“Maybe love transcends severance”: control of emotions and rebellion against developing technology in the dystopian TV series Severance

A number of literary works, especially those from dystopian genre, such as George Orwell’s 1984 (1949) and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) have been concerned with the notion of agency and its limitations, and have explored it in various settings. In 2022, the broad catalogue of dystopian media welcomed a new addition, the Apple TV+ series Severance. The show creates a setting familiar to the potential viewer by exploring the eerie corporate world of consumption-fueled capitalism, whose subjects chase after emotionlessness required for satisfying results in a profit-oriented workplace. The show explores the relationship between negative affects and late-stage capitalist society, modified by the use of a neurological chip designed to increase the productivity of an employee. The aim of this essay is to apply notions developed by, among others, Sara Ahmed and Eva Illouz, to explore the connection between the agency of a person, their emotional make-up, and an economic system enhanced by futuristic technological advancements.