‘Pluribus’ Beats ‘Breaking Bad’ With Its Two-Season Order at Apple TV

There’s no denying that Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul combine to tell one of the best stories in TV history, but the franchise’s creator has recently managed to surpass his award-winning crime saga in a very specific way. Although Vince Gilligan was already an established presence in the industry when Breaking Bad began in 2008, the AMC show took him to progressively higher levels of fame and success. When Better Call Saul took the baton after the Breaking Bad finale, the prequel show continued Gilligan’s hot streak.

While it’s not discussed to quite the same extent as the Breaking Bad franchise, Gilligan has recently been hard at work on a new show that’s making waves. Currently streaming on Apple TV, Pluribus boasts many of the same stylistic hallmarks as Gilligan’s most famous projects, but it also has many differences. One of the biggest things that separates Pluribus from Breaking Bad and its sequel is something that has already happened behind the scenes for the Apple TV show. Surprisingly, it never happened for either of Gilligan’s previous two projects.

Apple TV Ordered Two Seasons of ‘Pluribus’ at Once

This Never Happened For ‘Breaking Bad’ or ‘Better Call Saul’

Pluribus Season 1 is currently nearing its end, with the finale set to arrive on Dec. 26, 2025. The story is very clearly not over, as it’s still not exactly apparent how Pluribus will resolve. Just when it seems it’s showing a glimpse of the finish line, the scripts take a left turn and everything just sort of settles down again. It’s a strange formula, but one that’s proving to be quite compelling. Even before Pluribus debuted, Gillian knew he had more time than most to allow his story to breathe. Apple TV’s decision to order two seasons at once rather than playing it safe with just one has given the showrunner some significant narrative breathing room.

Inversely, both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul were only ever renewed on a season-by-season basis. In Breaking Bad‘s early days, it was even unclear whether the show would be renewed, especially after the 2007 writers’ strike resulted in Season 1 being shorter than originally planned. As the show progressed and ballooned in popularity, it became a foregone conclusion that Breaking Bad would continue to come back for as long as Gilligan needed or wanted. Still, AMC never ordered more than one season at a time.

By the time Better Call Saul entered production, the Breaking Bad franchise had ascended to almost godlike status. Everyone was talking about it. Just like its parent show, no one was really worried about the prequel ending before the writers were satisfied that the story was over. That said, AMC still took a very measured approach to Better Call Saul‘s renewal, never greenlighting more than one batch of episodes at a time. Apple TV clearly has a different philosophy from AMC, as a second season of Pluribus has been part of the platform’s plan from the very beginning.

Why Apple TV’s Two-Season ‘Pluribus’ Order Is Perfectly Understandable

Apple TV

After Gilligan’s rampant success with the Breaking Bad franchise, fans were eager to see what would be next. His time overseeing the crime saga earned him a devoted following that had grown exponentially during his work on The X-Files. So, it makes perfect sense that Apple TV would be confident that Pluribus would do well, which explains why they took what was arguably the risk of committing to two seasons before even waiting to see how the first run would perform.

Although there have been viewers who haven’t taken to Pluribus, which might be a cause for concern on other platforms, Apple TV seems a little less worried with a show’s profile when deciding whether to renew it. For example, no one seems to be watching Foundation, but it’s coming back for Season 4. So, even if Apple TV had only ordered one season of Pluribus, it’s probably safe to say another run would have happened regardless. Pair that with Vince Gilligan’s huge fan base in the wake of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and Apple TV simply seems like it was streamlining the inevitable by ordering Pluribus‘s first two seasons at once.

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  Pluribus

  
  

  3.5
  /5

  Release Date

  November 6, 2025
  

  Network

  Apple TV

  Directors

  Adam Bernstein, Zetna Fuentes, Melissa Bernstein

  Writers

  Ariel Levine

  
  

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