Severance

Severance is a study of the philosophy and ethics of self. A dry lecture? Nothing could be further from the truth, this is a tightly-written, entertaining work of TV with these weighty concepts shown through story with little or no jarring exposition dumps.

Visual cues such as the 'innie' 60's monotone dress code and the bland featureless white environment together with the monotonous meaningless work deny hope and support conformity. Garish reward events apply Pavlov conditioning, the punishments and close supervision create an environment of fear and uncertainty providing easy control.

The gradual awakening of the 'inmates' and the ensuing disobedience, rebellion and subsequent violence is the core of this very human story. All this in a backdrop of consequential slow-reveal of an ever more complex situation and underlying uncertainty regarding the goals and motivation of the de facto prison guards.

Addendum: Just watched the season one finale - it is simply superb, a fitting end to a fine series and creating massive potential for season 2. Just upgraded from 9* to 10* - very rare for me!