So does anyone know what might be going on? Theories? Anything?

As the other guy said somewhere around here - it is Kafkaesque. It exists in its own world.

It is like Office Space rewritten by Kafka or Kafka's take on corporate and office culture. Or at least this is how it looks like to me until now.

It reminds me of a former co-worker of mine who once asked "I wonder if there is life after work?". He was spending way too many hours in the office.

Too bad that this kind of shows tend to become too far fetched and self serving but I'm going to enjoy it while it is good.

Smartly written. Greatly acted.

You'll get many more theories and answers to your questions in the FB groups on Severance, not on here.

It's pretty much impossible to get a lively discussion going here on Moviechat, unless it's something so popular that everyone is watching. And even then - eh. 😒

It's a metaphor for ignorance.

My gripe with the show is that the environment is so surreal and absurd that there's not really any way you can turn it into some kind of rational world explanation.

The best thing I can come up with is that Lumon is more or less beta testing the severance technology. The people on the severed floors aren't doing meaningful work, especially "metadata refinement". The jobs/tasks are largely irrelevant and designed to gauge the severed employees responses to working conditions, emotional/intellectual detachment from work, and so on.

I also find the technology a little too good and weirdly specific. It's too convenient that severance results in only forgetting what you know about the outside world, your personal life, etc, but somehow doesn't impede your ability to type, make coffee, or utilize a bunch of memories and skills gained through life, including basic social skills and interactions.

And how is a company with technology like that operating so openly? Even though its in some semi-isolated giant corporate campus with a lot of security, the outside world knows about the technology and just anyone can at least drive into the parking lot. You'd expect it to be in some isolated location and locked down like a military base.

I found myself increasingly annoyed with the show's lack of answers for the questions it raised and the declining chance there's some kind of explanations that make sense of it. I liked it, but season 2 is going to have to open up the world a bit and provide more than just a surrealist exercise in office work.