Of all the sumptuously realised analogies presented by Greek philosopher Plato, none has stuck in the public imagination quite like the allegory of the cave. In it, a group of manacled people can only witness flickering shadows, cast on the outer wall of their cavernous residence by the unchained inhabitants of the sunlit world. Their reality is just a silhouette of the world as it is, but how can they know the limitations of what they’re seeing, without the context of what’s missing?
It’s a tantalising vision, and one that has inspired countless filmmakers, from the Wachowskis in The Matrix to James Wan’s Saw. It’s also made an impression on the small screen, not least in JJ Abrams’s Lost and Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar’s 1899 (which was abandoned by Netflix on a cliffhanger ending). But it’s hard to believe that Plato himself would’ve enjoyed any of these half as much as AppleTV+’s sensational Severance, which returns to screens this week, three years after it left viewers feeling as frustrated and clueless as its protagonists.
