If season one darkly satirised corporate greed and rebellion, season two lays bare disingenuous corporation damage control and co-option, in ways once again sure to spark Reddit theories. Nothing is quite as it seems.
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This new series comes at a time when the balance of power is arguably shifting in favour of employers again, after a total of 100 million Americans quit their jobs in 2021 and 2022 in what Stanford economics professor Nicholas Bloom called the Great Resignation.
(Note: Contains spoilers for the first episode of the new season.)
“Severance” Season 2 premiered Thursday night after a nearly three-year delay from the first season’s release. The anticipation is high, and viewers will likely be following each episode closely to unpack the mystery of Lumon and its Severed workers.
Thousands of people with mild or moderate hearing loss could have their lives changed thanks to a combination of technological innovation and the Government’s Plan for Change. New regulations announced this week will allow innovative devices and software to power patient-driven healthcare specifically around hearing loss.
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Businesses have now been given the green light to sell ground-breaking products, like Apple AirPods, earphones and apps with hearing test and aid functions.
Later this month, a FireAid Benefit Concert is being held in support of the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires. Headlined by the likes of Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Dave Matthews, and Katy Perry, the concert aims to raise donations for wildfire relief efforts.
Parallels Desktop 20 is an impressive upgrade, and a strong focus on developers and AI means it is now a powerful tool for developers on all platforms.
It turns out that I was wrong about boredom. Danckert tells me it’s actually “a highly motivated state – but in the moment it’s frustrating because you want to be doing something that matters to you but you can’t find an outlet for that motivation”.
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So I decide this challenge is no longer about wanting to be bored, but learning how to tolerate the sensations of boredom so that I have the space to train my attention on where I am and want to be.
One of the perverse pleasures of a dystopia is that we identify with its truth-seeking inhabitants as they try to find out who ruined their world—and, at the same time, we sense that we probably did. The desolation outside the Silo evokes the everyday terrors of our time: only a few years ago, governments ordered their citizens to shelter in place for fear of a novel virus, and, as I write this, many residents of Los Angeles have fled their homes in the face of wildfires or are staying indoors to avoid the smoke. Post-apocalyptic stories can, paradoxically, be comforting: at least the present day isn’t that bad. On the other hand, we may be drawn to dystopias because we fear we live in one.
Yes, I very much enjoyed the first episode of Severence season 2. Who knows how the rest of the season will go, but this first episode maintained the quality of the first season throughout.
On the other hand, I didn't quite enjoy Silo season 2, as compared to the previous season. The pacing in the first season wasn't that great, and this season, just concluded over at Apple TV+, seemed to have worse pacing to my layperson's eyes.
Spoilers for Silo season 2: This is not a criticism, but if different communities were to be isolated from each other for many hundreds of years, I'm expecting the language used to have diverged from each so much that the people from the different communities will not understand each other's languages all that well. Of course, if the language used is realistic, no one will watch the show. :-)
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Thanks for reading.