Severance

Do you want to forget about your job?

(* this text contains spoilers)

In the 90s movie Office Space, fed up with his work, the main character Peter says to a hypnotist: “I was hoping that maybe you could sort of zonk me out so that I’m not aware that I’m even at work. Like, I come home and I think I’ve been fishing all day or something.”

Inspired by the 90s movie, or not, that's precisely what Severance is about. Creator and writer Dan Erickson says the inspiration comes from his own life-sucking corporate jobs he had in LA:

“At one of them, I found myself wishing that I could jump ahead to the end of the day. I wanted to disassociate for the next eight hours. I thought, ‘That’s a messed up thing to wish for. We should want more time, not less,’” he told The Seattle Times.

Severance, the new darling series from 2022, shows a dystopian not-so-far-future where people would be able to do just that. Go through a brain procedure that allows for complete separate memories between work and private life.

When in the office, a person does not remember anything other than being at the office. So too, when being out of work, the same person doesn't remember what happened to him at work. Therefore, in one mind there are two beings with totally different perceptions and memories, but still codependent.

As you can imagine it generates problems. It is as if there were 2 of you and one of them was always stuck at the office.

And what an office they have in Severance.

What the hell am I doing here?

I know you've probably asked the same question at work before. However, this show takes this common worry one step further.

The story starts with an unknown woman seeming to have no memory whatsoever, waking up and finding herself locked up in a meeting room.

Through her confusion, the series slowly starts to explain what is happening. She learns her name is Helly and finds herself stuck in this place, an office, where she has to do tasks that don't make sense and to no particular end. She cannot leave and she can't communicate with her outside self. Maybe that's a criticism of modern jobs? I'm not sure… Just kidding, of course, it is.

The series’ main point is: how would it feel to be locked up in your job for your whole life? Especially, if you have no idea of what you are doing all day and to what end.

Work as a cult

The “solution" the company has found to keep the workers minimally satisfied is to create an idea that they are part of a greater purpose. There is a religious undertone with the family that owns the company being treated as saviors.

It's an interesting criticism of the idolatry many CEOs and billionaires receive. Also how for many people, a job isn’t just a job anymore. One survey found that 42% of respondents defined themselves through work, and this was even higher for people under 40.

In fact, things that you would normally consider culture-positive and rewarding at work, such as having access to restaurants, gyms, and other amenities at the same place you work, actually keep you at work longer.

The dancing scene, maybe the best of the show

In this Harvard Business Review, Manfred Kets de Vries says that usual perks and increased association with companies curdle into the sort of exploitation, isolation, and groupthink found in cults.

The series presents a cult-like vibe and religious undertones, with paintings of the family and a whole museum dedicated to them. Still, the first season does not expose the purposes behind those who created the company; or willingly worked there. They left it for next season, which for me was a disappointment.

Amazing photography and aesthetics

Everything in the photography and scenario seems to tell a story and is full of symbolism. The change of lens makes the actor look different while he goes up or down the elevator.

It visually tells that something happens in the elevator before the story tells it so. The elevator is where the worker’s memory change from the outside conscious to the inside and vice-versa.

Everything is symmetrical, to mimic the split lives the characters are living. The lights are entirely white and cold everywhere mimicking office light, except for the main character’s Mark sister's house. It seems to be also the only place he feels well.

Jeff Sheldon @ugmonk

Every frame from Severance is perfection 😍 This show better win all the awards.

All the clothes are blue-ish and green, matching the office decor, and playing with the idea of cold colors. Both environments outside and inside are cold, probably a metaphor for Matt's life.

I could go on and on about all the little visual details this series plays with. There are lines on the ceiling pointing to characters and directions. When the camera shows Helly's name, she usually inadvertently covers her name spelling Hell. The confusing white corridors in the office can mean being lost or confused as the workers are...

Ben Stiller, who is also the executive director, usually directs the episodes. He did a great job. Severance is a hit with critics and viewers alike, it is innovative and uses some of the anti-work feelings we are living through. It also has this mystery behind it that keeps us watching, in hopes of solving it.

Apple TV+ wants you

My main criticism is that it just takes too long to solve some of the mysteries. They are mostly left for the last episode. By then, we start to understand all the characters, and suddenly: "it's over, come back for season 2".

Of course, Apple wants us to be hooked and wait for more. They don't have as many subscribers as most other streaming platforms and need to keep users wanting more, so they pay longer and don't unsubscribe.

Still, it seems quite on the nose. It's 9 episodes where you are mostly completely blind about the backstory of most characters and then when you are starting to grasp a little bit, it's over.

Worse of all, as I said before we are still completely blind to the reasons the company leaders do things the way they do and the motivations behind their boss Ms. Corbel. Who is not severed and is conscientiously working there.

Because of that, this character seems a little bit cartoonish. Just a crazy old, lady, doing bad things.

All and all, it's a worth-watching show, but in the end, it felt a little bit like a teaser, not a whole story. I guess we have to wait for season 2.

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What to read?

Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman. What if the homeless, orphans, and anyone that fell between the cracks of society actually lived in a parallel world? Using his world-building abilities Neil Gaiman develops a whole fantastical underground world under the city of London.

He contrasts the upwards London and the underground London as living in the normal world (9-5 job, apartment, long-term relationship) or choosing to live with imagination and around "strange” people.

What to watch?

Office Space (1999). Peter has a job that he hates coding bank software in an office cubicle. One day his girlfriend takes him to a hypnotist, and something inside him changes. He starts not caring about his job and acting like it.

As a result, he does cathartic things that anyone who has ever worked would love to do. My favorite scene is them destroying the printer.

What to binge?

Homecoming (Amazon Prime). It has quite a similar vibe to Severance. It also happens in a sinister company the mysterious Geist Group, an unconventional wellness company, and with their equally unorthodox program, the Homecoming Initiative.

Heidi Bergman (Julia Roberts) has worked there as a social worker. She also cannot remember what happened to her in the company but will be able to do so as we follow her throughout the season.