Jonathan Hus week 6 - Severance or servitude?

 

    Recently, a companion of mine by the name of  Big Man Leder and I embarked on watching a new Apple TV show called Severance. While arguably being one of the more confusing shows I have seen, Severance is definitely in my top 5. It takes place in a dystopian society where a new procedure called “Severance” is open to the public where it inherently separates your mind into two halves: your work self and home self. Through the use of advanced technology, people who want to be able to escape from reality and become severed begin working at Lumin which is the company that created the procedure. The severed half of yourself doesn't know anything about your other half and your other half doesn't know anything about your work self. On top of this, the severed half doesn't even know what their job is and it is kept very vague in order to keep the company’s secrets. The severance operation is targeted at people who are going through tough times and need an escape during the day. Thus, the main character Mark S decides to become severed after his wife passes away in a car accident. As the show begins to progress, many important themes begin to arise that are actually very interesting and thought-provoking. Therefore, without spoiling, I would simply like to discuss the ethics and themes of the show. 

    Throughout the series, the viewers see that the severed half of one's self is seen as less than or not as important as the other half. The show tells us that the severed half has no control over their life and that the outside-of-work half is the one who makes the decisions. Now, this brings up an important question. Who is one to say that one half is more important if the severed half has a life, friends, job, and feelings of their own that are completely different from their home self? Additionally, the severed half is essentially a slave in the sense that they have no say over if they even want to be severed or not. The show does an absolutely fantastic job of diving into the dynamics between each half of the characters’ minds however, I cannot really give examples or more details as I want you all to watch the show and understand my point of view. If you do decide to watch it, please let me know your thoughts and what you think of this ethical dilemma presented in the show.


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