Parody of 1984

It was a wet day in April and for Winston Smith the clocks had just stopped. He sat in a cell with a massive poster ‘Big Donald is watching you’.
His lover, Julia, was in the women’s wing of the Ministry of Love.
A guard interrupted his reverie.
‘Smith. Room 101.’
Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.
‘Either surrender or you will be sentenced to lunch with Richard Branson forever.’
‘Do it to Julia,’ said Winston wearily.

The end. 

Corporate Severance

"Forget about everything else and concentrate on your job." This has been the mantra of bullying bosses right back to Egyptian slavedrivers.

The Sci Fi black comedy "Severance" imagines a world in which this has been taken one step further by corporate America.

Employees are surgically prevented from thinking about the outside world by the implantation of chips. You can imagine the likes of Elon Musk salivating about the very idea.

The TV series explores many of the implications of this. The "innies" have completely separate lives from their "outies" and the conflicts between the two are sometimes tragic. sometimes comic and sometimes both. In one episode an "outie" is tempted back to working as an "innie" with a pineapple!

The lives of the innies are Hell. Any deviation is punished in the "break room" where employees are "broken" by psychological torture.

The break room also makes use of the discredited "science" of the lie-detector. The Sci Fi author Frank Herbert explained fifty years ago that a lie-detector can be circumvented by anyone who genuinely believes the lie to be the truth!

The founder of the company is worshipped as a God. You can imagine that Bezos and Gates would love that idea.

The acting is superb and has won awards for all the main characters.

Socialists will enjoy this series.

Smiert spionam

Smiert spionam "Death to spies" is referred to as SMERSH in the James Bond novels. Mick Herron has more characters with interesting backgrounds and 100% more humour than Ian Fleming.

Jackson Lamb is a nightmare boss or a nightmare teacher for that matter but his character is portrayed with humour.

The Rodster, Roddy Ho is everybody's least favourite nerd.

River Cartwright has an interesting family background and ended up in the Slough of Despond because a friend stabbed him metaphorically in the back.

There is a thoroughly corrupt politician and any resemblance to Boris Johnson is purely for satirical purposes.

Other characters are quirky and oddly sympathetic.

The books provide more background than the TV series which is also excellent.