Apple TV Plus’ Severance offers a thrilling reminder of why we never want to return to the office
The new series from creator Dan Erickson and director Ben Stiller takes aim at the work/life balance.
TV Reviews Severance
A few minutes into the premiere of Severance, we see Mark Scout (Adam Scott) alone in his car, weeping uncontrollably. He eventually pulls himself together and goes inside the building where he works. He exchanges pleasantries with the security guard on duty and takes the elevator to his basement office. He closes his eyes, and a change immediately takes place as he reaches his floor. He’s now a new man… literally.
Mark works at Lumon Industries, in the macrodata refinement division, which is as meaningless as it sounds. A few years ago, he agreed to have his work and non-work memories permanently “severed.” This is true of all his coworkers, including Helly (Britt Lower), who we meet on her first traumatic day. She wakes up on top of a conference table with no memory of who she was before this moment. That’s the first of many great twists series creator Dan Erickson and director Ben Stiller deliver in Severance. Mark is the show’s protagonist, but Helly is the first character we see. Her disorientation and increasing horror set the tone for the nine-episode thriller. This is not a wacky workplace comedy. It’s an installment of The Twilight Zone that continues past the shock ending.
“Who are you?” are the first words Mark speaks. It’s part of Helly’s orientation, but the question also establishes the philosophical issues the series explores so well. The concept of “severance” is admittedly tempting: You’d commute to the office each morning without the looming dread of a busy day, annoying coworkers, and demanding bosses. Once you enter the workplace, you’ve immediately forgotten any outside, personal distractions that might hamper productivity.
Corporations would obviously benefit the most from this arrangement, and Erickson and Stiller quickly establish Lumon Industries as sinister. Mark’s duplicitous supervisor Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) and her righthand man Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) are disturbingly familiar villains. If Harmony had an outside life, it shriveled up and died long ago; all that remains is her fanatical devotion to Lumon. She’s the stern boss who doesn’t bother pretending, while Tillman’s Mr. Milchick is a soulless, empty suit with an aggressively fake smile. Despite his best efforts, carefully constructed no doubt over multiple corporate retreats, Milchick never seems fully human.
In her first scene, Helly is filmed from above. Her hair is disheveled and her legs splayed out on the conference table as if she’s been the victim of an assault, which is exactly what’s happened. This Helly didn’t consent to any of this. She’s a prisoner of her “Outtie’s” choices. “Outtie” is Lumon’s sickly cute terminology for an employee when they’re outside the office. The “Innie” clearly receives the short end of the stick: What would motivate your work self without the memory of your family or outside life in general? You don’t know if you’re putting kids through college or saving up for a tropical vacation. You never experience nights and weekends or even sleep. Lumon’s severed employees aren’t pursuing their passions, either, as the work is so tedious it almost feels deliberate. Why would anyone endure this for the sake of their “Outtie,” who’s technically another person entirely? Well, it’s not so easy to leave. “Innies” can submit resignation requests but their “Outtie” must approve them, and Helly’s “Outtie” is quite content with the current situation. There’s a chilling moment when Helly’s “Outtie” tells her through a pre-recorded message that she’s not a “person.” Only Helly’s “Outtie” is real.
Lower is a delight to watch as Helly, who moves through every scene like a caged animal. She recalls a modern version of Patrick McGoohan’s character from The Prisoner. She won’t be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered, either. You’re led to think that Mark is Helly’s Number 2, but he’s just as much as prisoner as she is. Helly responds to her living hell (yes, the name is probably intentional) the same as most of us would. She’s desperate to escape. Mark is more resigned to his fate, at least at first. He accepted this position out of desperation, which is why most people take bad jobs. There are no fools inside Lumon’s haunted house. We can appreciate the choices that brought them there. Perhaps we’ve made similar ones ourselves.
Severance’s entire cast is a symphony without a single off-note. Scott stands out as the series’ emotional anchor, and Tillman delivers a breakout performance as the office warden Milchick. John Turturro elevates the supercilious Irving, who constantly critiques Mark’s every move, and the always magnificent Christopher Walken gives an understated tragedy to Burt, the head of a mysterious division that almost produces something worthwhile. Also impressive are Jen Tullock as “Outtie” Mark’s skeptical sister Devon, and Zach Cherry as Dylan, who just wants his goddamn waffle party until he sees a glimpse of something greater.
