Not Only Lumon: 5 Most Intriguing TV Shows About Evil & Mysterious Corporations

Apple TV+ has launched the second season of Severance, a sci-fi thriller about the sinister company Lumon, whose employees separate their work memories from their personal ones.

This is a list of series about mysterious companies and their dark secrets – for those who like to get their nerves rattled with creepy stories or ponder the confrontation between man and the system.

1. Devs, 2020

Sergei, the boyfriend of computer specialist Lily Chan, commits a strange suicide for no reason – he burns himself in front of the camera.

The day before, he received a promotion – the IT company Amaya, where they both worked, transferred him to a secret department called Devs. Lily suspects that these two events are connected and begins her own investigation.

Alex Garland, the creator of Annihilation and Ex Machina, made Devs in his favorite style: the plot develops slowly, paying attention to every tiny detail.

2. Mr. Robot, 2015-2019

Sociophobe Elliot works in cybersecurity by day and makes the world a better place by hacking criminals by night. Elliot hates three things more than anything: consumerism, hypocrisy, and E Corp., the company that killed his father.

One day, the mysterious Mr. Robot contacts him and invites him to join a group of hackers who are trying to destroy E Corp.

This series is not just about hackers and how we allow corporations to control our lives every day. It is also about the fact that we are all lonely people and therefore all in the same boat.

3. Fringe, 2008-2013

FBI agent Olivia, mad professor Walter and his genius son Peter team up to investigate a series of mysterious crimes related to various types of paranormal phenomena.

Fringe begins as a classic procedural, but by the end of the first season, the narrative focuses on the main mystery: the crimes the characters are investigating are increasingly reminiscent of a giant experiment involving the entire world.

The name of the tech company Massive Dynamic appears suspiciously often in the investigations, and its founder and company representatives are not eager to share their secrets with the FBI.

4. Lost, 2004-2010

A passenger plane crashes and the survivors find themselves on an uncharted island in the middle of the ocean. The plot of the cult TV series is known even to those who have not seen a single episode.

But not everyone knows that Lost also featured a mysterious organization – the Hanso Foundation, which funded the DHARMA Initiative. The corporation left abandoned research stations and contradictory educational films on the island.

5. Westworld, 2016-2022

Delos Inc. owns a futuristic amusement park called Westworld. It's like the Wild West: you can play the role of a prospector, a cowboy, and even a ruthless killer.

Guests are allowed to mock and abuse the locals – after all, they are just androids who can be rebooted by erasing their memories. But one day, something goes wrong, and the machines rebel against their creators.

In some ways, the value of Westworld becomes more apparent every year: for example, the question of the fundamental differences between human consciousness and artificial intelligence is much more acute now than it was in 2016.