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Severance is about slavery

An interesting take by Matt Pierce: Severance is about slavery.

Yet “Severance” and its parable about double lives has become hard to watch. Season 1’s subtler commentary about workplace alienation has given way a far more brutally explicit Season 2 plot, which is still being told as a “Lost”-style mystery: What is Lumon up to? There is no mystery about what Lumon is up to. The answer is on the screen in front of you. “Severance” is a titillating luxury TV show about slavery.

Part of the novelty of “Severance” is that the enslaver and the enslaved can share a physical body. Helena Eagan is heir to the Lumon corporation, an upper-level manager, and therefore the captor of the innies whose consciousnesses can’t escape Lumon’s offices. Eagan poses as her innie, Hellie R., to creep among the enslaved innie workforce without their knowledge. Helena Eagan exploits Hellie R.’s budding romantic relationship with an unwitting Mark S. to sleep with him.

PJH Studios artwork, Portrait of a sun

PJH Studios

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  • Severance is about slavery

    An interesting take by Matt Pierce: Severance is about slavery. Yet “Severance” and its parable about double lives has become hard to watch. Season 1’s subtler commentary about workplace alienation has given way a far more brutally explicit Season 2 plot, which is still being told as a “Lost”-style mystery: What is Lumon up to?…

  • Airline safety videos become entertainment

    I don’t fly often, so I guess I missed out on this train, but increasingly, airline safety videos are not filmed on on a plane. … The airlines weren’t just making safety demonstrations. They were making entertainment, engaging in an arms race to make their safety videos bigger, better, and frankly: more ridiculous. To track…

  • How Adolescence pulled off those one takes

    Fascinating behind the scenes of how Netfix’s show Adolescence pulled off four one take episodes (steadicam & harness) plus seamlessly attaching a camera to a drone.

  • A 500-year history of monsters

    Natalie Lawrence goes through 500 years of monsters. Their origins often reflect the society and culture of the time. At different points through history, individual monsters – both ancient and new – have had their moments in the limelight. They’ve becoming the emblems for specific events, conflicts and concerns that were troubling society at particular…

  • Corner Yard

  • Dungeon Crawler Carl and the gleeful fun of LitRPG fiction

    “You’re the main character of your story,” works well as a general lesson of self empowerment and a foundational aspect to role playing games (RPGs) such as Dungeons and Dragons. Literary RPGs take the other components of RPGs–combat and magic systems, creatures and quests–and weaves an adventure in narrative form. Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl…

  • Eames Institute Curious 100

    Absolutely love this list of talented and creative folks, the Eames Institute Curious 100. Some I’m familiar with and others who are new.

  • The Opposite of Fascism

    I’d quote the whole article, but go read what Anand Giridharadas writes regarding the opposite of fascism. The best revenge against these grifters and bigots and billionaires and bullies is to live well, richly, together. The best revenge is to refuse their values. To embody the kind of living — free, colorful, open — they…

  • Bed Rotting is a thing

    ‘When you’re bed rotting, you’re not sleeping, just lying there, scrolling on your phone, watching TV, or doing nothing in particular,’ Monroe continues. ‘It’s often framed as a way to “check out” from the demands of life, work, or stress. The term can conjure images of decay or stagnation, which can feel relatable to people…

  • Richard Scarry and the art of children’s literature

    Chris Ware delves into the history and magic of Richard Scarry’s Busy Town world. Scarry followed What Do People Do All Day? with a series of books all set within the same society, including (among others) Great Big Schoolhouse, Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, and Busiest People Ever! The Busytown books, as they…