Stiller directs all but three of the first season’s episodes, and it’s a stark change from his previous work. Severance’s deadpan humor is more like Being John Malkovich than Zoolander and Tropic Thunder. Stiller deftly balances absurd comic moments with genuine character development. When Harmony tells Mark that “a handshake is available upon request,” Stiller doesn’t settle for making that awkward corporate speak the punchline. Instead, he trusts Arquette to sell Harmony’s subtle discomfort when Mark takes her up on it. Stiller seems to have approached the scripts as if wondering “What if Hitchcock had directed The Office?” That’s just the start of the genre bending. Creepy office dance parties and disturbing visits to the “Break Room,” where employees are mentally broken, feel like scenes from a David Lynch movie. Yet, moments from Mark’s outside life play out like Noah Baumbach comedies with an undercurrent of The X-Files.
This review has studiously avoided major spoilers or plot twists. It’s best to start the journey without knowing the destination or the surprise stops along the way. If you’ve ever worked in a corporate environment, Severance might trigger unpleasant memories of feeling just as trapped as Helly—despite the fantastic premise, the series often feels a little too real. Like all the best sci-fi and social satire, Severance is our current reality, just dialed up to 11.
99 Comments
I do hope they give Arquette more than standard-villainess stuff to do, even if she will easily nail that. I thought that, working with Stiller, Escape from Dannemora made a case for Arquette in the top tier of working actors (I didn’t see The Act, but heard she was similarly great in it). Be a shame if they underuse her…just hoping guessing we will meet Harmony’s outtie as well, who will be very unlike her innie.
She starred in a Law & Order SVU episode years ago, and I’ve been in awe of her talent ever since.
I’m not sure how many epsiodes you’ve seen, but I feel like they already have.
I have been watching, I don’t understand the accent (or if she is in any way severed) but she’s fun to watch as always…more fun when she’s being queen b***ch of the mountain.
I signed up for the Apple One subscription to mainly have Apple Music. Getting Apple TV was a benefit and the more I read about the shows, the more I need to start watching them. I did start watching Ted Lasso while I was in the hospital recently, but it didn’t click right away. I mentioned this to someone last Saturday and she suggested giving it another chance. Got to make that $15 worth it
Mythic Quest!
I think there’s really no question now that MQ has surpassed Sunny of late in quality. Especially since we get much more Cricket on the new show. And of course, the greatest Nic Cage impersonator ever—playing an evil guy.
MQ is Day and McElhenney’s attempt at heartfelt humor without really trading off their bite, and it’s delightful. Always Sunny won’t be outmatched in satire, but as a comedy I love MQ way more.
I’m late to this conversation but I also feel like you should compare only Sunny seasons 1 & 2 with Mythic Quest. I love Sunny but they are on season 8 million right now and like beyond running on fumes. I just feel like you can’t compare that to a new show, with a lot of possibilities. But the first 2 seasons? So surprising and brilliant.
MQ is so great. I’m really hoping for a season 3!
It got renewed for season 3 AND season 4!
Woah, I missed that, great news!
Watching series like Ozark and The Handmaid’s Tale where there is a hammer of impending doom hanging over every minute of the program, Ted Lasso was a bright ray of sunshine, peppered with plenty of personal dark moments and character depth that I was unprepared for. Season 1 is superior to season 2 of Ted Lasso, but I encourage you to stay at it and finish the first two seasons.
Ted Lasso’s Christmas episode in Season 2 is so heart-warming, you’ll feel like you’re 12 years old again and watching a great show like Mr. Belvedere or Alf (etc.)
TBH I found that episode a bit too saccharine for my jaded tastes but maybe I was in a bad mood that day and I should give it another viewing.
Understandable, in which case perhaps the assistant coach’s LSD/Ecstasy-fueled episode would be more fun? 😀
I really enjoyed Season 1 of Ted Lasso, but I can’t bring myself to watch any more. It’s…too heart warming, I guess?
servant is really good, though i haven’t watched the newest season yet.
