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I've loved Vince Gilligan's work since he was cutting his dramatic TV teeth on the later seasons of The X-Files. Breaking Bad is obviously an all-timer series, while Better Call Saul is arguably just as good. But Gilligan does have one habit: progressing the action of his series very slowly. He gets away with it in Breaking Bad because the plot and characters are so compelling, and again in Saul because it is a prequel. But that ultra-slow approach catches up with him in Pluribus, which features a first season far too slow to be a compelling drama.

For a very basic overview, Pluribus tells the story of an alien event that colonizes planet Earth via instituting a sort of collective consciousness for all of the planet's inhabitants. Well, almost all inhabitants. A select few---like Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn)---seem to be immune from the effect. Will they chose to "save the world"---or does the new state of being and its ultra-efficient means of help/production make that state of being even more enticing than the previous normality?

I'll start with the good in Pluribus, which is that it plays around with many, many interesting and relevant themes. Mainly, the notions of "messy individuality" versus " efficient collectivism". Because Gilligan is such a talented writer, the answers here are not at all simple. In fact, he'll have viewers questioning episode to episode what they may believe or would do in a similar scenario.

The acting is also solid, led almost exclusively by a returning (Kim Wexler in Saul) Seehorn. Her emotional and often sarcastic swings from one episode to the next are perfect for Gilligan's uber-introspective style.

But at least for me, the "big red flashing light" of Pluribus S1 is that it moves at a glacial pace. This is in terms of both plot and character development. Gilligan has often said he is "all about the process", and that will either endear you to this series or make it a bit of a chore. For me, it was definitively the latter.

After the first two more action-packed episodes, the subsequent seven usually tackle one theme/idea (sometimes even an obscure one) and relentlessly focus on it to the point of banality. If I had to hear Carol listen to the entire voicemail message one more time (when you know, you'll know) I was going to blow a gasket! Pluribus is, without a doubt, the slowest-moving TV drama I have ever encountered.

So, I give this first season a right-down-the-middle 5/10 star rating---mainly because I don't know what else to do with it, so to speak. I want to love the series because it is filled with interesting themes and ideas, but each hour does the bare minimum (and sometimes less) to hold the attention of someone who loves prestige dramas. It's a problem I cannot reconcile into positive reviews for this series yet.

The great thing about William Shakespeare fictional interpretations is that so little is definitively known about the man (or his life). So, even when the core premise of a film like Hamnet is stretched a little thin, it still can be emotionally affecting in other ways.

For a very basic overview, Hamnet tells the story of a young Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) raising their three children. When son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) passes away with his father in London putting together a theatre troup, the playwright constructs a drama that may be channeling art from life.

The biggest negative about Hamnet may be that its core premise is stretched to---or perhaps beyond---credulity. To posit that Hamlet was derived (even in part) from the death of Shakespeare's son is, in my opinion, a reach. I think there is a lot of cherry-picking going on to make such connections.

That being said, I enjoyed a couple of the auxiliary aspects of Hamnet even more than that core premise:

First, this is a good "Shakespeare and Agnes were people just like you and I" interpretation of the legendary playwright. The puffy, stuffy interpretation of The Bard is tossed aside here in favor of a far more naturalistic approach. He and Agnes and their joys/plights are relatable to young people even in the current generation. This is especially true in the case of Buckley's Agnes, who steals most of the flick in both screen time and poignance.

Also, I enjoyed the general "life impacts art which impacts life" tack even when it didn't specifically work in the Hamnet/Hamlet connection possibility. Director Chloe Zhao does a solid job of portraying the classical "tormented artist" and how real-life events are pulled from to create some of the all-time classic comedies/tragedies.

Overall, I settle on a solid-but-not-spectacular 7/10 rating for Hamnet. It moves quite slowly and I didn't fully buy into the number one premise, but it did enough for me emotionally to still be engaged in the drama.