Introduction
Every year a few television shows catch on like wildfire. Recent examples are FX/Hulu’s The Bear and Netflix’s incredible first season of 3 Body Problem. Before you can blink, there are GIFs and memes rampant across social media. However, because of the nature of the medium these days, not everyone has every single streaming service. Some fantastic shows take longer to carve out their audience. There is no greater example of this than the stunning and mind-bending Apple TV+ science-fiction/psychological thriller, Severance.
Created, written, and executive-produced by Dan Erikson, Severance is so good and so bizarre that one almost lacks the proper words to describe it. It’s certainly in the wheelhouse of Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and seems to also pay homage to the works of Franz Kafka. If Severance was streaming on Netflix right now, there is little doubt that this uniquely original series would have exploded into the mainstream right away. Regardless, viewers and critics have taken note and season two has finished filming and should be released late 2024 or early 2025.
Origins
In 2016, Severance started to generate some buzz for Erickson when it appeared on BloodList’s annual list of best-unproduced genre screenplays. The next year, Ben Stiller and his production company Red Hour Productions came across his script for the pilot. Erikson had submitted it to the production house as part of a sample of his work for consideration. Stiller spoke to Entertainment Weekly back in February about the show’s origins:
“We got Dan Erickson’s [pilot script] at our production company, and Jackie Cohn, who is our development executive, thought it was great, and she gave me the script…I read it and was like, “This is great. Is anybody trying to make this?” It just immediately jumped off the page to me…Cut to five years later, here we are”
Stiller and his team brought the script to Apple, who loved it. They asked Erikson to “write a bunch of scripts” Subsequently, Red House Productions and Apple set Erikson up and the writer started penning multiple episodes. The scripts were then reworked, the characters fleshed out, and the tone and pacing of the show further developed. All of this took time and patience. Then COVID hit.
Stiller and his team, about six weeks away from shooting, were getting the cast and crew into place, when in March 2020, everything suddenly was thrown into chaos. The COVID pandemic shut the production down until November 2020, with additional shutdowns to follow as well in the ensuing weeks and months. Stiller again spoke to Entertainment Weekly about overcoming these challenges:
“…it’s been a long and slow process, but every time we had to stop on this project, I think it only helped us in the creative process, because there were always questions we were trying to figure out the answers to…”
The Cast
Severance boasts an impressive ensemble cast that includes Adam Scott (Parks & Recreation), John Turturro (The Batman, Barton Fink), and Oscar-winner Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter, True Romance). Turturro stated that he had recommended Walken for the role of ‘Burt’ because Turturro and Walken had been friends and colleagues for decades, and wouldn’t have to “act” like they were friends on the show.
Fellow Oscar-winner Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) also has a significant role on the show, as does Yul Vazquez (The Outsider). Britt Lower (Man Seeking Woman) is the co-lead in Severance and her performance is absolutely volcanic. She is the show’s emotional core and dominates the screen. Jen Tullock (Before You Know It) and Micahel Chernus (Orange Is The New Black) also feature prominently.
The cast of Severance is rounded out by Dichen Lachman (The Hundred), the always fantastic Zach Cherry (Succession, Shang-Chi), and Tramell Tillman (Godfather of Harlem, Elementary). Special praise needs to be given to Tillman’s wholly creepy yet somewhat fatherly-like performance. Anytime he smiles in the show you immediately feel uncomfortable and tense.
Production
When Apple TV+ committed to ordering Severance to series, the original intention was to have Ben Stiller only directing the pilot episode. However, Stiller decided to direct a majority of the first season as the show entered its development phase. Irish director Aoife McArdle (Kissing Candice, Brave New World) directed three of the nine episodes, with Stiller directing the remaining six.
Filming on Severance commenced, somewhat, in November 2020, with the crew and cast having to deal with numerous COVID shutdowns. The opening scene of Helly (portrayed by Britt Lower) awaking on a conference room table, was filmed on January 6, 2021, the day rioters were inside the Capitol building in Washington D.C.
The majority of the action in Severance takes place inside the Lumon Industries building. In reality, this futuristic-looking structure is the iconic Bell Works building in Holmdel, New Jersey. Architect Eero Saarinen designed the building in 1958 and is the working environment for over 6,000 engineers and researchers. Erikson spoke to Inverse in February about the challenges the cast and crew had to face:
“There’s no question we made this show during a volatile time…What’s amazing is how much more relevant it became, as the lines between work and home life broke down…We started shooting the day after the 2020 election. We shot the opening scene, of Helly waking up on the table, on January 6th, with rioters inside the Capitol. There was always a pressure to tell a story that was relevant to a rapidly changing, increasingly uncertain world.”
Jeremy Hindle, a production designer on Severance is among those responsible for giving the show it uniquely futuristic yet retro look. Hindle credits shows and movies such as The Office and Fargo as having an influence on the office aesthetic. He was also influenced by Charlie Kaufman and Life magazines from the 1960s. Between the Kubrick-like exteriors and the futuristic/retro interiors, Severance makes the viewer feel off-kilter.
