O.M.G. Brilliant, anxiety-inducing, nine-episode first season. Seriously, possibly worth subscribing to Apple’s streaming service just for this show?
TL;DR: “Severance”, in this world, is a surgical and memory-editing procedure that allows one to essentially become two, disjoint personalities living in one body. A severed person has an “outie” (the personality that volunteered for the procedure, and who remembers doing so) and an “innie” (the cored-out personality that has no memories of who they were before severance). Innies exist to work. Outies enjoy the fruits of their labor. Outies trade a daily, weekday memory gap for money they don’t remember earning. Maybe a good deal for the outies? Not so great for the poor innies.
The innies we see all work office jobs of various sorts for a mysterious, apparently large and powerful company called Lumon. Our first look at life within Lumon is from the viewpoint of a newly “recruited” innie, Helly, who wakes up alone on a conference table in an empty room. From her first moments, the dystopian 1980s office vibes are strong. (I’ve read that the Lumon office building scenes were filmed in an old Bell Labs building in New Jersey.)
Helly’s job, she’s told, is to “refine data” — which she does by staring at a matrix of numbers on an old-fashioned CRT screen, and trying to find and remove “anomolies”. She’s not told what the numbers — which all jiggle like jello — represent, nor what “refining” them actually does. Her three coworkers aren’t able to shed light either; none of them know, but they all have various and often implausible theories.
When Helly tires of this and tries to leave, she finds that she literally can’t. Or more accurately, she can physically leave the office floor, but in doing so she becomes her outie, who immediately walks her back in. Eventually, her outie records a video message for her, saying essentially, “I’m a person, you’re not. So suck it up and do your job.”
It’s quickly apparent that innies are slaves. Their office is run like a prison, and while punishment for not toeing the company line isn’t physical, it’s emotionally and psychologically brutal. It’s also quickly apparent that Lumon is cultlike, possibly an actual cult. It’s also American white collar corporate culture seen through Alice’s looking glass — familiar and outre at the same time.
Solving the mystery of what the hell Lumon is doing, as well as unfolding personal mysteries of the four major characters, was riveting TV for our family. I don’t want to give any spoilers! The cast is strong and their performances are what you’d hope from stalwarts like Patricia Arquette, John Turturro and Christopher Walken, but all of them are great really. I especially love the character of Mark, played by Adam Scott (who fans of “The Good Place” will remember as Bad Place demon Trevor). The soundtrack is delightfully moody and often low-key creepy.
Very compelling, brilliant show. And I can’t wait for season 2!
TL;DR: “Severance”, in this world, is a surgical and memory-editing procedure that allows one to essentially become two, disjoint personalities living in one body. A severed person has an “outie” (the personality that volunteered for the procedure, and who remembers doing so) and an “innie” (the cored-out personality that has no memories of who they were before severance). Innies exist to work. Outies enjoy the fruits of their labor. Outies trade a daily, weekday memory gap for money they don’t remember earning. Maybe a good deal for the outies? Not so great for the poor innies.
The innies we see all work office jobs of various sorts for a mysterious, apparently large and powerful company called Lumon. Our first look at life within Lumon is from the viewpoint of a newly “recruited” innie, Helly, who wakes up alone on a conference table in an empty room. From her first moments, the dystopian 1980s office vibes are strong. (I’ve read that the Lumon office building scenes were filmed in an old Bell Labs building in New Jersey.)
Helly’s job, she’s told, is to “refine data” — which she does by staring at a matrix of numbers on an old-fashioned CRT screen, and trying to find and remove “anomolies”. She’s not told what the numbers — which all jiggle like jello — represent, nor what “refining” them actually does. Her three coworkers aren’t able to shed light either; none of them know, but they all have various and often implausible theories.
When Helly tires of this and tries to leave, she finds that she literally can’t. Or more accurately, she can physically leave the office floor, but in doing so she becomes her outie, who immediately walks her back in. Eventually, her outie records a video message for her, saying essentially, “I’m a person, you’re not. So suck it up and do your job.”
It’s quickly apparent that innies are slaves. Their office is run like a prison, and while punishment for not toeing the company line isn’t physical, it’s emotionally and psychologically brutal. It’s also quickly apparent that Lumon is cultlike, possibly an actual cult. It’s also American white collar corporate culture seen through Alice’s looking glass — familiar and outre at the same time.
Solving the mystery of what the hell Lumon is doing, as well as unfolding personal mysteries of the four major characters, was riveting TV for our family. I don’t want to give any spoilers! The cast is strong and their performances are what you’d hope from stalwarts like Patricia Arquette, John Turturro and Christopher Walken, but all of them are great really. I especially love the character of Mark, played by Adam Scott (who fans of “The Good Place” will remember as Bad Place demon Trevor). The soundtrack is delightfully moody and often low-key creepy.
Very compelling, brilliant show. And I can’t wait for season 2!
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