Real-world utopian experiments

Vince Gilligan’s new show, “Pluribus,” opens with an unconventional apocalypse. A benevolent alien hive mind descends on Earth, commandeering the bodies of all but a handful of people who appear to be immune, including a curmudgeonly writer named Carol Sturka. Though the world that the “joined” are building seems ideal—no more crime, efficient resource distribution, an end to discrimination—it doesn’t leave much room for Carol’s messy humanity. Is it worth it? On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss “Pluribus” and other perfect societies imagined and enacted by artists and thinkers, from Thomas More’s 1516 satire, “Utopia,” to the Shaker movement and beyond. They reflect on why these experiments have rarely held up to scrutiny or benefitted more than a select few, and why we keep coming back to them anyway. “I’m not the most optimistic person,” Fry says. “But if you’re stuck in pessimistic, dystopic thinking, are you foreclosing on greater promise or greater potential of imagination?” 

Read, watch, and listen with the critics:

“Pluribus” (2025–)
“Breaking Bad” (2008-13)
“Better Call Saul” (2015-22)
“The X-Files” (1993-2002)
“The Giver,” by Lois Lowry
“Utopia,” by Thomas More
“Les Guérillères,” by Monique Wittig
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977)
“The Testament of Ann Lee” (2025)
“The Hunger Games,” by Suzanne Collins
“Utopia for Realists,” by Rutger Bregman
“Ragtime” (1996)

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Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture.