Severance: A Toxic Work Dystopia And Fascinating Look At Identity
Severance on Apple TV+ is superb. It looks ever so pretty, has a great cast, and tackles some fascinating themes relating to identity, split personalities, corporate control, grief, work-life balance, and general weirdness. Warning – there be spoilers ahead!
It is structured as a slow burn that builds throughout each of the two series, and while that might put some off, it works brilliantly.
The basic premise of Severance
Most people have jobs they dislike or put up with or mostly just tolerate. There is a balance between getting paid, and the tedium of work – especially office work. So what if there was a place that paid you a lot where you didn’t remember the work bit? The idea of Severance is that a secretive company called Lumon does just that.
Those who work there undergo a medical procedure where a chip is put in their head that severs work persona (nicknamed ‘Innies’) and outside personas (‘outies’). What happens is that the outie turns up to work and on the journey down in the escalator the severance happens and the innie takes over. That is reversed when they go back up at the end of the day.
The innies and outies have no memory of each other or what they are like. The innies are essentially born in the office, and the outie has no idea what work the innie is doing. (Although the innies don’t know either.)
It’s a simple idea that seems fun and intriguing at first but soon gets pretty distopian when the scenario plays out.
The cast is superb and the plot is mostly character driven
The cast includes Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Zach Cherry, Tramell Tillman, and Dichen Lachman. Which is pretty damned stellar. It was created by Dan Erickson and is also primarily directed by Ben Stiller, which I’ll admit surprised me given the type of show it is, but full credit to Mr Stiller.
Having such a talented cast is pretty crucial as some of them need to play two characters each – the innie and the outie. From the moment they are severed, personalities diverge. This split, what it causes them to do and how that effects the outies (and vice versa) is one of a lot of themes running through the show.
What are some of these themes?
The horror of being an innie
I didn’t really think about it at first, but soon realised being an innie is horrific. You are trapped at work and have no downtime. To make things worse, you don’t know what the job is and all the management seem to be a blend of terrifying and odd. Does it count as slavery if you are doing it to yourself? To make it worse, if the outie quits, the innie essentially dies. Helly R even tries to kill herself to send a message – which is ignored.
Dual and diverging entities
This is a fascinating look at how we are the sum of our experiences. The innies are different people from the outies. For example, innie Dylan is confident and good at his work to the point his outie’s wife is attracted to him. Mark is grieving the loss of his wife on the outside, but on the inside, he is falling for Helly and doesn’t feel sad. Irving and Burt are similarly in love, but their outies lead different lives. The divergence of the innies from the outies is ultimately shown at the end of season two and the decision Mark and Helly make.
Corporate control and dehumanisation
Lumon is a weird place to work and everyone involved is odd and vaguely scary. This isn’t just about the fact that the staff don’t even know what they are doing, it is the whole culture. Waffle days and marching bands and so on. There is a room where people look after goats. The art is kind of cool while being a bit ominous. Then there is the whole cult aspect where everyone is supposed to treat the founder as some kind of deity. Given there is no escape, life inside is dominated by Lumon and its goals.
Work-life balance comes at a high price
The idea of turning up to work and then – from your point of view – immediately finishing, is pretty appealing. But what about the innie? You can convince yourself you might be enjoying the work, but when they make videos asking for freedom and even threaten to cut off fingers or kill themselves, most people might rethink things. But not always. It is a cool idea. I have written articles for clients that were so dull to do, having an innie do it for me is highly appealing. However, if the innie begged me to stop, I probably would. However, the characters all have motivations to keep the status quo and it’s fascinating watching it play out.
Final thoughts – I meant to review Severance but talking about its themes was fun
If you want a review of Severance – it’s bloody great. I was going to write a full review but I started thinking about what I was going to say, and it was easier and more fun to discuss the themes. I didn’t really go into any depth, but these are more conversation starters. I don’t seem to have many friends watching the show, so this my version of having a stoned conversation at the end of a party.
I really enjoyed the show and so did others – you should check out their approval ratings. The good news is that season three has been officially renewed.
Praise Kier!