Very Biased Thoughts on Severance Season 1

14 Feb, 2025

I just finished watching the first season of Severance, and I'm in love with this series! I haven't binged a show like this. I started on Saturday and finished today (04/02), so it took me four days to watch nine episodes.

Quick note! There are spoilers for a lot of important plot points for Season 1 of Severance, and some spoilers for the TV show, The Good Place. Please read with caution if you're interested in watching either of these shows.

basic premise

The premise of the story is pretty straightforward: In this world, there is a technology that allows people who undergo a specific procedure to "sever" themselves, or perhaps more specifically, their work self, with their personal self. This procedure is called severance, and the main character, Scott, opted for it after the tragic loss of his wife. He couldn't cope with the grief and used the opportunity to keep the pain away for 8 hours a day.

Essentially, someone severed would be unable to recall absolutely anything at all from their time out of work when they step into their workplace and vice-versa. They would only have the knowledge of their workplace whilst carrying the normal human stuff like walking, talking, grammar, and humour. Their "innie" personalities are expressed differently from their "outie" selves (the version of themselves out of work) but still carry their essence.

why I liked it

What's interesting about the show is when the severed workers of the company that does the severance procedure itself, Lumon, start to gain hints of the wrongness of the whole system their workplace is operating in. We see varying levels of acceptance in the main characters and the slow building of their camaraderie in uncovering Lumon's secrets and their want to just know what the fuck is going on.

The show does a great job of giving just enough to the viewers to 'get' the story, but, also increasing the questions you ask as you watch. This show reminds me a lot of The Good Place in the sense that, although they both speak on a very hypothetical level - I mean, I would hope that Ted Danson won't be tricking me into thinking I'm in the best place ever or if I would have 0 memories of my colleagues or if my boss is taking advantage of my alternate self. But, they do share a similar focus on telling something very much rooted in our real worlds.

Note: The Good Place is one of the best sitcoms I've ever watched! It never overstays its welcome, and is one of those shows with practically no filler.

In the Good Place's case:

• The meaning of life
• Whether shitty actions you've done are redeemable and if people can inherently change

In Severance's case:

• Would it be ethical to compartmentalize people dependent on their environments and how would that work?

In Severance, we see that there are people in the show who are supportive of this idea. It sounds great on paper. Being able to leave work at work. Not knowing or having to give a thought about your monthly quotas or KPIs when you're at home. No late-night messages from your boss asking you to "could you please help XYZ...". The show challenges that with hypotheticals: what if the people in charge are making your innie do bad and morally unacceptable things? What if your innie wants out, but because the higher-ups wouldn't share it with you due to confidentiality reasons, you have 0 idea that your innie tried to escape the office a million times with a note saying they quit. What if your innie makes friends, and, you never know what happens to them the second they leave the office? Even if they died?

my favourite plot point of the show

A lot of these questions are posed in the show, and my absolute favourite plot point is for the character Helly. Helly is featured at the start of the show, and she is presented as someone who cannot comprehend why anyone would even choose to severe themselves voluntarily. She hates the people in charge, she tries to escape multiple times, and she even tries to commit suicide at one point. As the season closes, our main characters are placed in a temporary position where they can be 'awakened' in their outie self (although the outie themselves were not able to sense it happening, so they were mutually exclusive), Helly realizes that she was a prominent figure in Lumon. The company that started it all.

It's a perfect example of the classic debate of whether personality is inherently in yourself, or if it could be dependent on your circumstances. And in this case, it was the latter. You see the disgust in Helly, and her doing her best to expose Lumon of their cruelties, despite her outie being a full and willing participant of the procedure. Heck, she is literally trying to promote the procedure and is in love with the idea of a fully severed world.

before season 2?

Okay - I'll stop fangirling about this show now! I've been trying to nudge my partner into watching it haha, so I can discuss it even more (I've done it with Arcane Season 2, and I can do it again!). Anyhow, I'm very much excited for the second season. I'll take a break from the show and maybe check in again when they have at least half the episodes out so I can watch them in batches instead of waiting for each to be released.

While waiting for that, I'll probably listen to the official podcast!

I would absolutely love to know if there's anything similar to the show (not exactly the same concept, but something binge-able and with interesting questions, I guess?). I would love to hear your recommendation!

[20/100] for #100DaysToOffload

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