‘Severance’ – 4 Things To Know About The Apple TV+ Show
Apple TV+’s series Severance is returning this week. It’s getting a lot of attention, rightfully: it’s an interesting and thought-provoking show. Executive produced by Ben Stiller (who directed some of the episodes), it stars Adam Scott (formerly of Parks and Recreation), Zach Cherry (who made memorable appearances in Marvel films Spider-Man: Homecoming and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Britt Lower (Unforgettable), and John Turturro as officemates, in a very strange office.
They work for a biotech company called Lumon. Without getting too in the weeds, the premise of the show is: when they enter the office, they forget their life outside of the office. When they leave the office, they have no memory of what happens in the office, or even what they actually do there. (Although even the personas inside don’t seem to understand what it is that they’re doing.)Their personalities have, in effect, been “severed.” They refer to their “Innie” and “Outie” selves as, essentially, separate people. But it brings up interesting conversations: would you rather have this type of existence to make your professional life easier? And if so: do the “Innies” have any rights? If the “Outie” version of a person quits, they are, effectively, killing their “Innie” self, who ceases to exist when they leave the building.
Here are four other things to know about the show.
Severance Isn’t Really Funny
Given Ben Stiller’s involvement with the show, not to mention that the cast includes Adam Scott, one might expect it to be a comedy. It’s not, although there are occasional funny moments. They mostly make fun of the insane situation that they are in. They also sometimes poke fun at the absurdity of offices.
Severance Isn’t Episodic
It isn’t an “adventure of the week” show. Like many series of the past few decades, you really kind of need to see all of the episodes, in order, to know what’s going on. Apple TV+, unlike Netflix, drops the episodes once a week (and if you have the app on your phone, you can get a push notification to remind you that a new episode is available). This show is certainly binge-able, but it also benefits from having a week to mull on every episode and to discuss it with your friends who also watch. Which brings us to our next point…
You Probably Want To Watch Severance Season 1 Before Watching Season 2
There’s a lot to catch up on. Apple has posted a two-minute recap, which you can watch below, that gives you an overall sense and feel for the show. But if you haven’t seen season one (or even if you have), there are some great recaps on YouTube that will take you on a deeper dive. We recommend this one.
Severance Is Worth Your Time If You Like Heady Science Fiction
Like many of Apple’s shows, it has short seasons — season one had nine episodes, season two will have ten — but it’s a high quality, well-written show, like other Apple progams Ted Lasso, The Morning Show, Bad Monkey and Shrinking. However, a better comparison might be Apple’s sci-fi shows, which aren’t sci-fi in the traditional sense (there aren’t ray guns, or aliens), like Silo and Dark Matter.
