Shows have a world of their own. Audience gets immersed in that, but what if a whole reality depicted on screen was interconnected? Here are some top shows that we might think are connected in some sort of renaissance of conspiracy and connection. Or it’s just the marvel of fan theories. Let’s take a deep dive into it.
Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead
Robert Kirkman, the writer of the “Walking Dead” comics and a producer of the television series, remarked that the addition of the blue meth was “a little Easter egg we were doing for AMC fans.” Perhaps not the biggest turn-out in the universe, but fans have been known to note that in ‘The Walking Dead’ when Daryl went through Merle’s medicines, in the bag he found Walt, a name for Heisenberg’s blue meth. Any meth should be depicted as its typical color outside of the Breaking Bad universe because pure meth is never blue. This small detail might be a sign for fans that something bigger is in the works.
The Office (US) and Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation was originally intended as a spin-off of The Office, but the idea was abandoned, and the two shows existed independently. Rashida Jones plays Ann Perkins and Karen Filippelli in both series. Fans have come up with convincing ideas for linking The Office and Parks and Recreation because of her appearances in both series. One fan theory famously argues, “Karen testified against the Scranton Strangler and was forced to enter the Witness Protection Program. They sent her to a little-known town called Pawnee, Indiana.” Jerry from Parks and Rec was also seen in the background of one episode of The Office. There can be a hundred fan theories, but the nuances of both shows don’t give away anything.
Arrested Development and Archer
Jessica Walter, who plays Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development and Malory Archer in Archer, forms the most convincing link. They’re fundamentally the same character: affluent, drunken, manipulative matriarchs who use passive-aggression and martinis as weapons. Some fans believe Malory is Lucille in witness protection. There are many Easter Eggs. Fans have spotted Bluth Company banana stands and other AD references hidden in Archer backgrounds. Both shows aired on FX (Archer still does, while AD has gone to Netflix). Adam Reed (Archer’s creator) and Mitchell Hurwitz (AD’s creator) are friends, and Reed confessed to intentionally concealing AD references as tributes.
Community and Rick and Morty
Community featured a series within a series called Inspector Spacetime (a Doctor Who parody). Some fans believe Rick and Morty reside in the same universe, with Inspector Spacetime being one of Rick’s favourite shows and Rick himself as a rogue Inspector. One of the meta theory convolates, Abed, who is obsessed with television and alternate timelines, either invented Rick and Morty in his head, or Rick is a version of Abed from a timeline in which he became a scientist rather than a filmmaker. Harmon is clearly aware of these hypotheses and appears to enjoy fuelling them with tiny hints. Rick and Morty’s multiverse idea technically allows for any crossover to be legit!
The Americans and Stranger Things
Here is the real hear me out, Both The Americans and Stranger Things are set in 1983, during the last stages of the Cold War Collider, and they look at animosity between the United States and the Soviet Union from very different approaches. But, Stranger Things was originally titled “Montauk” and is based on conspiracy theories regarding the Montauk Project—alleged covert government research undertaken at Camp Hero and Montauk Air Force Station in New York that involved mind control, time travel, and psychological warfare. Although the Demogorgon in Stranger Things is an analogy for government overreach and Cold War paranoia, the Lassa virus and Glanders strain in The Americans are real-life horrors that may result in catastrophic epidemics. These shows perhaps warn about the upcoming dystopia the world might experience from the catastrophe of the past in the remnents of the future.
