In a decade of stellar television, “Severance” was a true golden goose. Released in 2022 by Apple TV+, the show was produced by Ben Stiller and new writer Dan Erickson. When originally made, it focused on two questions: “What if you had no memories of work at home?” and “What if you had no memories of home at work?” This simple idea transformed into one of the greatest shows of the 2020s.
“Severance” focuses on the lives of “severed” workers at the fictional company of Lumon; regular people who have chosen to keep their work and outside lives separate by undergoing surgery to add a mind-splitting device in their brains. This essentially creates two different people within one, a person who works in Lumon, fittingly called an “innie”, and the regular person out of work, called an “outie.”This means neither person crosses memories with the other, due to the mysterious and important nature of the work being done at this extremely secretive company.
The show primarily centers on the life of Mark Scout (Adam Scott), who became a severed worker to cope with the death of his wife. The series begins as he starts to question the work that is being done inside Lumon, especially after his innie co-worker on the outside reveals strangely personal details about Mark – things even he doesn’t know himself.
Scott is joined by a loaded cast of experienced actors like John Turturro, Patricia Arquette and Christopher Walken alongside many lesser-known standouts such as Zach Cherry, Tramell Tillman and Dichen Lachman. The series masterfully balances Mark’s innie and outie lives by fleshing out both sides of Mark’s life with their own developed plot lines and serious dilemmas that both Marks need to face in their own unique ways.
Season 1 was a bit of a surprise hit, receiving raving reviews from critics in the very beginning but taking a year for audience viewership to pick up. Since then, the “Severance” train has shown no signs of stopping. With Season 1 focusing on building out the world of Lumon and the lives of those around it, Season 2 was able to further develop beautifully. The show spreads its metaphorical wings this season by focusing on several different genres and incorporating new and exciting cinematography, providing some of the best television of the past decade.
While it was already a critically acclaimed show, it managed to become even better and more complex in its second season, primarily thanks to more complex world-building. The show’s world was rather mysterious in Season 1, with very few clues spread throughout the offices of Lumon. Viewers learned mainly through the conversations of the innies and outies, which proceed to become even more complex in the latest season.
Picking directly up from a massive cliffhanger in the first season, Season 2 begins with the innies recuperating from a major operation, intending to implement changes in their treatment within Lumon. Season 2 continues by following the group going through changes and fighting towards the ultimate goal of finding out what Lumon is really using severed workers for.
Both the outies and innies go through strenuous trials and tribulations, each focusing on different parts of life, helping establish these characters and their motivations. Audiences learn about Mark’s past, focusing on his life before his wife died. Viewers see how Dylan George (Zach Cherry) found himself at Lumon and his family outside. More information is developed about the severance procedure and what Lumon is truly using the workers for.
While every actor in this show truly pulls their weight, Tramell Tillman had a surprising stand-out performance in Season 2. Tillman’s Seth Milchick perfectly personified the true difficulties of people of color working in white-majority office spaces, dealing with countless microaggressions and constant belittlement from his superiors. His arc throughout the season focuses on his struggles to understand his place at this strange company and his future with an employer that doesn’t respect him. This comes at odds with his innate loyalty and positive characteristics, a side that was not really explored in the first season.
Finally, it is impossible to praise this show without discussing its opening. While the theme, written and produced by Theodore Shapiro, remained the same, the animation was further developed, providing more easter eggs to the coming season and giving audiences even more intriguing things to learn about.
“Severance” truly is the show that has no haters, with the only drawback of the show being that it is on a subscription service nobody uses. It falls into that category of television that cannot truly be binged, but rather digested, over time, to properly understand and reel in the sheer grandeur of the show’s world. It is a show that requires thinking, but understanding the show in all its entirety provides an experience worth seeing, even if just once.
