Turns out the best shows that I’ve watched in my life come from random recommendations from a friend or an IMDB list posted on Imgur. And following that tradition, a friend recently introduced me to the show, Severance. Apple TV‘s latest addition to its growing list of exclusive content produced for the platform, Severance is probably not getting the hype it deserves.
So, out of shows to watch for the weekend after binging through Stranger Things 4 and Tokyo Vice, I went in with an open heart. And boy oh boy, was I in for a ride. Severance, is a science fiction psychological thriller television series that tells the story of a group of employees who opted the procedure “severance”. Sounds like a dream come true for mega corporations, am I right? And keeping your personal life separate from work sounds like a dream. Well, not quite.
Severance – What Is It?
The show revolves around Severance, a medical procedure undertaken by employees to separate the nonwork memories from the work memories. This procedure is spearheaded by Lumon Industries, which seems to be a corporate giant that is spearheading the tech and is using it on some of its employees. Severance is advertised to help bring some sort of work-life balance to the employees, where their personal lives are not bogged down by the stresses of work. Any work matter is left at work and employees leave the doors of the building with a lighter heart.
However, Lumon Industries has a bit of an ominous overtone to it. For one, throughout the show, various random household appliances and products seemed to be produced by Lumon Industries. And while it also talks about the severance procedure to help provide security for the type of work they’re doing on the severance floor, the ambiguous nature of the Macrodata Refinement team had me scratching for a moment.
Sort the numbers based on how they make you feel? Some numbers will feel scary, others happy, and some just make you angry. Which doesn’t make sense at all. Besides that, let’s talk about the founder of Lumon Industries, Kier Eagan who is worshiped like a cult-like devotion within Lumon Industries. He is represented through sculptures, paintings, and recordings. Through Eagan’s philosophy, he summarizes that 4 tempers exist in every living soul and each man needs to find balance to a precise ratio. This won’t make sense now, but it will once you start watching the show.
So, a very cultist central figure, a company that’s seemingly making everything from your coffee maker to hospital equipment, and the same company now holds the power to split the memories of a human to work for them and be the perfect employee? Sounds fishy already.
Why Watch It?
As I tried to figure out what made good and bad shows along the way, I always wondered what makes or breaks a show. A show can have a great premise but ends up a dumpster fire. Severance has a great premise. Mysterious, interesting and intriguing. It invites the viewers to peek through the keyhole. Above all, the one thing that this show does well is pacing, which is a tricky thing to get. Severance weaves through the two lives lived by each character, especially Mark. Mark outside live paints us a different picture from the innie version of himself, and we slowly find out why he has undertaken the Severance procedure. The relationships he has outside and inside Lumon Industries are well written. The fake personas of the middle management Lumon Industries characters leave a slight hint of uncomfortable vibes. The dumb corporate motivational quotes that they keep feeding the innie to keep them in line and to finish up the quota.
As you fall deeper into the rabbit hole, you’ll realize how much the severity (Ha!) of the Severance procedure actually is. Watching the other implications of the procedure for the first time left me realizing that having two memories split is akin to a Black Mirror episode. And we all know there are no happy endings in that series. Knowing the true terror of the procedure in the hands of a behemoth organization that is lurking in the shadows, what is the true goal here? Is there a limit of what they’re able to do? How much are they willing to sacrifice?
The show is so relevant to how the world is today, especially with organizations more than happy to have a drone of loyal workers. Most preach work-life balance blindly without actually knowing how the system they’ve set up denies even that. Fake management personas to keep employees in line and to avoid any altercation. You’ll soon come across The Break Room, which ironically serves as the space for punishing the innies for disobeying or bungling a task. Severance is a nice alternate universe where mega-corporation is given the reins to do what it wants with the support of the rich and powerful, pushing their own agendas into government and political systems. And at the end of all of this, you and I are the ones paying for their decisions. From our money in the form of taxes, and to the energy that we sold for 8 hours a day. If they could own your work personality, something tells me they might try.
The first season establishes the characters, introducing all the players in the series and who’s playing on which side. Just when you thought you’d got it all figured out, the show throws you a final mind-blowing scene, before ending the season.
Conclusion
Ultimately, Severance is a slow burn drama that has a one of a kind premise that makes you forget about the slow burn. The interesting and believable relationships that the main characters have with the rest makes the show’s universe closer to our own reality, no matter how absurd the idea of severance actually is. And let’s not forget about the giant corporation’s efforts to make humans into nothing more than efficient and obedient worker bees that question nothing about the tasks they’re given.
There are a lot of fan theories and content on YouTube, which I’ll link below for your enjoyment. But I would suggest checking them out after you’ve finished the first season. Trust me, you’ll be done with it in no time!
