anyone seen SEVERANCE yet?

Mantraps = classic

Arms dealers sales reps as victims = classic

saw this last night and i thought it was great. manages to keep one foot in comedy and the other in horror throughout, which is impressive given the levels of gore/unpleasantness.

still killing me: the diving board scene and follow up

if i was from eastern europe, not sure i would really be pleased with the new western preoccupation with making them the new locational horror stand-in for scary unfamiliar frontier, though. (this, Hostel, etc.)

Can I hijack this thread to talk about the new Apple TV + show? Pretty intriguing mix of Black Mirror, Wayward Pines and Parks & Rec?

Only found out recently about the real life crime inspired by the Brit movie

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/8022946.stm

I'm enjoying it so far, especially simply to look at. I like how the era is indeterminate, the computers suggest 1970s but the houses are entirely modern.

I feel like so much of the design of the corporation is based on a mix of the Clavius base from 2001, especially the deleted part with the kids playing in a rec room, and mid-century modern.

Usually a good move to have retro computer screens for various reasons.

Poor Adam Scott looks so defeated in it, I also enjoy how he somehow looks like a Garry Trudeau character.

Ha, good point.

Third episode is here.

I’m into the show. Kind of worried it won’t stick the landing but the ride is a good weird time. John Turturro is excellent in a supporting role.

Yes, he is.

This show reeks of THX-1138 to me, especially the visuals. Not sure how on board I am.

I love this show SO much

Stiller is so good at noticing all the dumb mundane bullshit in daily life & making hilarious, scary or just weird & i love it

everyone is great. intro credits freak me out.

i loved the awkward dinner party in the first episode - all that stuff like it was impolite to call ww1 anything but the great war, lol bc ww2 hadnt happened yet & the weird oohs and ahhs around the table

the CONFERENCE CALL in episode 3. where she has to speak but doesnt get to hear the board’s responses bc theyre filtered to her through a functionary with more juice than she has. incredibly perfect.

i'm just going to assume that Michael Chernus's character being named Rickon is a reference to him being Cool Rick in my beloved Patriot

Oh yeah, PATRIOT. Keep meaning to watch that.

Does it bother anyone else that they never seem to do any work? I know it's implied but idk

No.

it's a corollary to them not remembering the work day. when you're actually at work, you only remember hallway conversations and getting coffee

Petey is probably the best super-distressed and disheveled character since William Windom’s Commodore Matt Decker in the “Doomsday Machine” episode of Star Trek: TOS.

otm

Ben Stiller a pretty big Star Trek head so not out of the question he was channeling that somehow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpVOEp3HMjc

Does it bother anyone else that they never seem to do any work? I know it's implied but idk

Loving the increasingly cultish vibe at the office but dreading the inevitable moment this show becomes all about Mark joining the underground resistance.

agree but it is so far handling getting there well, dig the pacing & minimalist vibe

hate this show so much, there i said it

hey, someone has to

I liked the setup, not sure how I'm feeling about the progression so far. The little office world and the cast of bizarre characters is kind of charming, but it's not quite pulling me in and I feel like it needs to start going... somewhere.. soon

Turturro and Walken playing weird dudes that are kind of vibing about the art in their brainwipe prison

Does it bother anyone else that they never seem to do any work? I know it's implied but idk

I assume that the "work" is only an excuse to keep running this experiment. That said, I am finding it all a bit Wes-Anderson-does-dystopian. A lot of whimsy, not a lot of real substance.

the show's kind of reminding me of that amazon one, Homecoming

I hate Ricken so much

Petey’s cellphone has hella battery life

I love Ricken. That actor's played some ridiculous characters in the same vein and I get why that type of guy drives people nuts, but I enjoy that on screen

tbh I don't really see how you have the show without a Ricken-type character.

ricken is so hilarious to me, i love him. feels like there is a lot of Stiller’s humor in that character specifically. like, idk, literary Zoolander. he’s SO oblivious

I can also imagine that writing that book must have been great fun.
I'm enjoying this show more as it goes along. I thought in the beginning that it was boring and I didn't like it, but I've got into its pace now.

I was surprised to discover that there are only two episodes left in the season

that passage from Ricken’s book about “camaraderie” being based on the word “camera” nearly killed me

A lot of these shows seem to have only eight episodes per season.

xpost omg yes we were dying

A lot of these shows seem to have only eight episodes per season.

Yeah, it feels like an artistic decision that will turn out to have some business reason behind it, like eight episodes doesn't count as a full union season, so everyone's salaries don't automatically increase at the start of the next season, or something like that.

Seems clear that the season will end with Mark joining the resistance and with few questions resolved

Hard to argue with.

Although I do think we will probably get a few more reveals about people's, um, Outies.

This is fun, and thanks for the recommendation -- I wouldn't have noticed it without reading this thread.

I'm watching it during covid isolation - which feels a litle on the nose

Only seen three episodes - central cast is terrific. So far, the comic tone feels like it undercuts the dramatic tnsion - but maybe that'll change. And there's too much resting on the mystery denoument.

But it rules as My Little Isolation Show and everyone's lovely company (so far)

New episode is up. Never sure what time it actually drops. At one point I was getting alerts for certain shows.

Tell you one thing: I really dig Patricia Arquette’s nosy neighbor routine despite myself.

Spook too soon maybe

A lot of these shows seem to have only eight episodes per season.

This one has nine.

Loved the reveal at the end of this episode (although was expecting something along those lines but maybe a different character)

Renewed for season two too

Oh, and that defiant jazz reward scene was fantastic

Yes it was

Also Burt's retirement video was straight up comedy

I'm hoping Burt and Irv are actual outie partners.

Had that thought too

I doubt this was influence, but this show reminds me a bit of the film/MST3k episode Parts: The Clonus Horror: clones are raised on a campus with no contact with the outside world as "spares” for the person they were cloned from. The clones are treated in a simple, almost childlike way similar to how the work incentives at Lumon are juvenile things like finger traps, or how they are spoken to at the wellness session. Clones are given a big party when they "graduate”, which actually means they are whisked to a surgical room to have their organs harvested, similar to how Burt’s retirement seems to mean he (the innie, at least) effectively cease to exist, despite it being presented as a joyful occasion. The influential/rich people who commission the clones for parts don’t consider their clones to be actual people, similar to the outie’s attitude to the innies. And, of course, the plot is that the clone protagonist becomes aware of the outside world and finds a way to escape and expose the operation.

I keep thinking there might be some cloning aspect to this show as well and wondering when Petey 2.0 will show up.

Because of baby goats, because Haley R. tries to commit suicide but then the next day only has some bruises, because the guy’s wife dies in a car crash but then lives on as an innie

The only thing about that theory is that you don't want the clones to get old, surely? Young organs are better than old ones, so would you let them reach traditional retirement age before you "retired" them? But it does seem plausible otherwise.

A moment there of Eyes Wide Shut.

