A few weeks ago, my roommate recommended that we watch the TV show Severance on Apple TV. I didn’t really know much about the show, and I had never watched anything on Apple TV before, but I decided to give it a chance. It ended up being one of the most well-made and fascinating shows I have ever watched, and I’ve started telling everyone I know to watch it.
Severance stars Adam Scott, who many people, including myself, know from the show Parks and Rec. It tells the story of a world where people can voluntarily undergo a medical procedure, known as severance, through a company called Lumon, which essentially divides their life into two areas: inside of work and outside of work. When people are working at Lumon, they have absolutely no knowledge of their outside lives, families, friends, or interests. When they leave work, they have no idea what they do at work, who they work with, or how they feel doing it. People undergo this procedure for different reasons, and the show often alludes that traumatic experiences, or the loss of a loved one, can encourage people to undergo severance. Because of this, severed people have a warped sense of time, and their work selves feel like they never leave, despite having an entire outside life. This procedure is understandably controversial, and the show tells the story of a group of four severed workers at Lumon and touches briefly on their lives when they leave work.
The series starts off with a new employee, Helly, joining the group of four. Helly, Mark (played by Adam Scott), Irving, and Dylan all grow close throughout the season and begin to question how much freedom they actually have while at work, and what the highly secretive and vague company is actually responsible for.
The plot gets extremely complex over the course of the nine episodes, and the plot twist at the end was one of the most surprising twists I’ve ever seen. The idea of a company being able to implement a procedure where their workers have absolutely no knowledge of their outside lives very much felt like a commentary on capitalism and the current work culture in the U.S., but each episode gets slightly more dystopian, and clues to the true identities of some of the characters and their motives are weaved throughout the series, most of which I didn’t realize until after finishing the show. Severance is already renewed for a second season, and I will absolutely be watching to see how the series continues, after a lot of my questions were left unanswered from season one. Between the eerie music, the amazing acting, and the creative storyline, Severance is one of the most unique sci-fi shows I have ever heard of.
Whether or not you think Severance is a show you would enjoy, I cannot recommend watching it enough if you have the opportunity!
Can’t get enough of HC UMass Amherst? Be sure to follow us on Instagram, listen to us on Spotify, like us on Facebook, and read our latest Tweets!