From a Marxist perspective, what could be more frightening than not even knowing what you do for work, or what injustices are perpetrated on you there? What more villainous than an owning class who can’t be held accountable because they’re never seen or spoken to directly? What more ominous than an organization that refuses you all knowledge of the means and ends of production? Lumon is not just a Marxist nightmare, but a perfect one, one that refuses to be interpreted any other way.
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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.
Most episodes of Black Mirror feels like I just watched the first half of a movie or a really long trailer or a pilot episode to sell to investors.
I hear you. To be fair, the article was written about half-way through season 2, episode 4 or 5, so the writer may not have had the full picture of the second season yet.
Yep that’s fair
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.
shit. I just finished season 1 and I’m so hooked I don’t know if I can stop myself from watching season 2, even if I wanted to
I still liked season 2. It did seem to change tone a bit, with a lot more tension (more similar to the last episodes of season 1?), but I think it’s still very good, with great writing, acting, and cinematography.
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.
Not only that, but from what I recall, his work was cataloguing door hinges and door knobs, from what I recall reading. Mind-numbing work that made him wonder what if he could dissociate from his job.