I love science-fiction, and while I enjoy the spaceship and superhero shows, I always prefer the more cerebral, "Twilight Zone" concepts. "Severance," created by Dan Erickson, has a lot in common with the recent "Counterpart," as it involves multiple versions of its characters, and centers around a mysterious bureaucratic organization. Unlike "Counterpart," which was patterned after an espionage thriller, "Severance" is more of a black comedy and satire of corporate culture. It also has a much stronger set of characters.
Severance is a procedure that allows a person's conscious existence to be split into parts. After being hired by the sinister Lumon corporation, and going through a surgical procedure, an employee's consciousness at work and their consciousness outside of work are separated. "Innies" have no idea what their lives are like outside of the office, and from their perspective they never get to leave. "Outies" have no idea what goes on in Lumon, only experiencing the parts of the day outside the office. Our main characters are the four employees of the Macrodata Refinement department, newly promoted Mark (Adam Scott), new hire Helly (Britt Lower), the most senior employee Irv (John Turturro), and talkative, laid-back Dylan (Zach Cherry). They're closely monitored by their supervisor, Milchick (Tramell Tillman), and non-severed boss, Cobel (Patricia Arquette).
The Lumon offices are a Kafkaesque nightmare world of maze-like hallways, outdated office equipment, and windowless, overbright rooms. The work is all done on computer terminals, heavily coded, so that it's impossible to understand what is actually being "refined." Employees are encouraged to work for inane incentives like finger traps and dance parties, with disturbing disciplinary options if they cause trouble. Lumon's work culture is revealed to be more and more cult-like as the season progresses, under the control of the mysterious Eagan family. The Innies are all curious as to what the outside world is like, but have a warped sense of reality due to their circumstances. Each episode reveals a little more about their weird little bubble, including encounters with other departments (who they are distrustful of), a museum-like Perpetuity Wing dedicated to the Eagans, and visits to Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman), the wellness counselor who recites comforting facts about their Outie lives.
We also follow Mark outside of the office. He's a recent widower, trying to move on with the help of his sister Devon (Jen Tulloch) and her husband Ricken (Michael Chernus), a wannabe self-help guru. Scenes outside of Lumon are far more grounded in the real world, gloomy and gray because most of them take place in a wintry suburb, usually at night. They're not as fun as the Lumon offices, where the main action is, but this is where some of the show's most important puzzle pieces are revealed, and a complementary slow-burn suspense story is quietly set up over the course of the season. Outie Mark grows increasingly uncomfortable with his involvement with Lumon, especially when a man named Petey (Yul Vasquez) shows up, claiming to be a former Lumon co-worker.
You could have played everything in "Severance" totally straight, as many of these mystery box shows do, but I think it's so compelling because of that streak of absurdity and dark humor. Many of the cast members, including Adam Scott and Zach Cherry, have been primarily comedic actors, and their ability to exist in that space between funny and horrific is key to the show's best moments. The mood can change on a dime, making the show wonderfully unpredictable. Another major contributor here is Ben Stiller, who directed six of the nine episodes, and knows how to build tension beautifully. There's a very "Twin Peaks" vibe to Lumon, where so many of the little workday rituals and processes are subtly off. You can tell the thin veneer of corporate niceness is hiding something very wrong with this picture.
More importantly, I think it's the show's ability to build up characters we care about, giving the mystery some effective stakes. The actors are terrific, with special kudos to Tramell Tillman, who I've never seen in anything before this, and makes Milchick instantly iconic with very little screen time. The Macrodata Refinement team starts out as a typical set of office sitcom types, and by the end of the season, the suspense has been ramped up to dizzying heights, and it's impossible not to root for them to overthrow their oppressors. The last episode in particular is one of the tensest episodes of television I've ever seen, and I would have been beside myself if we hadn't already been promised a second season.
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