in the series Separation Apple TV+, directed by Ben Stiller, working isn’t just a way to make a living. It is also a way of defining identity. Which, of course, is not uncommon in today’s business world. What is unique and troubling is the possibility that the personality of work can be separated from the everyday. And not metaphorically, but through a medical procedure that splits the employee’s brain into two separate functions. In other words, to transform the employee into two people at the same time trapped in a single body. Both personalities, with often opposing goals, inclinations and desires.
Separation explores its bizarre premise with nightmarish coldness. The Innnies, the worker personality from the procedural, spend hours in the offices. Programmed to repeat tasks without complaining or worrying. Loving the routine and having the feeling that working— until exhaustion — is a privilege to be enjoyed. On the other hand, the Outies or the rest of the individual who loves life outside the office, is a confused automaton. As much as the characters who go from place to place jostling with a cold happiness that terrifies with its sinister confused quality.
The Apple TV+ series approaches this double world between mirrors from the perception of an environment that inevitably recalls one of Kafka’s most claustrophobic stories. The whole atmosphere is polished, symmetrical, clean, so clear that any displaced element refers to a world that does not exist.
Lumen Industries , the setting for much of the argument, is an efficient prison that the Innies remain locked in for hours on end. Exhausting days which they enjoy without complaining or qualifying. In this corporate superstructure of Separation, work is a physical condition. It defines, supports and elaborates a look at who we are, ruthless and cared for.
The prison of labor Separation
Mark underwent the process after his wife’s death. And he did it with all the intention of getting in his “innie” a space of mental peace in the middle of the duel. The decision ended up shaking her perception of pain until it became something else. A kind of unpleasant and agonizing push towards a mental and emotional silence with hints of alienation on a large scale.
To the extent that Separation progresses, it is obvious that Lumen Industries cannibalizes the personality of its employees.It’s not just about what happens inside its structure, but how it slowly devours humanity from its army of perfect workers.
There’s a decidedly twisted element to this Apple TV+ satire in that work is the middle ground between two worlds.
There’s a decidedly twisted element to this Apple TV+ satire in that work is the middle ground between two worlds. In fact, the issues raised within Lumen Industries do not go beyond that. Corn as the working self takes shape, it all fades away until it becomes a goal. This allows Separation its best moments and conjure up its weirdest elements through unexpected emotional points.
Like the friendship between the maniacal and exhausted Irving (John Turturro) with Burt (Christopher Walken), shadows of the men who are beyond the office. Or Helly’s (Britt Lower) anguished question as she realizes the true and terrifying extent of her irreconcilable personality. “Will it be like this from now on?” he asks softly. “Am I cattle? »
Open Houses and Fractured Minds on Apple TV+
There’s a lot of Orwell in this seemingly joyous space that thrives on its own rhythm and little gears of madness. At Separation control is complete, life is an illusory perception. Time and again, the Apple TV+ series reminds us that its metaphor for work and the modern obsession with efficiency is more than just an argument. It is a very hard composition on what gives importance, weight and power to contemporary culture.
“Perfect” Employees Begin to Understand What’s Behind Full Delivery
Gradually, the “perfect” employees begin to understand what lies behind the full delivery of their personality. And that’s when Separation reaches its darkest and strangest pointand the one showing off his real muscle. A space in which the idea of work as a total element can become a monstrous need for control. With his slow tone, his mocking sense of humor, but above all, very rare version of fear Separation surprise and dismay. A rare combination for a series that mostly takes place behind closed doors of the modern compulsion to succeed.