Visuals and Music
The opening credits sequence to Severance is stunning. It takes the viewer on a psychedelic, Dali-esque journey through Mark’s workday at Lumon, showing the struggle between his work life and home life. The CGI animated versions of Mark stumbling around like a young David Byrne are surreal. This unique vision comes via Oliver Latta, aka Extraweg, a Berlin-based artist.
Theodore Shapiro (Bombshell, The Devil Wears Prada) provides the brilliant piano-themed score for Severance. Much like Dave Grusin’s soundtrack for The Firm (1993), Shapiro’s stripped-down musical cues and themes are simple yet melodious. What Grusin did for Sydney Pollack, Shapiro does for Ben Stiller. His score matches Stiller’s nervous and precise direction perfectly, driving the plot forward.
The Story
The opening shot of Severance hovers over a woman that is lying unconscious on a conference-room table. The decor of the room is hideous, the carpet green. The only door in the room is locked, with a small speaker on the table. Soon a voice from the speaker asks her to complete a quick survey. Are we in hell? The woman is ‘Helly’ (Britt Lower). So begins our descent into this strange world.
In Severance, employees of the macro data refinement department of Lumon Industries are led by Mark Scout (Adam Scott). Members of this sector have voluntarily agreed to undergo surgery to “sever” the work and non-work portions of their brains. A chip is implanted into their brains, resulting in their non-work selves (“outies”) being completely separated from their corporate avatars (“innies”), who have no knowledge or connection to the outside world.
Mark Scout on the “severed” floor becomes Mark S. Helly is referred to as Helly R. Mark soon receives a promotion from his intimidating boss Mrs. Corbel (Patricia Arquette) who is accompanied by her second-in-command and floor supervisor, Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman). Mark is told he is taking over for his best friend at work Petey (Yul Vasquez) who is “no longer with the company.”
As soon as Britt Lower’s ‘Helly’ shows up as the new person taking Petey’s place, she starts to disrupt the status quo. Helly demands answers, doesn’t trust anyone, and wants out. Her actions soon start a chain of events that reverberates not only through the severed floor, but through all of Lumon Industries, Lower spoke to ScreenRant in February about that opening scene:
“What struck me about it is that she wakes up on an office table having no memory of who she is or what she’s doing there, and she’s immediately defiant, rebellious, and she knows in her gut that something is off about this place and immediately wants to escape. I love that in each episode, she escalates those escape attempts and essentially becomes this disruptor of the office status quo and calls in to question the nature of their work”
The Data Miners
The team of data miners also includes the apparent brains of the operation, Dylan (Zach Cherry), who frequently wins ridiculous prizes (finger traps, a waffle breakfast) for being productive. John Turturro plays ‘Irving’ who is the oldest member of the team. He’s uptight about rules and office policy but displays vulnerability and a yearning to love and share his feelings. Enter Christopher Walken, who portrays ‘Burt’ who’s a mysterious figure from the Optics and Design department, also severed.
Soon, the quartet begins to question the true nature of just what it is they do all day. It becomes pretty clear that not everything is as it seems at Lumon Industries. Throughout Season One, Severance slowly starts to reveal the truth and unravel the various mysteries. Mark finds himself at the center of most of these mysteries and soon has to confront the true nature of his work as well as the choices that he has made.
Review
Even though it has some resemblance to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Severance is a refreshingly unique and original show in terms of its story and concept. Part of this credit must go to Ben Stiller who spent years getting this project off the ground. His hard work may have paid off as his show is being compared favorably to LOST, one of the more groundbreaking shows in television history.
Both Stiller and Aoife Mcardle direct the hell out of this nine-episode first season. Stiller is returning to the director’s chair for the first time since the fantastic Escape From Dannemora (2018). His visual expertise is on full display here, using inventive perspective shifts and a Kubrick-like use of one-point perspective. The sharp difference in tone and color between the “innie” and “outie” world is done to great effect.
Like LOST, perhaps the best element of Severance is the many mysteries that it consistently throws at the viewer. Also, much like LOST, these mysteries involve questions of philosophy, conflicts of one’s faith, a debate on morality, and perhaps most importantly, having free will over one’s choices. However, none of these mysteries and conflicts are easily resolved, and it may, hopefully, take several seasons to achieve finality.
The acting in Severance is fantastic, with special standouts going to Britt Lower, and John Turturro. Their multi-layered performances should be acknowledged. Patricia Arquette is another standout as is Zach Cherry. Adam Scott, the focal point of this show, gives a nuanced performance that emits empathy while unraveling in front of our eyes. It’s harrowing.
In Conclusion
Severance is the perfect post-pandemic series that placates all of our neuroses. With the beams of work-life and home-life becoming crossed over the last two years, Dan Erikson has created a story that is well-suited to a life-after-COVID society where we wonder just what we must sacrifice of ourselves for a paycheck.
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