How Severance gets you invested

My biggest concern with concept-driven stories is whether meaty elements of the story, like plot and character, will be compromised. Indeed, sometimes a show has all the sprezzatura and splendour, but none of the steak. TV shows are surely tasked with a lot, especially conceptual shows like Severance, balancing character, plot, and theme. Oftentimes, elements tend to get compromised, but Severance somehow evades falling into this trap.

Mark Scout (Adam Scott) is cutting, compliant, and crushed. Overwhelmed with grief having lost his wife, he’s decided to go through with the ‘severance’ procedure. This procedure is pioneered by the Big Pharma-esque company Lumon. It’s essentially a brain surgery where an individual’s memories are bifurcated precisely between their work and personal lives. As an individual rides the elevator to the ‘severed’ floor, they become their ‘innie’. An innie’s consciousness is practically new-born, with all previous memories erased, and the only life they see is confined to the ‘severed’ floor. The moment they leave, they revert to their ‘outie’, retaining all other memories they’ve accumulated throughout their life.

Severance has become an online sensation. In re-introducing the weekly release we might remember from network TV days, discussions stay consistent and viewers continue to theorise until the next week’s episode. In fact, discussions remain active following the final episode, proving its addictive nature.

Here’s why Severance is worth watching and how it’s more approachable than you might think.

Strong characterisation 

While the entire concept is intricate and fascinating, Mark remains at the heart of the story, with his compelling character design. ‘Innie’ Mark is initially compliant but highly compassionate to those around him – especially to Lumon’s new employee, Helly R (Britt Lower). ‘Outie’ Mark leans towards mean, but his kind side becomes apparent in honest moments with his sister. It’s crucial to craft a character whose psyche is not only complex but evokes a sense of compassion and understanding in the viewer.

The rest of Lumon’s Macro Data Refinement (MDR) department – Helly, Irving (John Turturro), and Dylan (Zack Cherry) – are all as equally fleshed out as our protagonist. Less sympathetic characters like Miss Cobel, alongside her disguise Miss Selvig (Patricia Arquette), and Mr Milchick (Tramell Tillman) are given immense depth beyond their supposed amorality. There truly aren’t any characters that make me groan due to my indifference vis-à-vis their storyline – something I regularly feel in TV shows I otherwise adore.

Compelling questions

Severance poses several questions, not just regarding its conceptual elements, but also its real-life application. Throughout season one, the viewer is made to wonder what exactly Lumon is hiding. Why concoct this ‘severance’ procedure? What secret requires one to sever their brain so as not to breach corporate confidentiality?

Season two only brings further questions, the most important, in my opinion, being the relationship between an ‘innie’ and their ‘outie’. While some characters treat ‘innies’ as an autonomous person with their own consciousness, life, and, thus, rights, others tend to see them as subhuman.

What I enjoy beyond the questions themselves is how they are introduced. Instead of being bombarded with a series of ethical quandaries at once, these ideas are integrated subtly across the span of multiple episodes. The conflict between the ‘innies’ and ‘outies’ is broached in their different approaches to their personal problems, highlighting the importance of perspective and individualistic choices.

Spectacle

I would describe season two as the season of spectacles. While season one tends to focus on two main plot locations – the workplace and ‘outie’ Mark’s life – season two expands the focus onto several characters. Whilst Mark remains the protagonist, none of the characters feel underexplored. To do this, the season makes use of spectacle: mesmerising and diverse techniques across each episode.

Some personal highlights in season two include episode four, ‘Woe’s Hollow’, which displaces the office setting into a self-contained valley-simulation, portrayed to the naïve ‘innies’ as the real world. Our MDR department is stranded around snowy hills, marvelling at the supposed outside world. As a reward for their work, they partake in a quest to learn secret lore behind Lumon, to internalise its core and frankly cult-like principles. The episode deals with themes of abandonment and the perceived duality between what is human and animal. As our protagonists begin to doubt one another, there is both beautiful setting, but also compelling drama and character dynamics.

Following this style is episode seven, ‘Chikhai Bardo’, which explores the life of Gemma, Mark’s deceased wife. Escaping the overused ‘dead wife’ trope where she is reduced to a series of whimsical home videos and sad songs, the episode portrays her character as deeply complex and layered. We do get idyllic shots of the couple together and their beautiful life, but we also see them fighting, contextualising Mark’s heightened grief.

Somehow optimistic 

This is probably the reason I have cited the most, since I stumbled across the show in 2022. For personal reasons, I tend to shy away from sci-fi and thrillers that have too much of a defeatist tone. What kept me watching Severance was the strong theme of defiance. There were many points where I’d feared, across season one especially, that defiant characters will begin to comply with the corporation, and we’ll get another 1984-esque ending. The show took a different approach, and instead developed the more compliant characters into being defiant.

This theme is intensified in season two, and is perhaps a key feature behind why people have been heavily invested. Our protagonists are active agents and participants in their own destinies. They take agency in a context where they don’t have a lot of it. The ‘innie’ is not a subhuman consciousness, but an individual – a person, with their own personalities, quirks and nuances.

In the end, Severance works because it is mysterious and suspenseful. You know something is deeply wrong, and you want to find out why. It also works because it’s not depressing. You know something is deeply wrong, and you know you will find out why.

After an impressive and electric season two finale, I definitely recommend checking out both seasons of Severance. Hopefully, we don’t have to wait another three years.