I’m currently something of a fanboy of the Apple TV series Severance. It doesn’t neatly fit a genre, being mystery/thriller/sci-fi/horror/drama. It’s what you call a slow-burn. There’s not much in the way of action. There are long gaps between dialogue. Indeed, you could get to the end of an episode and wonder whether anything much had even happened. And yet it’s absolutely riveting.

Every scene, every image, every word has significance, and the whole show acts as a giant metaphor. It’s the sort of series that when something is revealed in, say, the 4th episode of the 2nd series, you feel like you have to watch the entire show from series 1, episode 1 again. What it’s a metaphor for is the question that has been delved into online in abundance, with a ton of theories around. It truly is a work of sublime art.

It is the metaphor (or one possible metaphor) I want to talk about in this post, but I need to explain the show a bit first. Warning: spoilers coming. If you haven’t watched it yourself, another warning if you’re going to check it out, for strong language.

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