Yes, I love Servant. I have no idea what’s going on but I love it.
For All Mankind, Dickenson, and Mythic Quest are all good as well. They also have some good movies on there.
For All Mankind is terrific. Took about half of S1 to find it’s footing, and really became great in S2. Even though it’s about NASA and the moon, I find it’s got a lot in common with Mad Men and Halt and Catch Fire – it’s a show about adults at work, as American history matches on with and without them. Doesn’t sound exciting, But the writing is top notch. And like most of the shows on Apple TV, it just looks beautiful.
Mad Men is an apt comparison for For All Mankind. That show made me love Joel Kinnaman.
You should watch The Killing then.
I’d throw the first season of The Morning Show in there as well. Very good
I am not sure if this is a show that is available by other means but Suspicion just started last week and seems to be pretty good so far. The After Party waffles back and forth between good, ok and “why am I watching this” territory but I give it credit for trying something new and the cast is pretty fun when they are riffing together.
The Afterparty!! The Shrink Next Door is pretty good too.
Seconding all of the recommendations here; I subscribe to Apple TV a few months out of every year, but the content is never enough to keep me around. (The Velvet Underground documentary was really, really good, FWIW.) I’m an Apple News junkie, so I’ve been pondering the same package deal you have. But I still have 1000+ songs I downloaded in the good old days.Also, with all the people talking about Mythic Quest without mentioning her: Charlotte Nicdao is the secret to Mythic Quest’s magic. Full stop. Even though it’s McElhenney’s baby.
Charlotte is absolutely adorable even when she’s trying to be evil.
Am I the only person who does want to go back to the office (but won’t as long as it helps you get a horrible virus)? Otherwise, I literally talk to no one all day.
No.
…but won’t as long as it helps you get a horrible virus…This has literally always been the case. And it always will.Communicable diseases are communicated by…contact with other people. Doesn’t much matter where those other people are. Meningitis, influenza, strep, pink eye, etc. Some can kill you (but typically won’t).So I guess if you’re that afraid of even the hint of any risk that you might be exposed to some disease with a phenomenally low chance of causing serious harm, you’ll never leave your house again.Sucks to be you.
No. There’s a reason why I’ve been a freelancer primarily working from home the past 10 years.
i hope you’re the only one. Id probably rather lick the third rail than go back to an office.
I’m mostly jealous of people who have the space to work from home.
Same, my apartment sucks
But according to Pinterest, I could save space by putting an office under my stairs!
I don’t have stairs Pinterest, having stairs would imply that I have a whole entire floor of space and that I own the property so that I could demo under said stairs, you stupid bitch, Pinterest.
I’ve gone back. I hate working from home—-the office puts you in a mindset for work and the desk/chair is far more ergonomic then my setup at home.My commute is rather short though, so I definitely get why people wouldn’t want to go back.
I’ve been back at the office since about May 2020. Because of an ice storm, I was at home at the end of last week. It sucked. I couldn’t wait to go back. I hate working from home. Fucking hate it.
Each to their own, I suppose, but I’ve been working at home more-or-less solidly since 1997, and someone would have to literally double my salary to get me to go back.
It’s more uncomfortable working from home in terms of ergonomics, but I also can get up from my desk and do chores or take a nap which I can’t do at work. When you have a job where you’re not that busy like I do, there is nothing more depressing than being chained to a desk for eight hours a day. One can only surf the Internet for so long before you want to kill yourself. I do, however like a change of scenery so I can live with having a hybrid schedule.
yeah “do chores” lol
i will begrudgingly go back eventually but i’m loving being able to take my 9am meeting in bed. my podcast consumption has gone down dramatically, though.
I’m happy to be back, but we have some relaxed expectations of only being there if we have to be, so I can leave early as long as I keep up with my work. Then I leave my work and go home and don’t touch it again and I like that.
I haven’t worked from home at all – I’m an essential worker, and my work can’t be done outside of the office – so I don’t have it as a comparison, but I think I need to be in the office. I have ADHD and need a certain amount of external structure, which working at the office gives me.
