From a Marxist perspective, what could be more frightening than not even knowing what you do for work, or what injustices are perpetrated on you there? What more villainous than an owning class who can’t be held accountable because they’re never seen or spoken to directly? What more ominous than an organization that refuses you all knowledge of the means and ends of production? Lumon is not just a Marxist nightmare, but a perfect one, one that refuses to be interpreted any other way.
Here is an alternative Internet Archive URL in case the original URL in the post title is inaccessible.
to be fair, the creator/writer has said that he formulated the plot while he was working in an office - they might not have set out to strictly write a show purely critiquing labour from a marxist perspective, but at the same time it does seem like a natural conclusion that the show arrives at based on how the show tries to tie so many threads back to the alienation at the base of the concept
Season 1 I agree that those themes and grievances largely bore out, but season 2 was straight up mystery box with a damsel in distress. I’ve essentially lost interest in the show as holding any critique on [stand in monopoly corporation]. It’s on the same trajectory as black mirror and all pseudo dark scifi on streaming platform that came before it.