Severance

Every Time You Find Yourself Here, It’s Because You Chose To Come Back.

If I ever got the chance to time travel and experience a show for the first time again, it would be SEVERANCE. No doubt about it. I think it was the fastest I ever binged a show. From what I can recall, I watched it in one sitting - no skipping through "boring scenes”, no bathroom breaks, just watching episodes back to back overnight. By episode 9, I was so invested that my heart was beating out of my chest. I’d yell at my screen as if the characters could hear my warning messages.

A good person will follow the rules. A great person will follow himself.

Some describe the show as THE OFFICE meets THE MATRIX. It’s a sci-fi, drama that takes place in an office (though it’s not a typical office that the average office worker is familiar with).

Synopsis (according to Google): Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives; when a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs.

Dark comedy is my favorite genre/style. SEVERANCE hits the ball out the ballpark in that sense. It’s too funny and too dark, simultaneously. All the characters are fully fleshed out despite so many “truths” being hidden from the audience throughout the majority of Season 1. The world feels so real - and that’s a testament to the genius writing by Dan Erickson. (Fun fact: My jaw literally dropped at the cliffhanger at the end of episode 8)

Quitting would effectively end your life. I mean, in so much as you’ve come to know it.

Although it’s in extreme form, this show is a direct allegory to our modern world. I’m sure a lot of us have gone through (or are currently in) a phase where our sense of self is directly tied to our work. In SEVERANCE, each severed character has two lives: one life at work, one life outside of work. You essentially have two versions of yourself: your “innie” and your “outie”. When you’re inside the office, your life revolves around work - all you know is your work and your colleagues. On the other hand, when you’re outside, you have no idea what you do for work and how you spend 8 hours every Monday-Friday. Hence, it’s possible to have perfect (?) work-life balance - something that everyone desires nowadays. As the show progresses, we discover that every single severed character made this intentional choice to create distinction in order to escape their realities.

Led by Mark (Adam Scott), the Macro Data Refinement team work on organizing huge sets of numbers, but have no idea what they’re actually doing - what they’re actually working towards. And questions are not acceptable. You just do what you’re told, simple as that!

But Helly comes along and disrupts everything - she questions why they’re doing this work, why they have certain rules, and even attempts to leave (unsuccessfully). And this sparks a contagious curiosity amongst the team. All her colleagues begin their own journeys of self-discovery and a desire to know more about their “outies” and what happens in the real world.

Hell is just the product of a morbid human imagination. The bad news is whatever humans can imagine they can usually create.

One of my favorite movie quotes of all-time is from THE TRUMAN SHOW: “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented.” As humans, we are naturally inquisitive - able to think deeply and find reason in the things we do and the world we see. If we’re not able to do so, it’s likely that we are trapped, and being controlled, by an entity unknown to us. What’s more frightening than that?

If you’re in for a ride (+ eccentric music dance experiences and waffle parties), do yourself a favor and watch SEVERANCE now. Like right now. You can thank me later!