The only impressive thing about the Clonus movie was the casting for the young & old version of the protagonist. It was eerie! Everything else about it was hilariously bad, hence the stellar MST3K episode.

turturro is still my fave but the guy who plays milchick is great too - doesn't look like he's done a ton of stuff before this.

lumon sure does love having super-creepy parties. whether it's a dance party, an egg party, or a waffle party, it's going to be creepy and have intense lighting.

burt keeps painting the hallway down to wherever adam scott's dead wife goes when she's not working - so presumably he has some knowledge of whatever goes on back there? or he has gone through the same process as her (cloning/revivification)?

Excellent post, na. Yes, Milchick is particularly good, everything about him, even or especially his work uniform, but especially his surprising range of emotions, kind of like Naomi Watts in Mulholland Dr.

i'm sure all of our questions will be answered in the next episode

Ha, yes, exactly.

The only real issue with the premise is the idea that they know enough to have witty social interactions and vocabularies but perfectly don't have any memories of their other life. It should all be intertwined. If they can converse fluidly and make quips etc., those skills come from learned experience, so the basis of those skills is "remembered". Therefore are other basic things that are based on experience/memory maintained? Do they know what the sky and grass look like? How can they know some things and not other things? They're infantilized and yet they still can speak to each other with normal social intelligence. So it's kind of a discrepancy when you think about it but I'm sure one could make up a sci-fi explanation for it all. It doesn't ruin anything for me but I was just thinking about it. Fun show.

Also I don't get whether Rickon is successful... they have a nice house and he has a book deal but he is such a cartoon character and is tbh just a bit too goofy to really fit in with the rest of the universe of the show. Still fun! Just thoughts!

none of it really makes much sense if you think about it too much, lol. it's not really bothering me though.

rickon fits in with the tone of the show imo, given that it veers from creepy to depressing to absurd constantly. he's like the animated screen helly gets when she hits 100%.

Feel like Rickon must also have some kind of academic post or else is associated with some sort of Healing Institute.

I assume people with amnesia know all sorts of things except for the details of their own life, so maybe the severance process mimics that although I don’t know anything about any science of amnesia only familiar with it as a plot device.

something else that they can't really explain bc it would make less sense if they try to explain it: how known is it to the general public that Lumon is, in addition to being a huge corporation, a very creepy cult? is that stuff supposed to be secret, only used to control the severed? or is it part of the mainstream corporate culture as well?

Dunno, but that is a good point, especially given Patricia Arquette's considerable devotional shrine.

I figured that is supposed to explain the company loyalty among the dedicated employees that aren't severed.

I think the company definitely has cult-like roots if not an actual cult in practice

The work that the primary group we're observing seems odd, but what they're doing on computers seems to be associative logic puzzles. I keep wondering whether what's really going on (outside of the bizarre rituals) is refinement of the severance procedure.

The people working at most jobs at Lumon are:
- Raising goats (possible early test subjects for implants)
- Curating art (cataloguing creative endeavors, which could be some metric of mental acuity and creativity they want to quantify/qualify)
- Doing weird logic/categorizing puzzles on computers (measuring how the implanted human mind performs)

The cloning theory has some legs. I think overall, Lumon is trying to create a way to monetize and trade in modified humans that can do certain tasks with no objections or memory, and maybe refine humans (via technological innovations) in a way to do those things more effectively

The politician's (?) wife who didn't remember her pregnancy could be an application for the rich. Other than that... humanoid robot slave race, obviously

Wow, good analysis!

I like your theory of logic puzzles, although I originally thought the MDR tasks were a kind of disguised version of some other process à la "Where Will The Little Green Man Be Next?" in PKD's Time Out of Joint?, in case I haven't mentioned that already.

Man, somebody beat me to it and posted that on a metafilter over a month ago!

haven't read the last couple weeks' posts because i'm only up through e04 but i've had enough closeups of adam scott's face. i mean he's not ugly, but he's a haggard man with a bad haircut and enough already

i could look at john turturro's face all day tho

someone said Adam Scott in this looks like Tig Notaro & I cannot unsee it

Just realized the other day that Adam Scott looks a lot like a relative of mine, which has probably been adding something.

Maybe the chip/implant is also learning about the person it is in so as to further its efficacy when reimplanted in the clone

xp lol yes

-adam scott looks like a busted tom cruise to me?

-wonder if petey's address @ 'half loop' is a dig at apple ('infinite loop drive')

my theory on macrodata refining: thought maybe they're refining out the urges of innies to break out into the outies? i.e. what they're refining is scary maybe in the way unwanted memories or intrusive thoughts pop into your head.

like james upthread i see my theory has already been posted on mefi a month ago... guess it's too obvious!

this is giving me brazil vibes but i see that's been posted on mefi already too!

I think nothing is too obvious? It seems like a deep thoughts show where it could quickly pivot to a simple premise with esoteric trappings, or gesture toward a much more complex conspiracy with simple methods

I like 龜’s theory, sorry if it was scooped.

Yeah, me too. I don't know what metafilter is, so this is all exciting and new to me.

I don't think the jobs have any deeper meaning. I think it's all meant to be inscrutable.

I binged episodes 3-8 yesterday and it was quite the experience. It's interesting how the political angle gets very little airtime in the show but you can pause on all the news articles and read them if you want.

Feel like it would be a totally wasted opportunity if it turned it that what MDR does is really only just busy work.

I wouldn’t mind. Shows where everything has to mean something get tiring

Not saying everything ever has to mean something, just this particular case, because of the way it has been set up.

-I think the macrodata refinement is one facet of a study on the employees, who are doing meaningless work to which they have attached great importance. super cult like vibes permeate. i think the curation of the art is part of the cult's myth-building, and another way to give the workers a sense of importance. The goats, I think I agree that they are probably for chip testing?

-the break room feels to me like a Sc13nt0logY-allusion, to e-meters and repeating things until you have cleared the "blockage." the feeling of coercion and surveillance also give me this very unpleasant vibe.

-part of the severance procedure remind me of the protagonist of PKD's "A Scanner Darkly" whose mind undergoes a similar division.

-i think parts of this are intended as a brutal satire of workplace culture, particularly the meaningless incentives and office-sponsored funtime.

-the implications of the severing can get really dark really quickly; my mind immediately thought about evil people using the procedure to force people (women mostly) into sex slavery. but the idea that they can turn you on and off whenever is also pretty wild, suggesting that they could "kill" either half of you whenever they wanted.

i'd be happy to be wrong about what the macrodata refinement is for xpost.

My other theory, which is mine: always thought Helly was a big shot, probably some kind of Lumon insider and this last episode only seemed to confirm this.

And of course a cursory google search seems to find a youtube video with a similar theory which I didn't want to click on.

So… Helly R is an Eagan right? Cobel mentioned an Eagan family gala in the previous episode and it definitely looked like Helly’s outie was at some kind of formal event there. Explains why the board was pissed that Cobel didn’t tell them about her suicide attempt.

Also Cobel is keeping a hospital wristband with the name Charlotte Cobel on it among the things in her shrine. A dead relative she’s hoping Lumon can revive?

