Make It Weird, Make It Wonderful, Go Big.

The Observer: Pluribus, Death By Lightning, Yi-Yi and Wong Kar Wai Makes His First TV Series.

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The Observer is a spoiler-free curated collection of television series and films.

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Regardless of the frustration, in the end maybe it was a good sign that the launch of AppleTV’s “Pluribus” from Vince Gilligan crashed the servers and delayed gratification for eager seekers of quality television. Some part of that mess indicates people are still interested in being challenged and they will turn out for that experience.

That gives me optimism.

The two-part premiere of “Pluribus” was an excellent distillation of Gilligan’s inner sci-fi brain, honed on “The X-Files” and the short-lived “Lone Gunmen,” rerouted through the harsh-but-beautiful New Mexico landscape and the harsh-but-beautiful morality of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” the two other iconic series Gilligan set there.

Since some people haven’t seen the first two episodes there won’t be any spoilers here, though I’m not sure it matters because the premise relies on one single idea (initially) and most interested viewers have already figured that the premise is the show until future episodes will allow Gilligan to play with it and morph it at his whim.

An event happens in the world (though we see it from the Albuquerque perspective first) and a woman named Carol (Rhea Seehorn) seems to be the only one on the outside looking in at it, wondering what the fuck just happened. AppleTV’s own trailer, which is lovely, strikes the balance that the curious need:

“Pluribus” is one of those events unto itself, when a television auteur gets free reign to go weird — it’s hard to describe how rare that is right now in American television and likely how rarer it will get. Anyone who has seen either or both of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” already trusts Gilligan, and fans of the later series, which stands on its own greatest, already trust Seehorn. The thrill is seeing where this series goes now.

The one caveat I’d make — remember, I’ve decided to just watch this in real time with you, not watch all of the available seven (of nine) first episodes — is that Gilligan gets to play with a LOT of Big Ideas here, from happiness to individual freedom to “the greater good” and specifically if that last one has meaning or value anymore to people on Earth.

That’s just the starting point to “Pluribus,” which I would suggest will make it engaging and potentially a little frustrating going forward, since tackling those issues would cause any writers room to wobble from the weight. The best way to approach “Pluribus” seems to be with patience and appreciation of the weirdness at hand, and let it find its own way. (And yes, I’ll keep track of it here as a place where you can freely comment).

The series had a glorious start and I’m getting those “Severance”-styled vibes of being challenged with a new idea, something I’m always hoping to find in a series.

If you re-read the headline above, you’ll get a sense of what I’ve been experiencing while Observing lately. Beyond “Pluribus,” the four-part Netflix miniseries “Death By Lightning” — I’ve watched half so far — is another miracle that somehow got made (“We’re hoping to tell the story of the 20th president of the United States, James Garfield, set in the late 1880s, and how he was shot, a story people know from history but don’t care about.”).

It’s strangely addictive, certainly weird in its own right — I thought the wild-eyed largeness of Matthew Macfadyen as Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau, would take me out of the main story until I saw that Macfadyen’s near-perfect portrayal of delusion, narcissism and danger (oh, and humor) actually cemented the series.

Created by screenwriter Mike Makowsky, (based on the book, “Destiny of the Republic” by Candice Millard), the miniseries takes precisely the right tactic in dredging up historical events for mass consumption, which is to ply it with strong actors, make it swift and entertaining (and short) and, secretively in the process, maybe be modern-day relevant in what viewers will take from it (namely that a lot of people died trying to make the abstract notion of democracy an enduring pillar of the country, and beware those who try to tear it down and those who idly let them).

Onward to other notable Observations: