Created by Dan Erickson
Starring Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, John Turturro and Christopher Walken
Season One streaming on AppleTV+

by Victoria Potenza, Staff Writer

Recently, I have been wanting to rewatch Alex Garland’s FX show DEVS. If you missed it, it is an incredible sci-fi show, and nothing I have watched since then has really scratched the itch. I wanted to find a TV show that would totally immerse me into its world. I wanted to feel so excited about an episode that I needed to debrief and discuss theories as soon as it ended. I did not realize how much I missed the excruciating feeling of waiting a whole week to know what happened to the characters I love. Then I heard about Severance, a strange workplace sci-fi show starring one of my favorites, Adam Scott. It was exactly what I was looking for, and now I am here to spread the gospel and find more loyal followers for the church of Severance. 

If you are reading this and you have not watched Severance yet, please watch it! If you do not have AppleTV+, find a friend/acquaintance/neighbor - anyone who would not mind sharing that information with you (now is a good opportunity to thank my mom for getting me her account information, you’re the best!). Severance is a show that follows Mark (Adam Scott) who works for a huge company called Lumon. In order to work there, he had to opt in for a procedure called severance. This procedure splits Mark’s work life and personal life. When he leaves the office his “outie” has no idea how he spent those 8 hours. When he is at work, his “innie” has no idea what his life outside the office is like. When his best friend in the office suddenly leaves and is replaced with a brand new severed employee, Helly (Britt Lower), Mark begins to question what exactly is happening at his company. This change has a ripple effect throughout his office, causing him and his coworkers to search for answers outside of their cubicles. 

One of the best aspects of the show is how it takes this simple concept and slowly drags you further into its world with each episode. The severance process has so many implications that it is hard to know exactly what it means for these people, and how it affects their lives. Even small conversations between characters make you reflect on another aspect of severance. My initial reaction was, “wouldn’t that be great?” - who doesn’t want to have the ability to actually leave work at the office and not think about all the bullshit we dealt with throughout the day. Yet, like most things in a capitalist society, this is something that serves those at the top and no one else. You then begin to question, “what kind of person would go through this procedure?” and, “they must have been given an offer they could not turn down to do this to themselves.” I will not say if those questions are answered, but there is still plenty on the table. 

The show has an incredible ensemble cast with actors I had never seen before; Zach Cherry, Britt Lowery, and Tramell Tillman. It also has stand out performances from actors I love including Patricia Arquette, Christopher Walken, and John Turturro. Having characters I am deeply invested in, and interested in, is essential for me when getting on board with a new show, and this cast delivers. Adam Scott brings so much to the character Mark, while it does not feel like he is necessarily doing something out of the norm when it comes to his performances, he does manage to bring his awkward, funny guy energy into a more dramatic and sad character. Also, having never seen Zach Cherry in anything before, I am shocked he is not a bigger star. He is truly one of the funniest parts of this show. 

Even with this incredible cast, it is interesting to note that thus far, Mark is the only character we spend significant time with outside the office. It helps us understand what kind of person would opt to have such a drastic (and potentially irreversible) procedure done to them. Even with as much as we think we know about Mark, by the end he surprises us with his explanation for why he went through with the process. For the most part we only know these characters “innies,” their workplace selves. We love those “innies,” and we feel for their struggle and we want to know what their “outies” are like. Even the world outside Lumon is so strange and barren that we wonder what a “normal” life is really like. 

The show has plenty of other interesting questions and implications that I ponder and roll over in my head constantly. Lumon is a company that is so big it is a part of everyone's lives (Amazon, anyone?), to the point where it has somehow elevated beyond a typical company to something that feels closer to a religion. Its CEOs are gods, the employee handbooks are bibles. They actively work to make their severed employees buy into what they are doing, yet they have no idea how their jobs affect the world. Even the management, who appear to be unsevered, have such a strange relationship with the company. There is a cult-like aspect to the work culture. It feels so strange, yet very possible, making me question how close our society is to some semblance of this story. 

Even the world that they create for their severed employees is endlessly fascinating, dangling potential waffle parties and dance breaks over their heads if they do well. As someone who has been a part of far too many work pizza parties, this hit a little too close to home. How do you keep your employees happy and docile when they have no conscious memories of being anywhere other than their job? How can you really reward people, and how are they punished? This is a creeping terror to much of what is going on, even with the facade of a happy healthy company.

For me, Severance brings up a lot of philosophical questions - ones we can never totally answer. I think a lot about Carl Jung’s theories on the collective unconscious. Somewhere in our brains we have to have some idea of what is going on right? Our subconscious must be trying to make us aware of how part of us spent our day. There are also the questions of identity. What makes us who we are? If there were two versions of us in totally different environments how would we change, and what parts of us would stay the same? The show deals with much of this, even giving us stories of love, loss, and community within the confines of an office space. 

With the news that Severance has been greenlit for a second season, we are all waiting with baited breath to know what will happen to our favorite characters. The show left off on a big cliffhanger making us wonder what the fallout is from all that occurred in season one. Will our workplace heroes be okay? What are they really working on? And why are there goats? Who knows how long we have to wait to find out. Maybe it would be better if we could just sever our brain and make that wait time snap by, but alas here I am waiting and hoping that I can find some other show to pass the time.