This stuff making me feel like I’m watching LOST all over again.

Yes and yes. Keep wondering what happens on the testing floor. I decided to call it a reboot although now I am may lengthen it to remake/remodel

I was saying to my wife yesterday, “I hope this doesn’t end up like Lost.”

I was saying to my wife yesterday, “I hope this doesn’t end up like Lost.”

i keep wanting to push dylan’s glasses back up

really bothered me that the security guy's card wasn't deactivated

that's fair

there are a lot of things that don't bear too much inspection tbh

I tried not to let that card thing bother me and succeeded, mostly, but yeah. Plot devices gotta come from somewhere though.

You may have a similar experience if you watch this other show during the SEVERANCE downtime: COUNTERPART: Alternate History w/ Creepy Cold War Vibe

Now thinking that if they actually had come up with some kind of cockamamie explanation for why it wasn’t deactivated it would have only made things worse. Trying to think of some myself now and the results are not pretty.

Unless that key card was already off the grid, as somebody I know just suggested.

I quite like the idea that the organization is so weird that only one person would immediately think to deactivate that security card, and that person is no longer there.

Fair enough.

trying to think of the last show i’ve enjoyed on every level as much as this, maybe better call saul

the motorhead needle drop was so fucking fantastic, just goddamn delightful

i am cutting carbs & all i could think was what a ~stressful~way to have to eat your waffles

i love every scene w adam scott & the sister, the way they care abt each other & make sarcastic jokes to each other is so good & v real

turturro is still my fave but the guy who plays milchick is great too - doesn't look like he's done a ton of stuff before this.

Nice article on him here

The one plot hole that bugs me slightly is that they have surveillance everywhere except, it seems, in the MDR office? They sometimes go in the storage cupboard to plot but not always.

Hope we get some answers this week but second season so maybe not

That was nice to read thanks, although weird that they spelled Lumon *Lumun*.

To be honest, unlike some other 'mysterious' shows, I don't mind too much if they just keep spinning their wheels forever and never figure out anything satisfyingly concrete. It's thematically appropriate.

Good point.

officially renewed for s2 https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2022/04/apple-tv-announces-season-two-renewal-for-global-hit-series-severance/

the tuturro outie scenes were great. i totally get why a guy like him would want to completely dissociate from the mindless day job that pays for his artistic fulfillment.

Have any of you read THE LEXINGTON LETTER yet?

Some of you should be able to read here: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=1613220757

HI DERE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsMD8taQ1qA
#onethread

that was fuckin tense

Like an MDE on steroids

Nice interview with Zach Cherry/Dylan here, contains spoilers for Ep9.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77YwQqgd9Mk

I feel like the line about pregnancy in this EP might be the biggest clue as to the motivations of Lumon yet.

I didn't know about this thread! That episode was maybe the best episode of TV I've ever seen.

Welcome, daniel s! We are so happy to have you with us, it's a great thing you are doing by coming here.

Not looking forward to the withdrawal symptoms.

Guess I'll just have to break out the coffee cozies.

Jesus christ, Patricia, stop clicking the thread about the programme you haven't watched yet!

Why hello, Mrs. Selvig.

https://www.vulture.com/article/how-severance-filmed-defiant-jazz-dance-sequence.html

“We wanted more and more stylistic juxtaposition: something that seems really, really nice and beautiful next to something that’s horrifying and scary,” Erickson says. (His other group-bonding idea of a “touch tank,” similar to the Halloween haunted-house gags, included bowls of spaghetti masquerading as brains but was put aside after “there was so much confusion over what the hell I was talking about.”)

I wonder how one would dance to 'Spooky Ambient'?

'Effusive Ska' would have been fun. Love to have seen Irv skanking to the beat, or all of them (minus Dylan, of course) doing the Madness 'Nutty Boy' train.

I think there is an example of Hootin' Tootin' Country at the beginning of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTNGg0Tj5Aw

Guess during the downtime we can do a POLL if we really want.

BTW I do agree with some of the upthread discussion about Ricken being maybe a bit too cartoonish for the show, but I did get a nice chuckle out of "linguists believe the word camaraderie derives from the Latin word 'camera', meaning 'a device for taking pictures'."

Also liked the way his self-hating self-consciousness after his reading delayed Mark that much more from telling his story.

He definitely felt more likable on this last episode, some crazy lines from that Rebeck (sp) girl too.

Rebeck stuff was another great distraction/delaying tactic.

all of the 'outies' are way too cartoonish/uncanny (e.g. the dinner party where they discuss WWI) - not sure if that hurts or helps the show

Yeah, the Ricken coterie seemed very odd, almost like 'The Serial/Marin County' era hippies but in the present day and darker.

Also, I see people commenting in a way that suggests the appearance of a mobile phone is some sort of slip, but I can't figure out why.

the funny but odd line "I found her, it was me" or something, from the friend who found the baby, like immediately wanting the recognition. Was kinda funny but not something a real person would say?

So "revolving" is copying Get Out, right? Using innies as new bodies?

i’ve seen the argument that ricken (rick n?) and his coterie are all severed or otherwise somehow ‘new’ and therefore inexperienced, which is why they act like weird children.

Starting to think that maybe there was some kind of baby swap, or better yet some kind of DIY chipping

I think it's possible that some women have been severed w/o their knowledge.
Fave part of last ep: Ms. Cobel's Wild Ride

also, the guy who was "i found it, me me me me me" is definitely not the kind of thing a normal adult human would say out loud, but tbh i think we all know people who have this subconscious compulsion to seek approval and gratitude, even undeserved.

Finale was incredible. So fucking tense. IRL gasp when Mark said "Mrs Cobel" at the party (although half expected).

And poor Irving 🙁

yep. When mark said that I paused the tv and spent 5 minutes pontification about how amazing and powerful that was and how much more impact it had than a million marvel movies or whatever. I know I'm fun to watch tv with.

do we have to keep hiding text? Don't threads like this usually assume you're caught up?

Not sure on protocol as it's not even 24 hours since it came out but yeah, if I hadn't seen it I definitely wouldn't be reading the thread yet.

i think maybe give it a full day at least?

I just don't look at threads until I'm caught up.

Maybe some of us are just slightly embarrassed by our hypotheses and want to hide them behind hidden tags to preserve a sense of decorum.

Almost put that behind tags just to mess.

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/severance-finale-ben-stiller-interview-1330692/

are there irl office lights that turn off/on by sweeping across the room?

i keep wanting to push dylan’s glasses back up

are there irl office lights that turn off/on by sweeping across the room?

i loved that the pictures at the egan ball were all pictures taken by milchick with his lil' leica. black and white too!

Those are discussed here: https://www.vulture.com/article/severance-finale-britt-lower-helly-interview.html

The weird childish friends and Ricken I think are all just wackos for comic relief, but it would be fun if their personalities had some greater plot significance, why not.

Yes, exactly.