If I’d been in an office with coworkers around and a boss who could actually see when I was working with other people to solve a very complicated problem, instead of just seeing the flaky interim steps, I might still have a job. Or I’d have picked up on his lack of management abilities and jumped teams.
I couldn’t wait. And now I’m back and…you’d probably think I hate it but I don’t. I missed it. I’m much more productive outside of my home environment. Home is home and work is work. I like the separation.
I love having an office, and look forward to the day when I can be joined there more than intermittently by colleagues. There are certain work things that just get done ten times quicker if you’re in the same room and can show things to people without a technological mediator.I don’t love the cost of the lease however, and when I have the means I’ll move from renter to owner as soon as possible. Just as with owning a home, I think companies past a certain age should own their place of business and be paying towards an asset rather than flushing that money down a hole.
My office is in “beta” mode where (fully vaccinated) folks can come in if they want on a completely voluntary basis. In general, I’m seeing a mix of folks who don’t have a good home office setup (e.g., new baby, bad wifi, small space with lots of roommates) and extroverts who are dying to talk to someone. So you’re definitely not the only one! For me right now going in one day a week has been the sweet spot – commuting remains a novelty rather than a hassle and it’s great to meet with some folks in person. I was going into the office four days a week pre-COVID and picture that will become 2-3 when we reach a “new normal,” but I also work on a team that is spread around the country with a boss in a different state, and an “agile” workspace where it’s near impossible to find a private space to make calls when it’s near capacity.
I’m of two minds. I don’t miss my coworkers. But my wife is in the medical field, so she’s gone all day and it’s just me and my dog. But I do long for some small, regular conversation.
Some people like it. My neighbor has the option and she likes the separation from her home life and being reasonably social (in masks while social distancing). For her, it’s also easier to focus and she gets more done. Me, to hell with all of that. I’ve been a remote employee for well over a decade, initially because the job was 100% travel, but over the years it moved more into remote work from home. Then, obviously, the pandemic hit and it went from about 10% travel to 0. I kinda miss being on the road, but commuting to an office every goddamn day sounds like a little slice of hell.
Some people have more distractions at the office. Others have more distractions at home. 90% of the people who want to go back to the office have multiple young children at home.
You are not. I just returned to the office at my request about a month ago, after about a year and a half at home. I never loved it; though I did like the convenience a lot, by the last 3 or 4 months or so I was losing it. Completely immobile most of the time, smoking heavily (for me) all day, rarely seeing anyone or anything else other than my cats and apartment. It just didn’t work for me.
This is a large part of the reason I subscribe heavily to the anti-work movement. I find it horribly depressing that people are so unhappy in life after work that they’d rather work and make money for other people than get more of it to themselves.
What counts as an office job? Most of us don’t have offices and actually do real work, so we really don’t have any sympathy for these whinings.
Ive been back in the office 4/week since August and my life has drastically improved. Honestly, I think most people will return to the office and will suddenly realize how important work-life separation is.
Nope! It definitely works best for the ways in which I’m neurodivergent.
I hear you. I’m also an extrovert stuck at home. But I kind of want to have it both ways? I want to be able to work in my pjs half of the week but also go into the office and not have my whole life confined to my studio apartment
excited for this one even though adam scott is looking weird these days.
Weird how? Like his face is kinda adjusting itself or something? I’ve noticed something slightly off myself.
I thought the same thing–I noticed in that Parks & Rec reunion show his face looked subtly different, like maybe he lost weight and had his eyelids lifted. I was concerned he was sick but he doesn’t *seem* sick.
probably just the standard hollywood touch up stuff that makes someone look like they crawled out of the uncanny valley
He looked like he lost a LOT of weight a while back. Usually that’s not a great sign for a guy who was already pretty thin, unless he’s doing it for a role.On the other side of things, well….
Maybe he and Mulaney spent a little too much time together.
McElhenney looks kinda creepy when he’s super swole too, though
i noticed it in mid 2020 he looks like he had a facelift.
He now looks like he’s being played by Tig Notaro.
That made me laugh way too hard!
I just accepted a new job for quite a bit more money and opportunity for advancement, but it means giving up my comfortable work from home, flexible hours schedule, for 9 to 5 in an office. I’m elated and terrified. I will not be watching this show.
