery because the series' fans don't respond well to his other writing. According to 1991's "The Stephen King Story" by George Beahm, King was drawing on how some fans who loved his horror stories were nonplussed by his 1984 fantasy adventure novel, "The Eyes of the Dragon."

Given the similarities to "Misery," I wouldn't be surprised if Gilligan is channeling some similar feelings into Carol, even if he's definitely prouder of "Breaking Bad" than she is of "Wycaro." Between "Breaking Bad," "Better Call Saul," and "El Camino," he spent over a decade telling stories in that world. When I spoke with Gilligan in 2023, he said with bemusement that he knows "Breaking Bad" is "what's going on [his] tombstone."

Some "Breaking Bad" fans still want even more (e.g. the pleas for a Gus Fring prequel). Instead, Gilligan has made "Pluribus," something quite different. Let's all be more open-minded about that than Annie Wilkes was.

"Pluribus" is streaming on Apple TV, with new episodes dropping on Fridays.