I’m excited that Irving placed his outie to come face to face with outie Burt, who obviously has some outie history with him. So that’ll be a fun scene. Wonder what we’ll learn

gaaaah this finale has me shook

when Helly says WE ARE PRISONERS my brain completely flipped i was like jesus christ they are prisoners … like I kind of knew but hearing it out loud just changed the whole show?

I legit did not think they were going to let her get more than two words out before she ran out of time!

I also want like, a 30 minute version of the intro. I thinks it’s so great. Visuals and the music both.

Another good article with Tramell Tillman. Lol at them actually getting lost in the hallways on set

Exclusive Interview: "Severance" actor @TramellTillman talks about working with his A-list co-stars, the physical preparation it took him for the role and much more 🤩#Severance streams on @AppleTVPlus with new episodes every Friday! @PattyArquette https://t.co/rawTr6PZ0f

— Looper (@looper) April 1, 2022

Thanks. Think I read about Patricia Arquette getting lost in the hallways before but at this point I can't keep track of how many of these I have read. But this one was a worthy addition.

the fact that Ms Cobel lives next to Mark, that there was some comment about how mark and his wife didn't recognize each other etc, makes me think the whole thing is an experiment? Like nobody is doing anything down there other than being tested to see if it works? Like putting them in front of people they know in the real world, or giving them a similar job to their history etc, just trying to confirm that it's safe so that people like the politicians wife can do it and not be concerned?

That was my theory too. Except for the fact the higher ups did seem to be concerned about them making quotas.

I want to know what those cards were about the Optics and Design dept were making!

We have a year or two to speculate so the sky's the limiit.

Feel like it is possible that both are true. It's an experiment and the numbers mean something. The Lexington Letter seems to say something about the latter.

Don't think this article has been linked yet: https://www.vulture.com/article/severance-office-design-explained.html.

LIke that one so much can't bring myself to summarize or find a pull quote.

This sounds like hyperbole but I think this might be the best show so far of this decade,

I haven't watched all the shows therefore I can't really speak to that so I will have to take the rest of you who say that at your word.

I loved season 1, but I get Westworld vibes, which make me wary.

Part of me wishes it would just stop right there and we never find out any more.

Yeah, we were saying the same thing. It's a pretty satisfying ending all on its own. You can make assumptions about what happens next without spoiling any of the mysteries or having to explode any fan theories.
As always, I worry about people getting too deeply into it and then being disappointed.

i like the sadness of it as much as the weird eerie thriller vibe & quirky office stuff

Everything about it is just so goddamn perfect in execution - the acting, casting, set design, script. Also, after sitting through those ten awful Oscar nominated films, I found this series especially inspired.

Everybody otm.

I loved the Prisoner vibe the map gave off.

The season isn’t really over for me until the rest of the Redds watch it so I am sort of keeping some of my reaction in reserve and behind IRL hidden tags.

For some silly reason I thought last week's show was the season finale so last night felt like Christmas to me.

You must have missed the discussion upthread where somebody (me) thought it was an eight episode season and was corrected.

I think Wiki had is listed as an eight episode season, too.

It's my favorite season of TV since Russian Doll (which I see is coming back this month).

this is much much better than westworld could ever dream of being

One thing that may have have been a storytelling misstep imo is that they showed the audience the main Eagan in the flesh (unless there's a twist incoming). But otherwise going from super shadowy faceless-do-they/do-they-not-exist "the board", where we finally get a audible "yes" out of the speaker (gasp) to a full scene with the mysterious head Eagan was a little abrupt.

Yeah, but he seemed so weird and artificial that maybe he is not quite alive in the normal sense. There is plenty of speculation out there on the intranetz.

that blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Rajat Suresh cameo at the book reading was nice

https://mashable.com/article/severance-opening-titles-oliver-latta

genuinely surprised at how much i loved this show. looking forward to the next season

never feel this way about tv

everyone in the severed world getting their minds blown by that bullshit con artist's book (which, of course, occasionally trips and collides into something resembling truth) is maybe my favorite little thing about this show

I just realised the wellness room person is Katya "kinky" Kinski from Neighbours

Yes. Think she usually has blonde hair which might be what threw you off.

The reverence for the only book they have feels like something I've read before, but I can't remember what. Maybe the cod latin words in the closet in The Handmaid's Tale?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMzFL2sQy24

Meant to also post: Morbius to thread!

I'll let him speak for himself

They leaned more and more into presenting things this way over the course of the season, but a nice touch when we saw Irving with the "Manual" (I think probably the time he smashed the deviled egg in it), it was printed in columns like a bible.

one thing i found v stressful was that the manual seemed like it was very convoluted & illogical, like sometimes you’d have to flip through many pages/chapters just to find a logical next step in a sequence. fuuuuuck that lmao that would be a) hell and b) a nightmare

your outies are very observant

Is that a line of dialogue I missed?

Apologies for the persistent link posting but: https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-feast-of-severance

I do absolutely love the show, but I do not like the opening credits. I find them very DO YOU SEE? and the animation style reminds me of beloved children's programme Morph, but without the charm. Maybe they'll grow on me. I mean, obviously I get the hilarity of them mirroring "could a depressed person do this?" but I feel they're actually not a great ad for the show itself, because the show is a lot subtler than that.

The reverence for the only book they have feels like something I've read before, but I can't remember what. Maybe the cod latin words in the closet in The Handmaid's Tale?

So they’re kind of a cargo cult?

amazing finale

there is some wild theorizing going on on this thread lol. sorry, but nothing happened with the baby.

i love the opening credits they look cool

same

theme song is great too

re: ricken's book, I have thought before it'd be kind of funny if aristotle, plato, aristophanes etc. were really like, the jordan peterson and dane cook of their times. and all the works of the good thinkers didn't survive. we were left with just the dregs!

I don't think Ricken is a con man necessarily, I think he really believes what he's peddling. Definitely wants to succeed and have a following, but he's way too doofy for it to be a calculated thing

the line that keeps returning to me was the lady who was sharing her book mumbling "I think I need to change my name again"

龜 otm

I don't think Ricken is a con man necessarily, I think he really believes what he's peddling

oh yeah for sure, my description is a reflection of how if i knew someone like that irl i would wanna strangle them daily

the woman who shared her book with mark in the last episode is my favorite character

Of course.

So they’re kind of a cargo cult?

― Anita Quatloos (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, April 11, 2022 8:03 AM (four hours ago)

yeah, but instead of a coke bottle it's a bunch of yogi tea bottles with "your infinity in you is the reality in you" printed on them

Brad also otm

I can watch this show and accept these people are looking for something in their lives and they've got this legitimate or forced naivete that draws them to Ricken and his book

but if I was around them daily, I would probably go insane

Mark's sister being able to kind of smile and nod or roll her eyes a little when her husband gets all goofy makes me think she's got an amazing mental filter that just lets her concentrate on having this kind but doofy husband while ignoring all the trappings of his writing. She's got the intentional conscious severance the Lumon corporation would kill for

a bunch of yogi tea bottles with "your infinity in you is the reality in you" printed on them

namaste

Aap kaise hain?