I had to go back to a dysfunctional office full of people I don’t like. I won’t be watching this show either. But it sounds amazing.
I feel for ya. At least my new job promises to be interesting, while the old one was getting pretty monotonous, even with flex time. These two years (!) of pandemic working from home really taught me that all of my previous problems with my previous employers all stemmed from being forced to comply with corporate mandates about being on site on time and having to at least pretend to look busy for 8 hours. If I could “sever” the time it takes to get up early, get ready, fight traffic and drive in, and ignore a bunch of co-workers at the coffee machine, I might do it.
Working in-office does give some structure to the day, and helps me separate work from home, but man, the ‘present’ requirement really grates on me. And my job is very cyclical, so there are times when I have nothing to do. That’s when I resort to cleaning cupboards, because I’m required to be there during certain hours, even if work is non-existent.
the thing about the office version of a person and the off duty version being at odds with each other, sort of like 2 seperate people, reminds me of Total Recall. Like the scene where Memory erased Arnold is watching a video of his previous self, and that version is an asshole who totally put memory erased Arnie in a shitty spot.
yeah it’s a good bit, too. i don’t know if i WOULD, but i understand the appeal of selling yourself out like that.
It’s a bit of a spin on the old “would you get along with your own clone” trope.
i don’t know, the idea of being basically unconscious 8 hrs a day while still interacting with people scares me. And you’d still need a normal night’s sleep, right? It seems like you’d spend very little of the day being conscious, actually being YOU.
I think that says more about how our society views work more so than anything. Maybe if we didn’t _work_ for most of our adult life it wouldn’t be such a terrifying proposition.
Sounds like a cross between Snow Crash and that Christian Slater series (My Own Worst Enemy) with the dual personalities.
sorry, ive heard of them but havent read or seen either one.
A better PKD connection is A Scanner Darkly, in which (IIRC) the lead is an undercover DEA(-ish) agent who, when he’s at the office, has his mind wiped of which person he is when he’s undercover, which gets weird when he watches films of himself being undercover with the faces blurred out for security reasons.
I have to get a procedure done every year (a check up to do with oesophageal cancer ) thats uncomfortable enough that I have to be sedated . The sedation messes with your memory storage (basically you’re conscious but really relaxed , a bit loopy , and you dont actually remember anything ).After it you’re left to get some rest while it wears off .At some point I worked out that the effect lasted long enough while I’m in recovery , and I found I’d started leaving voicemails for myself , which when I first found them was weird as hell.I mean nothing crazy , but its damn weird hearing yourself having a chat with a future you that has no memory of it.*(aaaand I’ve just realised that I’ve described being roofied)
G/O Media’s Severance offers a thrilling reminder of why we never want to relocate our officeFixed that for ya
I’m pleasantly surprised that this is good. It looked like it was going to be like Upload: high concept, nearly arriving at something interesting but not quite. Now I’m actually looking forward to it.
It isn’t entirely a departure for Ben Stiller. The Cable Guy might have been promoted as some light Jim Carrey vehicle, but it was also a creepy thriller about an obsessive person who just defines himself from TV characters to make up for his own emptiness.
I have a soft-spot for absurdist dark comedy set in office environments. One of the best examples I’ve seen is ‘Corporate’, which made me feel very happy and very sad at the same time.
Corporate is so great. I just re-watched it all again and I can’t believe how great it is. I wish it would have been able to go into the pandemic but they were just barely able to secure a 3rd season at all.This is the highest praise I can give a show – it’s a solid continuation of the feel/world of Better Off Ted.
It’s sort of the nightmare shadow world of ‘Better Off Ted’, where there are no good people to offset the darkness.One of my favourite ‘Corporate’ moments is Christian DeVille telling a long, repetitive joke about a man ruining all his marriages with adultery before finally dying, as he’s ostensibly toasting John’s marriage. It’s so surreal and menacing.
incredible show can’t wait to see what that team does next. hopefully whatever it is is soon.
This show is more straight up sci fi with a sprinkling of dark comedy, in my opinion
I’m glad that it seems like they do something interesting with this one. Satires of offices can be a lot of fun, but sometimes it’s just “something something soul-sucking something something late capitalism,” y’know?
