Severance’s satirical mystery goes far beyond the dystopian workplace

polygon.com:

In 1995, political scientist Robert D. Putnam proposed a compelling theory: civic life in America was on the decline. Americans, Putnam argued in “Bowling Alone,” were less engaged with their communities and their country. We were voting less often, going to fewer public meetings, and even joining fewer bowling leagues, preferring instead to go bowling alone (a phenomenon Putnam used as the title for his essay, and eventual book, on this topic).

Although Putnam’s theory faced some pushback — and, it should be noted, was probably relying heavily on a white male definition of civic engagement to make his case — it’s hard to deny that, 27 years after “Bowling Alone,” its core argument still feels very true. On the national level, our political landscape is incredibly polarized, unable to achieve basic bipartisan consensus around critical issues like renewing pandemic funding while we’re still in a pandemic. Individually, many of us are locked into our own bubbles of pop culture, political viewpoints, and even interpretations of basic tenets of reality. On top of all that, the coronavirus pandemic has been shadowed by a secondary pandemic of loneliness, with many Americans isolated, depressed, and suicidal.

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It’s into that landscape that the new thriller Severance has dropped (fittingly, on Apple TV Plus, a streaming service that’s helped contribute to the further fracturing of our collective culture into infinite niches). Though it’s primarily been discussed as a commentary on the ways that corporations exploit workers, using the language of family and company mythology to trap employees in a cult-like environment, writer Dan Erickson’s series can also be read as a deeper commentary on modern isolation itself. The