I just binged this.
It's like someone made a show out of everything I love, except maybe they got Adam Scott's face a little bit wrong. (I'm convinced they're doing something there, it's messing with me).

The LUMON stuff is like the best bits of the Dharma Initiative and also this interactive alt-reality game thing that was on in San Francisco ages ago called the Jejune Institute.

BTW if you want to try MDR go here: https://lumon-industries.com/

Patricia Arquette is just so watchable, she's great, kind of weird that the last thing I saw her in was Gypsy-Rose's mother DeeDee in 'The Act' who was spaced out a lot of the time. When she whips out the little drill at the funeral to get the chip, omg.

That last episode, where they were supposed to be doing THE MISSION to TELL EVERYONE and yet Mark kept getting delayed by everything, like some neverending dream / The Unconsoled.

I kind of wanted them to test the pattern-recognition software/whatever it is even more - do their clothes not have care labels etc? - if they were banned then presumably the outies know about not being able to send messages between selves? - I thought Helly would scar herself with a message (not that it would really have helped in her case). That time she tried to smash through the window I didn't immediately get that she was trying to force her outie to look at the paper she'd written on.

this interactive alt-reality game thing that was on in San Francisco ages ago called the Jejune Institute.

they actually made an awful show out of this

was that season 2 of The OA? i enjoyed the first season of that but never finished s2

When Outie Irv is looking at the map/where he lives, is the actual town called Kier? Do they live in Lumon worker housing?

You must enjoy each fact equally and not show preference. Please don't speak further, or all remaining points will be deducted and the wellness session will end.

This did remind me of the OA actually, and I think that series of the OA reminded me of the Jejune game thing...

jejune institute adaptation was jason segel's dispatches from elsewhere, pretty much entirely curdled by its self-indulgent final episode

i seem like the kind of person who would love the oa but i still haven't seen any of it

i think mark lives in lumon worker housing; not sure about irving

anyone see escape from dannemora? more stiller x arquette that i had no interest in before, but now that i'm faced with a 12 month+ severance absence, am very willing to try

jejune institute adaptation was jason segel's dispatches from elsewhere, pretty much entirely curdled by its self-indulgent final episode

Dannemora was also excellent. Stiller is good at this.

I just realised the wellness room person is Katya "kinky" Kinski from Neighbours

She was also in Dollhouse, which has some similarities to Severance

omg i didn’t even know that was dichen lachman the greatest actor ever

Love this show, and the cast is fantastic - nice mix of familiar faces and relative unknowns.

I don't think I've ever seen the actress who plays Mark's sister in anything else but she's great. reminds me of Olivia Colman a little.

When Outie Irv is looking at the map/where he lives, is the actual town called Kier? Do they live in Lumon worker housing?

yes, and maybe. there was also a newspaper article with a Kier dateline.

Not sure on protocol as it's not even 24 hours since it came out but yeah, if I hadn't seen it I definitely wouldn't be reading the thread yet.

― groovypanda, Friday, April 8, 2022 2:38 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Just watched the finale, refrained from looking at this thread until now, well done eephus

Anyway this show is v good

"will she denounce the company at the big speech" tension borrowed from Succession of course, as is the "dissonant plinky piano theme that's the credits but also we play it at Moments"

A lot of things here are borrowed from other shows (besides the general "there are two of me whose relationship is strained" business at the center, the "shadowy board who communicate through a device that turns their voices into some form of static" is ALSO from Counterpart

And yet it all works together as a whole. Although the finale was satisfyingly tense I actually think this show is best when it is slow-paced and weird. "Please try to enjoy each fact equally" is an amazing piece of writing.

i loved the conference calls

the whole thing where arquette has to talk into the speaker but the bosses only talk to the functionary & not arquette

so great

perfect middle management dystopia

I rewatched the first three episodes. Interesting that in the third episode Peter mentions "the place where no one leaves" and soon after the innies start talking about the Perpetuity Wing, leading the viewer to think it's the same thing. I don't think Peter's place gets mentioned again.

i think Peter's place is where Ms. Casey goes, and the subject of Irving's paintings

Makes sense

I'm not going to get super invested in the puzzle box parts of this. Seems like they're just a device to keep the viewer hooked. The show seems much more successful as satire and character study than as a sci-fi mystery.

It reminds me a bit of the Leftovers, where the answers ulitmately were less important than the other stuff in the show.

OTM, although I guess I am allowing myself to indulge in some speculation now that the show is over so as to have a soft landing instead of a crash.

Sorry if I posted this before, but the Testing Floor keeps making me think of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C4PsXoFslM

The painting of the departmental massacre was fucking hilarious

Did someone post the theory yet (apologies in advance) about how Burt and Irving had connected in the past and had to be separated and the myth of the massacre was created to keep them apart?

I had the idea that a revolt had happened in the past and now it was thought best to keep the departments separate so that conspiracies were less likely to form

But yeah, that may have had something to do with Irv's outie's obsession with the hallway

ha I guess there was a parallel in the Lumon people believing all the bullshit from Kier's writings and the innies finding inspiration in Rickon's book

the myth of the massacre was created to keep them apart

this feels too targeted to me but then lumon apparently orchestrated the fake death of mark's wife so who knows

the myth of the massacre to me was just a really effective way of keeping the departments siloed off from each other so they'd never talk. i don't know if i talked about this in previous posts but my favorite thing about this show is it's a straight up depiction of what it feels like to be an office drone

Yes to this last. Even the MDE was some crazy distillation of many an office holiday party: kinda fun in some ways but also kind of off and creepy and menacing.

yeah exactly

i had this feeling at the beginning but i dont quite know how to word it … but severance definitely taps into the uneasy “horror” off office life. i wouldnt say it’s remotely the same as jordan peele’s movies but it reminds me of that ~feeling~? there is something about that pervasive sense of dread that they have in common idk

Yeah, it captures an airlessness of some offices really well. Especially offices in failing companies, where half the floor has already been let go so the rest of you are just kind of stranded in a huge space.

this feels too targeted to me but then lumon apparently orchestrated the fake death of mark's wife so who knows

idk, i suspect she was really in a car accident, but lumon harvests braindead people or people in comas to be exclusively innies that they can turn on when they want to. i feel strongly that his wife does not have an outie. when she was saying goodbye to mark after getting "fired" she said that when she was watching Helly was the longest she had ever been awake. like how would that work unless she was in some sort of cold storage holding chamber or something, for use whenever they needed her?

anyway i agree with everyone that the satire of office culture and tech demagoguery is the real strength of the show, more than the scifi trappings

idk, i suspect she was really in a car accident, but lumon harvests braindead people or people in comas to be exclusively innies that they can turn on when they want to

i did think twice after making this post and sorta think thi sis the case

THE LEXINGTON LETTER hints at staged car accidents but that could be a red(d) herring.

the air of everpresent dread feels a bit more like the early scenes in the matrix, or maybe the films of alan pakula, than anything like peele, imo. tho the brain-altering horror and social commentary aspects do feel like his style

there’s something so nightmarish about the fact that the innies are constantly awake for work - like, I know I’m at my most stressed out when I start having dreams about my job, and that just makes me even more stressed and tired because it makes me feel like the work day never ends. terrifying.

