Jesus, this writer is dense.
Honestly, I never personally thought of this show as an explicitly Marxist critique of capitalism, but the way this article hyper-focuses on profit being an absent detail of the show makes me think they just don’t know what Marxism is. I don’t think there could be a clearer allegory of alienation of labor than the severance procedure.
I guess if that’s what you think Marxism is, fine. If Lumon having near total control over the lives of its workers isn’t a critique of class relations under capitalism, I don’t know what would be.
I don’t understand this post, Severance never claimed to be a mindblowing political series. It’s a sci-fi thriller that also happens to be a satire of corporate culture, nothing more. It doesn’t need to be “a deeper critique of capitalism” to tell a good story
Yeah, upon reading the post I immediately thought of an article from a long time ago whether some anime was feminist or antifeminist. It was just an average anime that didn’t even engage with the topic.
The conversation around a piece of art becomes infinitely worse once values are ascribed to it based on a (re)viewers personal ideologies and agenda.I’m all for anticapitalist sentiment and feminism, but not every topic needs to be evaluated under them.
I read your post multible times and found no references to you being pro skub. That means you must be anti skub.
Found the anti-feminist! /s
Office Space on ketamine.
Early on the show told us it wouldn’t be a deep philosophical exploration. By making that aspect of the show (personified as the brother in law) be comic relief.
While he is comic relief, no arguing that - it doesn’t preclude his role in the series from sparking interesting debates. It’s just a different discussion than the one you’re presumably hoping for.
Agreed on both counts. It’s true that I went in hoping for a delve in what it means to be severed, but the show told me early it wasn’t going to be that and I accepted that.
I didn’t see the show as promising to critique capitalism, but explore cults through the setting of an office. Everything outside of the exploration of cult was incidental.
I think it’s mainly focussing on the emotional part of severance, e.g. immediate interpersonal & especially romantic connections. Some focus on the social & cultural aspects would have been really nice!
Hopefully we’ll get some of that in the next season. I couldn’t be happier with the first two, so I’d say there’s a good chance they’ll move to these aspects to keep things interesting, especially after the ending of season 2 seems to be focussing on the conflicts between severed & non-severed!
This is definitely a show about emotional feelings of the situations. It’s not really what I would call an exploration of any topic other than what they think humans would be like on an emotional level being put through a world with the setup it has.
It mostly nails it to through execution but man it’s a show of vibes and triggering your empathetic response far more than it is any good for commentary.
Hm, I’d argue that it’s just as much about hierarchy as it is about emotions. Almost every interpersonal connection has some kind of power differential, and these frequently lead to abuse, exploitation and pain, whereas interpersonal connection on the same level seems to work in the opposite direction.
Kinda reminds me of the first episode of the latest season of Black Mirror, which was a rather shallow critique of subscription models that received rave reviews from viewers despite the fact they were watching it on Netflix.
I agree! Black Mirror episodes often make a point and then beat you over the head with it
I feel like the fanbase for that show goes rabid for any of the really obvious “cApItaLisM bAd” dystopian episodes, which are probably my least favourite just because they’re never particularly creative. As you say, they’ll start with an obvious point and never develop it any further. It’s kinda like one of those satirical news sites where the headline is 99% of the joke and the rest of the article is just filler than nobody bothers to read.
(Still a good show overall though, I appreciate that they’ve retained some variety over the years despite the quirky/light hearted episodes typically receiving a worse reception).
Honestly it’s all skin deep and not as smart of a show as the praise makes it.
Literally the show performs one of my least favorite tropes for lazy writers that want to write off a character but don’t want them dead or have to figure out a good character arc and then even has the gall to act like it was poignant with a literal:Train To Nowhere
There’s no reason to assume Irving won’t be a part of the next season (and, IIRC, the actor already stated he’ll still be a part of the show).
Oh sure. But for now he’s just on a round trip out and back in so that we don’t have to ask where he is for the finale.
I had no doubts from the fact that they put the character on a train to nowhere. It’s not a decision when faced with the question of what to do with a character next. It’s “exit stage left” so that you can write yourself out of a hole with them later.
Its a good show but the writing is lazy insofar as they don’t have a plan and are giving themselves easy ways forward or out of jams.
I’d understand this criticism if Irving had been missing for a whole season, but he hasn’t been missing so far.
You don’t know that they don’t have a plan. It’s a fine criticism if it happens, but you don’t know if it will happen.
He solved a puzzle the writers gave him and concluded his purpose and then Burt’s character was made to be different and then ignored the new character description anyways to conveniently send the character away.
Its already been contrived enough to point it out as such and will be legitimate as an overarching issue if it continues yes.
Rest of the season was pretty great but you can feel easy answer writing, so I am calling out the early symptoms of it. It’s as legitimate as my opinion as far as you are willing to listen to it.
He solved a puzzle the writers gave him and concluded his purpose and then Burt’s character was made to be different and then ignored the new character description anyways to conveniently send the character away.
No, Burt didn’t ignore his new character description, it was a logical continuation of it.
Rest of the season was pretty great but you can feel easy answer writing, so I am calling out the early symptoms of it.
There were several times during this season when it looked like the writers would take easy outs, yet at every turn they didn’t. I feel it’s only fair to give them the benefit of the doubt and see what they have to offer. You’re literally criticizing them for mistakes they haven’t yet made.
I agree! I like Severance, but people have been overselling the political commentary angle
