As season two of “Severance” releases on Apple TV+, here’s a recap of the first season in order to catch back up with all that happened in the Lumon offices.
“Severance” is best described as a conspiracy thriller, in the same genre as Netflix’s “Black Mirror” or the classic CBS show, “The Twilight Zone.” It is not considered a traditional anthology series, but instead has a flowing story that carries through the show. The show takes place at the fictional Lumon Headquarters where workers on the “severed floor” have to go through a surgery called Severance, where they separate your “workplace brain” from your “out-of-office brain” with a chip. When at work, these workers do not know anything about the outside world and call their out of work selves, “Outies” and refer to themselves as “Innies.” The show follows Mark Scout, played by Adam Scott, who is newly promoted to manager of the macrodata refinement (MDR) center. He gets this promotion after his workplace best friend mysteriously leaves the company out of nowhere, which we learn is atypical of someone who retires from Lumon.
The workplace at Lumon is very isolated, as the Innies never see the light of day. On top of that, they are also separated from other departments, and are unaware of their size or how many there are. After Mark’s promotion, his first task is to introduce a new employee to life on the severed floor. When you first start, you have no knowledge of Lumon as you have no memory of your outside life. As we watch him introduce Helly, played by Britt Lower, this is where the mysteries start as she is not accepting the life her Outie gave her.
The first season is nine episodes long and follows Outie Mark in one storyline and the Innies in the MDR department. The season is paced extremely well with each storyline being treated equally, and they play really well with each other as outside and inside worlds collide frequently, while not physically but with secrets. Each episode builds perfectly upon the last as each episode leaves off with really good cliff hangers and they feel like chapters in a book.
According to IMDB, “Severance” is 96th in top 100 TV shows, and has two Primetime Emmy wins with 14 nominations. Winning for Outstanding Music Composition for a series and Outstanding Main Title Design. This is a very well-crafted show. Every part of it is well thought out and each part delivers later on in the series.
As season two is coming out at the time of writing this, hype is returning for the series as the first three episodes have received massive praise from critics and audiences alike. These episodes are the highest rated besides the finale episode of season one. The show looks to continue its brilliance in craftsmanship and artistic style. With Ben Stiller still directing episodes, we are in for a treat, as the rest of season two comes out this spring. “Severance” is a must watch series for students this semester.