***LINK ALERT!***
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a39661737/severance-ending-explained-showrunner-interview/

that's interesting that the show runner actually wanted to progress further. i guess not knowing they'd get a second season affects the calculus. but i was actually surprised they went as far as they did; was expecting the season to end with helly at the microphone, about to speak, leaving the cliffhanger as to whether it would be her innie or outie self speaking. as it is, i am definitely concerned that with some of the biggest tensions of the show busted through, it won't be quite as compelling, along the lines of westworld post-season 1. but i'll have faith based on what they were able to accomplish thus far

how would the coma theory work if the body couldn't physically walk around etc? does it go hand in hand with the clone theory?

Sort of. They've got some reanimation technology they've been working on we haven't seen yet. Maybe they IV in some magic egg extract and voilà, Dr. Strangelove can walk!

when she was saying goodbye to mark after getting "fired" she said that when she was watching Helly was the longest she had ever been awake. like how would that work unless she was in some sort of cold storage holding chamber or something, for use whenever they needed her

well, it seems she must live at Lumon, otherwise people would run into her on the outside, right?

Yes

I wonder if and when they will tell us how the mechanics of this works. If they staged a car crash? took her comatose body? from the Kier Hospital, owned and operated by Lumon family or cronies thereof? whose body was at whatever memorial they had. I was a friend of Harry Lime.

Harry Lumon I should have typed.

The Crisis of Faith in the Modern Office.

wonder if Gemma has two "innies" - each consciousness has a set geographical space linked to it, but they could both be within the Lumon complex. one would still need to sleep, but I guess not much else?

Yes, this kind of thing seems to be possible. But then why do they really need the outies at all if that is the case? I suppose they have to keep up appearances.

They need to test the applications requiring outies, e.g. anesthesia

Good one! Part of me still entertains the idea that all the outside stuff is also still under Keir’s (Keir Dullea’s?) umbrella so everything is still part of the testing and they didn’t really escape after all and it was intentional that they found Ricken’s book but then that is ultimately too much of a kind of “it was all a kooky dream!” copout and really unsatisfying.

binged this last night (unwisely) after being bombarded by the name on the front page for a month. Thank you ILX, so great. Ricken's book was my favourite plot device. Not just because "haha funny" (which it was), but also for the sweetness of seeing these innie's in this childlike state. No ironic distancing, no sense of superiority. Very sweet to see this dumb-ass text overcome its dumb-assess to help "free the prisoners" and I like the morality of it all. The show gives Ricken a big pat on the back and tells you it doesn't matter if you're an idiot, if you are at least sincere you can still do something right.

Think y’all are underestimating Ricken but I can say no more.

Finale title reminds me of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXDtdV3_hEs

Ricken accept's Marks 180 a bit too easily

I know I make you feel lesser than

grateful that the forehead mole atop ricken's part is not a ploy but an actual feature of the actor

because it's honestly kind of hypnotizing

You're sure it's not some kind of INSERT THEORY HERE?

The show gives Ricken a big pat on the back and tells you it doesn't matter if you're an idiot, if you are at least sincere you can still do something right.

this is the Zoolander doctrine iirc

(come to think of it, I can hear Zoolander in most of Ricken's lines lol)

^ same

he’s literary Zoolander <3

Couldn't stomach him in the first episode, got giddy every time he appeared in all future episodes. The Ted Lasso effect.

Zoolander doctrine is great. Never realised how much I rate Ben Stiller humour till now

ben stiller is solid as long as i'm not reminded of his lack of a neck

Great set up of cliffhanger. Made me laugh at conclusion or set up of needing several. Very well done.

I hope mystery just deepens further. & there is no easy out.
Super creepy connotations of so much of this.
Wondering if gala event is going to have audience who will see Helly's comment as more than amusing anyway. Or was it being live televised. Will see what knock on effect will be.

Anyway worlds within worlds and fun things like that. Will see how far refractive that goes in next season I assume.

Funny also to be watching Ricken actor playing John's brother in Patriot at the same time I was watching this. Somehow missed that before but somebody on a podcast was proselytising it as the best thing ever over the last couple of weeks so I grabbed the 2 seasons. & it is really good. From about 7 years ago a govt agent placed in a firm to give him cover for foreign work and messing things up badly. Comedy drama. Very black comedy.

Thread on Patriot here

https://www.atlasofwonders.com/2022/03/where-was-severance-filmed.html

Just caught up. The finale was the most goddamn exciting, fun thing I’ve watched in forever. Amazing cast too.

And nice, for a change, to watch something thrilling and tense that didn’t depend on the threat of ultraviolence to create tension.

yes!

Thirded.

The pacing was amazing.

i honestly had no idea what was going to happen week to week, it was the most “in the moment” i’ve been watching a show in a while

Also just caught up on this, binged most in one sitting. Wow. So layered, so well paced, so strange!

All the allusions to a sort of DPRK/Stalinist love of leader, with images and statues and songs, and nothing but The Handbook to be allowed to read, which I also noted as someone else upthread did looked very like a bible. Similarly just the keeping everyone in line by keeping them all so separated/siloed and in fear of each other.

One thing that really struck me no one else has touched on much is the dreamlike state of it all. Well, my dreams anyway. There was a lot of clever use of focus pulls (like the lift sequences) that distorted the frame/aspect. In one scene two of them are walking thru the corridors and the camera did a focus pull and pan in such a way that they looked like they were walking in place, like in a dream where you never get anywhere when you move.

Even the outies seemed to be perpetually in the dark, with lights in their houses not working , and it being night 90% of the time.

I did NOT see the fact that Helly was the daughter of the CEO coming AT ALL, which was brilliant, it wasnt remotely telegraphed so that was a real shock. Same with what happened with Marks wife, but my othr half worked that out (somehow) before it was revealed.

WHAT THE HELL WAS WITH THE WAFFLE PARTY SCENE. That was something straight out of Legion.

i'm reading a nonfiction book with a segment about military drone operators and how their job impacts their mental health, and it was talking about how they have cognitive dissonance from basically being "at war" for their workday and then they leave their top-secret drone operation facility and are suddenly back in "normal life" where they're running errands and are with their families but because of confidentiality requirements they can't discuss their jobs at all with their friends or families and GUESS WHAT TV SHOW IT MADE ME THINK OF

The Flight Attendant?

I get that cognitive dissonance is run-of-the-mill jobs too — that sense, when you’re at work, of suddenly caring (or having to pretend to care about) about something you normally wouldn’t give two shits about.

Xpost

I did NOT see [show hidden text]coming AT ALL, which was brilliant, it wasnt remotely telegraphed so that was a real shock.