For me, the real star of the show is the building. It’s the previous home of Bell Labs in Holmdel NJ. I loved working in that building and it’s both heartwarming and sad to see it again. It had three restaurants, a bank, movie rental, dry cleaners, and the most wonderful library of technical documents.I would wander the halls during lunch just to peek in the rooms and see wondrous things. Once, I saw a blue laser, just as bright in mid air as a light saber. There was a vast computer room with 50 VAX 11/785s, each named for one of the states. When returning from lunch once, I saw Akio Morita, chairman of Sony, waling down the sidewalk by himself, arriving to give a talk. I attended a talk by Bjarne Stroustrup introducing his new language, C++.There’s a pair of glass elevators on each end that gave an epic view of the place. On some days, that road that bisects the cooling pond out front would have a limo sitting there for hours. Eventually, a helicopter would land and deliver the director of the Labs, and the limo would risk him away to his office on the top floor. Excessive.A strange touch that the show provides is the CGI snow-capped mountains in the exterior shots. Reality is that the Holmdel area is flat as a pool table.The water tower is real, it’s supposed to look like a transistor, but I think the logo on it is CGI. I miss that place.
WOW! I just said to my wife as we were watching episode 2 last night “there’s no way this building is real, right? It must be CGI or something making this space look so vast.” Incredible! Those shots of the lobby are just wow.
Two episodes in, and I am LOVING this so far. I didn’t realize how much I missed sci-fi stories/TV shows that make you wait for answers.No, Westworld doesn’t count. I guess I’ll be similarly disappointed if this has a similarly underwhelming ending.
Strong agree. And as Stephen points out, the cast is PHENOMENAL. Arquette in episode 1 is brilliant. Tillman is equally fantastic in episode 2. Britt Lower is a stand out in both episodes. Can’t say enough good things about this so far.
It reminds me of some of the shorter, high concept sci-fi stuff written in the seventies that I’ve read. None of it got especially famous, but I still remember the feelings/vibes if not the actual titles.I thought there’d be a new episode today and I was bummed to see it wasn’t coming until March 4.
That’s only a week, why the impatience? We’ve gotten 3 episodes (including the two ep premier).
“In her first scene, Helly is filmed from above. Her hair is disheveled and her legs splayed out on the conference table as if she’s been the victim of an assault, which is exactly what’s happened.”I watched the first episode and was thankful that the scene didn’t play out how the reviewer described it. I would say her positioning is more like the chalk outline of a murder victim than an assault victim. That would make more sense, as her outside life is now dead to her.I haven’t watched episode two yet, but it’s really interesting so far.
The prominent emphasis on the use of outmoded office and personal tech at first felt distracting to the narrative and counterintuitive to the basic premise. But I suspect the entire town is actually a corporate built isolated exurb where all the local residents, unwittingly or not, are under Lumon’s grip. All the vehicles seemed pristine late 20th century models, even the EMT/police’s. Beyond pagers and early flip phones, there’s a total absence of modern wireless digital technology, e.g. only CRT displays and wired analog devices. It appears to be an application to chaos theory, in which Lumon is run by an AI corporate board based on an amalgamation of the prior CEOs’ personas, with cyborgs like Milchick and company spokesperson Natalie acting as its face. The office complex is one regional research headquarters running small control group experiments on severed subjects who’s neurological input is used to keep specific AI algorithms of the constantly evolving human psyche current.
Hence Petey’s macabre warnings to Mark that some Lumon employees are held prisoner after the severance procedure or the WMC’s objections to its application in childhood education. It clearly needs a continuous variety of sources beyond the static, 9-to-5 white collar office environment. But even there archaic hardware is strictly employed to filter out as many unnecessary variables and noise from that greater symbiotic beast we call The Internet.
No need for a boss key.
“The break room.” Because they break you. Oh. Oh my god.
Watching the first episode and: a) it is fantastic, b) it is DIFFICULT to watch (as I’ve had more than my share of soul-crushing jobs/bosses), and c) I am definitely getting that Ben Stiller “Permanent Midnight” vibe from this. Nice.