A TRAVEL IN THE DARK WHIRLPOOLS OF THE MIND “SEVERANCE”
Cinema Writer/Film Critic Efe TEKSOY; wrote Futuristic-Horror, science- fiction, mystery and the genre of drama series “SEVERANCE”, which draws attention with its Kafkaesque and chaotic dialogues, for America’s Los Angeles based Internet Newspaper @alaturkanews.
MENTAL CAPTIVITY
Severance, the extraordinary series of Apple TV+, has an original story with interesting plot and thought-provoking chaotic dialogues. It offers the audience a possible science fiction-thriller story in the near future. In this sense, the production, which proceeds in a line close to the Black Mirror style, actually focuses on the fine line between a kind of mental bondage and ideational freedom. On the other hand, in the depressive atmosphere of the production, we encounter socio-symbolic images and anti-utopian new world predictions. Severance, which we can call futuristic-horror in a way; Thanks to a system developed by a company called Lumen Industries, it offers a new frightening working service by dividing work life and private life memories. In other words, when the person is at work, does not remember anything about his private life thanks to a chip placed in his brain. It is seen that concepts such as a conscious captivity and discipline-control societies underlie this method, which takes employees to a new level of work-life balance. We see that the Panopticon phenomenon of British philosopher Jeremy Bentham, one of the most important names who laid the foundations of the mechanism to isolate people, is also here. Thus, we see the concepts of bio-politics and self-techniques of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, who broke new ground in this field with his work Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, as well as the Master-Slave Dialectic, one of the key elements in Hegel‘s philosophy. In addition, Slovenian political philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek (who is among the most important thinkers of today), we see the technological brave new world vision put forward on the wave of innovation within the framework of techno-scientific advances in the world. We see that employees continue to work in isolation during working hours while they are at work and are deprived of information about the outside. This means a kind of prison life for the employees. Because they can only get information about the office and cannot even go out of the office without permission. However, when the character of Helly R., who is new to the office, questions this order, a new anarchic order emerges. Thus, we see that the office workers, who are kind of closed to Plato‘s ideology cave, begin to discuss the question of how can get out of this cave, and here we come across the intricate-dialectic of freedom and servitude.
TOPIC OF SERIES
Lumon Industries employees live their lives split in two due to a brain chip that separates their work and private lives. Leading a team of office workers here, Mark realizes that something is wrong, thanks to his new colleague Helly R., and embarks on a mysterious journey to discover the truth.
Directed by Ben Stiller, the stars of the series are; Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Jen Tullock, Dichen Lachman, Michael Chernus, John Turturro, Patricia Arquette and Christopher Walken.
DETAILS
–Apple has renewed the series for a second season.
-Filmed at the old Bell Labs building in Holmdel, New Jersey. The water tower out front was supposedly shaped like a transistor.
-The address on the back of the card reads ‘499 Half Loop’. The address of Apple old Headquarters is 1 Infinite Loop.
A MEMORY JOURNEY
In the Kafkaesque dialogues, which have an important place in Severance, we see that an ambiguous abstract feeling of guilt and anxieties dominate the characters. Another striking point in the series is; the perception of time in business life, functioning differently from the outside world. We notice that when the characters inSeverance come to work, time passes more slowly and varies. Here we see that time is relative (as Einstein mentioned) and that the special theory of relativity or special relativity comes into play. In addition, we can see that the perceptible and measurable time phenomena, which the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur, who has done deep research on the phenomenology of time, worked in his masterpiece Time and Narrative, come into play and gain importance in this regard. Another striking point is that the red and blue color tones in the color palette of the series dominate the production. Especially the light plays we see during office awards parties, like Helly‘s red hair against the blue clothes she wears, and Mark‘s parking his car between the red and blue car. These are a metaphorical allegory to perceptions of heaven and hell and a reference to the duality of the characters’ disjointed memories. The Apple TV+ series Severance, in the drama, mystery and science fiction genres, is an original production that should not be missed.
EFE TEKSOY
