The Severance writer and cast on corporate cults, sci-fi, and more • Hacker News Board

Re: The Severance writer and cast on corporate cults, sci-fi, and more

#31

Post by fingerlocks » Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 1:36 PM UTC

dbspin wrote: post #7

defrost wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scale changes as population grows and usage deepens. At "Apple scale"? You can make that case, sure. But the first? IBM was a cult to it's customers back in the day " Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM ", etc. Other earlier brands had their dedicated followers.

That was B2B - it was a golf course brag for executives. Customers camping outside Apple stores was something different. That's personal identity defined by not merely consumption, but parasocial relationship to a brand.

Apple isn’t unique. There’s all sorts of products like that. Concert tickets, sports events, recreation permits, and especially video game stuff.

People camped out when the Nvidia RTX 30xx series launched a few years back. There was a massive line of people, a real wtf moment. That’s just a graphics card.

Re: The Severance writer and cast on corporate cults, sci-fi, and more

#32

Post by JKCalhoun » Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 1:36 PM UTC

dbspin wrote: post #7

defrost wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scale changes as population grows and usage deepens. At "Apple scale"? You can make that case, sure. But the first? IBM was a cult to it's customers back in the day " Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM ", etc. Other earlier brands had their dedicated followers.

That was B2B - it was a golf course brag for executives. Customers camping outside Apple stores was something different. That's personal identity defined by not merely consumption, but parasocial relationship to a brand.

I'm reminded of teenagers chasing the Beatles from their limos to the hotel entrance.

"Customers"? "Brand"?

Re: The Severance writer and cast on corporate cults, sci-fi, and more

#33

Post by MrMcCall » Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 1:40 PM UTC

bsenftner wrote: post #23

nonameiguess wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From watching Severance, the closest parallel to me for a company I ever actually worked for is Disney. Disneyland performer was one of my first jobs, and the orientation is a lot like Lumon's. Video history of the company's reach and achievements. Tremendence reverence for the founder. Disneyland has a statue of Walt holding hands with Mickey at the junction between Main Street and Fantasyland and Main Street itself…

Having worked on Disney Animation productions, you ought to meet these life long fanatics that actually manage to become Disney animators - their ultimate fantasy is realized, and then after a year or three the glow has dimmed, their figurines decorating their office acquire dust, and they become nonanimated, heads down, and just work, without the glow anymore. Disney corporate is rough.

Sick people make others sick.

And few people know how to be healthy, so they are utterly unprotected.

That is how the callously cruel and ungrateful spread their misery around, however unconsciously.

Waking up is not a bogeyman to be feared but a urgent need for survival. No human being can survive their first years without compassion; we need to realize that compassion is essential for the survival of our entire world society.

The only other possibility is to let the brutally selfish and callous control the world.

Re: The Severance writer and cast on corporate cults, sci-fi, and more

#34

Post by gloflo » Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 1:43 PM UTC

JKCalhoun wrote: post #30

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #22

These kinds of shows remind me a lot of The Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan - I am not a number!) which was very much ahead of its time.

I think that's an apt comparison. And, perhaps like The Prisoner, there may not really ben an "answer" that is revealed in the end. I somewhat worry that the show is all atmosphere, no story. Like, is the writer really winging it at this point? We've certainly seen enough shows where that was the case. Premise with no payoff. But perhaps I should just give up looking for various threads to be tied up — even stop look…

I wish it was clearly communicated if a series was fully planned and with a final ending, or not. The best series I know are selfcontained, single season series with a clear overall story telling.

Re: The Severance writer and cast on corporate cults, sci-fi, and more

#35

Post by MrMcCall » Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 1:44 PM UTC

iamkonstantin wrote: post #2

It’s also kind of ironic - is Apple the first corporation to succeed in applying the “corporate cult” strategy to consumers at such a scale?

I don't know about the first, but slavery in America was certainly a cult of ignorance (and huge profit) that Black folks weren't human beings deserving of dignity and compassion.

You missed the big one, though: personal gas-powered vehicles (over mass transit). They chose profit (and waste and pollution) over mass transit systems, and we are all (the entire world) paying the price for their selfish "business sensibilities".

Re: The Severance writer and cast on corporate cults, sci-fi, and more

#36

Post by ndsipa_pomu » Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 1:44 PM UTC

SubGenius wrote: post #27

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #22

These kinds of shows remind me a lot of The Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan - I am not a number!) which was very much ahead of its time.

There's an Iron Maiden song inspired by that show and features a voice clip from it. It's called The Prisoner.

There's a whole village in North Wales that's Prisoner themed

Re: The Severance writer and cast on corporate cults, sci-fi, and more

#37

Post by ndsipa_pomu » Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 1:53 PM UTC

gloflo wrote: post #34

JKCalhoun wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's an apt comparison. And, perhaps like The Prisoner, there may not really ben an "answer" that is revealed in the end. I somewhat worry that the show is all atmosphere, no story. Like, is the writer really winging it at this point? We've certainly seen enough shows where that was the case. Premise with no payoff. But perhaps I should just give up looking for various threads to be tied up — even stop look…

I wish it was clearly communicated if a series was fully planned and with a final ending, or not. The best series I know are selfcontained, single season series with a clear overall story telling.

How about Babylon 5?

J. Michael Straczynski had a a storyline designed to last 5 seasons (and apparently with several "trap-doors" for when actors left the show etc.), but the studio then let him know that they were going to cancel it at the end of season 4, so he had to tie up the main plots quickly. However, the studio then decided to produce a fifth season, so Straczynski had to string together a whole season that he hadn't planned for.

Re: The Severance writer and cast on corporate cults, sci-fi, and more

#38

Post by euroderf » Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 1:56 PM UTC

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #36

SubGenius wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an Iron Maiden song inspired by that show and features a voice clip from it. It's called The Prisoner.

There's a whole village in North Wales that's Prisoner themed

It's a pretty amazing piece of architectural work.

Re: The Severance writer and cast on corporate cults, sci-fi, and more

#39

Post by ndsipa_pomu » Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 1:56 PM UTC

JKCalhoun wrote: post #30

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #22

These kinds of shows remind me a lot of The Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan - I am not a number!) which was very much ahead of its time.

I think that's an apt comparison. And, perhaps like The Prisoner, there may not really ben an "answer" that is revealed in the end. I somewhat worry that the show is all atmosphere, no story. Like, is the writer really winging it at this point? We've certainly seen enough shows where that was the case. Premise with no payoff. But perhaps I should just give up looking for various threads to be tied up — even stop look…

McGoohan had a definite plot in mind for The Prisoner and he initially planned it to be a 7 episode series. They ended up making 17 episodes and there's some disagreement about which the "McGoohan's Seven" actually are. To be fair, there's a lot of disagreement about many aspects of The Prisoner, including the best order to watch the episodes as they were broadcast out of order.

Re: The Severance writer and cast on corporate cults, sci-fi, and more

#40

Post by ndsipa_pomu » Sat, Feb 01, 2025, 2:05 PM UTC

euroderf wrote: post #38

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a whole village in North Wales that's Prisoner themed

It's a pretty amazing piece of architectural work.

I've visited it a few times (stayed over the weekend for a birthday as well) and it's surprising how small the Village is if you've just seen it from the series. There's a lot of forced perspective designed into the buildings to make them seem larger as well as some fake windows painted on the outside. I like the mix of themes with the various statues and paintings - mermaids, lions, angels, buddha etc.