I didn't either -- genuinely shocking, and I'm extremely impressed at how not-cheap the surprise/reveal was.

And while the surprise of the music cue for the Music and Dance Experience was spoiled for me when I saw Stiller on Seth Meyers, holy hell, what a choice.

And I was really struck by the set design; things like the choice to use all cathode ray tube monitors made it feel bizarrely timeless and futuristic simultaneously.

https://www.atlasofwonders.com/2022/03/where-was-severance-filmed.html

― Ramones Leave the Capitol (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, April 17, 2022 6:33 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

As a NJ resident I think I remember the office building catch my eye during a bored google maps scroll long before seeing the show.

And as a Hudson Valley frequent visitor I immediately noticed the outside shots of Irving's house from Kingston NY (95% sure...) and, when he was driving, the intersection + Roundhouse Hotel in Beacon NY (150% sure)

And I was really struck by the set design; things like the choice to use all cathode ray tube monitors made it feel bizarrely timeless and futuristic simultaneously.

And as a Hudson Valley frequent visitor I immediately noticed the outside shots of Irving's house from Kingston NY (95% sure...) and, when he was driving, the intersection + Roundhouse Hotel in Beacon NY (150% sure)

― Evan, Monday, April 18, 2022 2:06 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ha weird I thought some of that looked oddly familiar. Also, the musician-composer featured in the Music Dance Experience is from Poughkeepsie. It's all a rich tapestry.

For much of the season I was confused by Helly’s character, as it seemed weird for someone who had signed up willingly for Severance work to rebel against it so violently from the get-go. Like did innies have completely different personalities from their outies? The reveal made it make sense though, as Helly is clearly someone who has never had to work a real job or take orders before.

xxxp the lighting and particularly shot framing reminded me strongly of THX1138 for some reason.

The set design asthetic is something I'm seeing a lot of lately (and yes, Maniac is one of them). Theres something Eastern Bloc about it.

I have literally worked in an office once that was a big, empty room with 4 desks right in the middle with partitions and only 4 of us in a room way too large (because we planned on moving more ppl in there and never did in the end). So that, plus the baffling, timewasting work and windowless, cold-white light and endless coridoors gave me visceral Bad Vibes.

I'm not sure how much I can talk about this but, a government job I had many years ago had a department in a basement, that was completely underground, seperate from the building itself, cut off by a secure door. No windows, so they had this weird strip lighting in the walls that changed colour during the day and night so the staff working there had some idea time was passing. Theres a lot about this show that I found quite plausible haha.

This show has mark s in it!

Hahaha I had the same thought!

Yes Mark S has taken on a Kafkaesque ring since watching this show. All the shrines to a mysterious leader called Kier also prompted some lols.

The combination of dystopic bureaucratic discourse + self-help shtick reminded me a lot of George Saunders' Civilwarland in Bad Decline? Mark's bro in law felt like he belonged in another show really. That marriage was possibly the least plausible thing about the whole thing.

Watched the last four episodes on Friday, but my Plex autoplayed and for some reason skipped e07, so felt like I had my own severance moment for a while there.

100% on the George Saunders vibe

pic.twitter.com/dbRnVwqWpr

— Zac Coe (@_normalzac) April 18, 2022

Lol!

haha britt lower def does give off jenny lewis vibes

i keep wanting to push dylan’s glasses back up

any two-handed task leads to that level of precarity within 11 seconds, ime. Dylan knew what he was volunteering for.

Yup

Best show this year, so far. I wonder how much the writers have planned ahead, I really don't know where it would go next season

haha britt lower def does give off jenny lewis vibes

her face reminds me a lot of Lena Headey's

The creator says the show is meant to run 3 seasons, so I figure he has a story planned out

Good to hear, I don't want this show to go too LOST

Yeah, they've set it up so that they could pretty easily undo all of the progress of the last episode and start over again from square one, or have the whole show be upended, or anything in between. Very curious how they will handle it.

^yes to all of this

It's hard to imagine Helly's outie letting her go back to the office. In fact, it's hard to imagine the innies not being wiped or something now that they've seen too much.

Yes, this is what I have been thinking. Unless...

It is hard to figure out how they haven't reached a narrative dead end, sort of where The Good Place went during the second season, where a return to the status quo doesn't make narrative sense, but going too far from the status quo could make the series lose the specific intrigues that make it interesting.

On the other hand it could all be fine! And I hope it well be. Aside from all the puzzlebox mystery shows that lost their way, there's still The Leftovers, which basically aced it all the way through to the finale.

And I'm still thinking about the finale! It wouldn't work as a discrete hour of television, but it's got to be the most enjoyable single episodes of television I've watched in a long, long time. Totally Reaganing.

Yes, finale was excellent. Still thinking one way they could play it is that the whole thing was some kind of mega-experiment, allowing them to read Ricken's book and then to escape to See What They Would Do and the Whole Town Is In On It so they all just get put back in the box next season but then that would sort of be a copout, so I dunno. *scratches head*

I watched the final three in a row, so I may have missed something, but I feel like the most clearly dangling thread to pick up in the next season is the Lumon chip doctor, who iirc never reappeared after meeting with Mark and killing the security guy. So an obvs way to not just wipe the innies would be to have them reintegrated

Yes, pondering that too.

Yes. Alternatively Lumon could just reset their chips so their innies would be back to ignorant bliss.

or they could reset *us* and show the same season to a fresh audience

love this interview w Stiller

https://defector.com/ben-stiller-explains-how-severance-became-the-rare-streaming-show-thats-actually-good/

So after watching Severance, I started reading Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and am struck by many similarities, starting with the labyrinthine setting and making of notes, among other things - anyone else?

Yes!

Right? (Hidden spoilers are for the book) plus the inside/outside knowledge/memory of oneself and trying to cross the worlds, the question of whether you want to, the 'work' in Severance maybe being similar to the 'Secret Knowledge' in Piranesi, who is trustworthy. Possibly getting people inside by nefarious means. Dunno what the equivalent of the waffle party would be though...

Really curious as to whether Piranesi had any influence at all over Severance? I might not have put the two together if I hadn't read/watched in quick succession.

I'm reading that the Backrooms horror meme had a bit of influence over Severance and, in particular, folks talking about this 16-year-old's series of videos, but the first one went up 3 months ago so it can't be true. They're pretty good though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4dGpz6cnHo

I have little interest in most dystopian stories but gave Severance a try anyway. I was immediately hooked by the opening scene's conference room as prison cell and absurdist corporate survey. And how Helly responded with the fury it all deserves from any sane person. Later scenes of doublespeak and goofy dancing, though entertaining, haven't been quite so on target.

I guess I've kept watching for the mystery and the puzzle aspect, although it's hard to really care what evil mechanics of Lumon turn out to be revealed. What matters more is the tone and the characters.

It is a relief to follow a series with a relatively small cast of characters you don't need to struggle to keep track of.

Every time I see this thread I think about Ecks vs. Sever.

