Severance

What’s it about?

Severance follows a man whose mind has been voluntarily divided into work and home identities. But what of the mysterious Lumon Industries?

Starring

Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Patricia Arquette, Tramell Tillman, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Zach Cherry, Dichen Lachman

An Introduction to Severance

Severance is a procedure invented by the arcane biotech company, Lumon Industries. We meet Mark (Adam Scott), a man whose life is one long, inexplicable slog through an office where absolutely nothing seems to make sense. He works at a company where employees have voluntarily undergone Severance, whereby their consciousnesses are surgically divided into two distinct selves: one for work, and one for life outside of it. Mark’s work self has no memory of his personal life, and his personal self has no recollection of his workday existence.

Mark’s daily routine is bizarrely mechanical: he walks into the building, takes the elevator, sits at his cubicle, and pushes buttons as if this is the most natural thing in the world. His work persona, completely unburdened by knowledge of who he really is, drifts through the monotony with a peculiar sense of calm, even though the office space looks like it was designed by someone who hates color, joy, and human connection. There are no windows, no real sense of time, and a relentless, soulless corporate culture that feels like it’s intent on erasing anything resembling individuality.

But there’s an undercurrent of unease, a subtle yet persistent discomfort. Everyone in the office seems to be pretending, as though they’re all stuck in a collective dream or, worse, a nightmare they’ve convinced themselves is normal. The Severance procedure is clearly doing more than just separating memories — it’s turning its participants into mindless automatons, mere fragments of themselves, completely separated from any trace of identity.

Then, there’s the little matter of Mark’s personal life, which seems just as bewildering. His home self is just as confused as his work self, drifting through life in an emotionally detached haze after a personal tragedy, never quite able to connect with anything or anyone. On the evidence, we’re left to wonder – what is this company really up to? And why is Mark’s life so completely compartmentalized? The unsettling tension in Severance is palpable, and it quickly becomes clear that this dystopian reality is far from the harmless experiment it initially seems to be.

Summary

Severance was created by writer Dan Erickson and elevated to the screen by actor/director Ben Stiller (Zoolander, Tropic Thunder). Stiller also directs a significant portion of the episodes, having been so enthused by the story.

The show offers the viewer a simple starting premise – ‘Innies’ and ‘Outies’. What if you could bypass the monotony of your daily workday by disconnecting your consciousness at the start then reconnecting after work? No more repetitive tasks, pointless meetings and corporate box-ticking – just living your life, your way as an ‘Outie’ (outside work). It’s just a voluntary, irreversible medical procedure known as Severance.

But what of the other ‘you’? The separated/severed consciousness only knows being in work (an ‘Innie’) – when they clock out at the end of the day, their next experience is the beginning of the next workday. No downtime, no respite, no knowledge of what the outside world has to offer – not unlike android Dolores in Westworld, conscious but held captive by circumstance. Suddenly it sounds cruel – who could inflict that on another soul, let alone a version of yourself?

We dive into the world of Lumon Industries, where employee Mark is tasked with onboarding new arrival Helly R (Britt Lower). The office environment is masterfully bland and lifeless, with a sort of 1960s meets 1980s decor of magnolia panelling, drop ceilings and green carpet tiles, coupled with retro terminals and clunky keyboards. The work itself is baffling, literally moving numbers around on a screen – no-one knows what it means or what it’s for, but there seems to be a right way to do it. Welcome to your life, Helly R!

As the series goes on, we learn more about Lumon as well as our characters. Something is very strange about this company and red flags soon start to appear. Long-term employees seem to behave like members of a cult, while moments of surreality become increasingly commonplace. Events become more and more tense culminating in a mind-blowing series one finale. Then on we go, further down this intriguing rabbit-hole.

Check out the Season 1 Trailer here: