Creating Corporate Dread and a Sense of Helplessness Through Narrative and Visual Elements in the Series Severance

Upon its release, Severance (2022–), in which Lumon Industries employees are forced to undergo a process of separation (“severance”) into their work and leisure personas, was met with both excitement and unease. The article examines how the series uses narrative devices (such as the control and punishment of characters) and visual techniques (such as depictions of liminal spaces) to create a sense of dread and helplessness, while also questioning whether resistance is even possible in such an environment and considering what we consent to in actual late capitalism.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!