To live is to work:

the capitalist realism of Severance (2022)

Abstract

This article intends to analyze the dystopian series Severance (2022), created by Dan Erickson and produced by the streaming platform AppleTV+, based on the assumption that this work serves as an impactful commentary on the state of modern work through the science fiction genre. To do so, it will first conceptualize what dystopia narrative would be and then bring recent concepts of cultural criticism, such as Mandel's (1982) late capitalism and Fisher's (2020) capitalist realism. From the intersection between these conceptualizations, the series is interpreted as an allegory of when the generation of capital assumes the psychological dimension of being the only possible reality, at the same time that it also aspires to respond to the possibility of criticizing capitalism through the creation of impactful marketing products and reflect the implications of the organization of this discourse.