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"Severance" as Marxist horror
(isaaclyman.com)
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this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
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Here's a list of tons of leftist movies.
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to be fair, the creator/writer has said that he formulated the plot while he was working in an office - they might not have set out to strictly write a show purely critiquing labour from a marxist perspective, but at the same time it does seem like a natural conclusion that the show arrives at based on how the show tries to tie so many threads back to the alienation at the base of the concept
Season 1 I agree that those themes and grievances largely bore out, but season 2 was straight up mystery box with a damsel in distress. I've essentially lost interest in the show as holding any critique on [stand in monopoly corporation]. It's on the same trajectory as black mirror and all pseudo dark scifi on streaming platform that came before it.
This is exactly my take on Severance as well. I really loved S1 but got bored out of my mind and straight up frustrated with S2.
spoilers for severance
I was shouting at the screen, the way that they contorted characters to the exigencies of the plot. Like Mark's sister forgetting that Corbel kidnapped her child and suggested she was the only person who could help. And Corbel's face turn as the unlikely ally. All ham fisted. s2 suffered from the lack of levity from characters like Ricken and the rounding of the world and narrative through scenes of Mark S's interactions with the world outside of Lumon and how the town and society as a whole regard the company/concept of severance. It just veered away from any larger themes in service of a pretty predictable main A plot. Really disappointing. Still, better than most slop.spoiler
Yeah, I agree that Mark's sister going to Cobel wasn't well justified by the story, but I feel that Cobel's turnabout was a little more justified yet not completely. I think they emphasized how wrongly Cobel was treated by Lumon in many ways, which would cause most people purely motivated by corporate loyalty to sour on the company. The problem is that we're dealing with religious fanaticism in addition to corporate loyalty, so I think it would probably take even more than she went through to get someone to turn against their religion. But who knows, I give them the benefit of the doubt on that one for now. I agree with people who say that season 2 hasn't been as fresh and satisfying as season 1, but I'm still liking the show.