I thought this was really excellent. Some of the scenes were so formally perfect, if plucked from a 70s Italian auteur work they would be taught in film courses.

The "it's a lab experiment" theory faded somewhat by the end of the season; if it is an experiment then I think it's a Prison Experiment variant where the supervisors (Cobel, Milchik) are not in on it but also subjects. Given where the season ended up though, I think the purpose of the innies' work is just to demonstrate the viability of the severance technology, which Lumon wants to make mainstream. The work is mysterious but probably not important.

I liked how the innies were the central characters and the outies mainly rounded out their stories, kind of a reversal of how the outies would feel about themselves.

Waffle party is objectively the worst party, egg dish social is seriously underrated (though what was with the purple eggs?)

Xp Stanford Prison experiment appears to have been quite different than it appears in the public semi cosciousness. I heard a couple of pretty good podcasts on it last year. You're Wrong About was one I think.
So was more 2 sides being aware of situation than double blind. Just misreported.

Just discovered Apple's spin-off ebook thing: https://books.apple.com/us/book/severance/id1613220757

the implications of the severing can get really dark really quickly; my mind immediately thought about evil people using the procedure to force people (women mostly) into sex slavery. but the idea that they can turn you on and off whenever is also pretty wild, suggesting that they could "kill" either half of you whenever they wanted.

― ian, Saturday, April 2, 2022 8:31 AM (one month ago)

This brought me back to Gibson's Neuromancer and the "puppets" who were essentially prostitutes who turned "off" when they were servicing johns. I was discussing the show's core concept with my mother (before she's seen it) and she immediately went to how people running the concentration camps in WW2 would probably benefit from it.

Definitely not a new concept, and one that only seems to truly benefit a society with a lot of ills we want to "wish away" with a mere symptomatic fix rather than a systemic one.

I'm glad more and more people seem to be watching this, but I wish Tramell Tillman's amazing supporting role was a bigger part of that conversation (unless I'm missing something)

That did have a big moment on this thread, although probably easy to scroll past what with all the other posting.

Oh I didn't mean here particuarly, just in general online whatnot

Oh, okay. I don't think it's going out on a limb to say his peformance is key to the whole thing.

I think he has probably getting noticed by people who cast shows and films. There were a few articles calling him the breakout star of the show.

tillman fit in well with the 1970s vibe of the innie world. none of the other lumon bosses fit in so well.

they needed mustaches too

Walken did well with a being in his 70s vibe

tillman fit in well with the 1970s vibe of the innie world. none of the other lumon bosses fit in so well.

the point where he started dancing was a real "this guy can do... anything!" moment

Ha, yes, exactly.

I'm just reading the book Soldaten which is based around a load of tapes of German POWs from he 2nd World War being transcribed. So it shows a lot of casual conversation caught unconsciously. & shows what the epistemology of those involved. Some horrific stuff about attitudes toward Jews and other civilians.
Interesting parallel to what appears to be being depicted here.

Just finished this, incredible. Fantastic concept, couldn't stop thinking about it, what it would be like to be severed, imagining spending 24 hours a day seven days a week awake in an office, never sleeping, never leaving, feeling mysteriously refreshed every 8 hours, and whether your outie having all the sleep and leisure time would truly be enough to offset that psychological insanity. When my wife said after ep 3 that she was thinking about the show I said 'you mean what it would be like to be severed?' and she said no i don't think about things that couldn't happen, lol.

Loved the bit in the first episode where Helly tries to leave and some mysterious force pushes her back - it seemed a bit supernatural and not what I was expecting from the show, till the penny dropped and I realised the mysterious force was her own - or her outie's - agency choosing to walk back through the door, but which she has no memory of. And then we see it from the other side in ep 2.

So much humour, lots noted upthread already - Burt's leaving speech video, 'the latin for camera' (and everything else in Ricken's book or said by Ricken - the kid's beds!), 'It was me, I found her!'.

Mark's listing the reasons his wife was extraordinary ('My wife liked other people's dogs. My wife thought cardigans looked ridiculous.') sounded just like a Wellness session.

Haven't seen any mention upthread of continuity errors/'errors' (?) - the most obvious was the blood on Milchick's arm disappeared when he walked out the door; my wife said she'd noticed some others.

That last episode, where they were supposed to be doing THE MISSION to TELL EVERYONE and yet Mark kept getting delayed by everything, like some neverending dream / The Unconsoled.

Wow, my favourite book but I hadn't noticed this similarity! That was so tense, I kept on yelling 'Mark for God's sake just start talking!'

My theory, which stands up to zero scrutiny, is that the severed floor is literally, not figuratively, hell.

People would really like that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgOMxTxWPuQ

I haven't binge-watched a show in ages but with the day off and reaching the last three episodes I couldn't help myself and powered through and finished the finale -- the tension was INTENSE. I think in retrospect it's kind of obvious that if they were able to say what they needed to say, it'd be at the very end, but the way I got strung along in thinking (oh now so and so can spill the beans!) was still kind of artful.

With Helly, I haven't wished for a character's death so much since Joffrey, but for completely different reasons.

The only thing that confuses me is how quickly Irv decides to turn on Lumon. Is it that he's been trying to fill a void by being a Lumon evangelist, but when he finds a real connection with Burt and then Lumon immediately takes it away, the edifice crumbles? Kind of like the opposite of Cobel/Selvig, who is a true believer and will at the first opportunity try to save the company (to get back into its good graces if nothing else) even as she's still reeling from being fired by them.

Yeah basically. iirc he turns on a dime after the retirement party. But I think he also has the hope of escaping and seeing Burt again

inner irv has absolutely nothing

where else can he possibly find anything meaningful but lumon?

and then he *does* find something and it's taken away; of course he's going to want to burn that shit down

my only 'complaint' is that there wasn't really any need to accost dylan at home (which led to everything else)

(i am not really complaining)

I keep thinking about Irving! Namely, even his outie seems to be obsessed with Lumon, whether there's some kind of leakage between his selves that leads him to compulsively paint the same hallway over and over again, or because he's investigating them (the list of severed employees).

turturro's delivery of "you smug motherfucker" at the retirement party is legendary. he's amazing in this.

i'm happy to see so much love for the finale here. 45 minutes of straight-up linear suspense hinging on a guy holding two levers in place. one of the best things about this show is how it has no need to manipulate chronology to stay interesting.

Just watched the whole lot in two days while sick. Between this and The Rehearsal it's a great TV time. Also felt the links to Maniac - especially retro computing and the animated graphics of Keir once they finished their quarterly work. Some observations while still sick so apologies if they've been made before or are in the links which I have to go through.

- Innies sort of like 'Cookies' in Black Mirror
- Dillon was smart enough to use his belt on the door, but not to use his tie on one of the levers?
- Who (2 people!) held the levers when Milchick went to Dillon's? Not Grainer or Cobel,
- Was the point of the Waffle Party to whip the dancers like in the painting of Keir? What's the goat connection there?
- Devon seemed so much more self aware than Devon and friends, until she met met the Senator's wife again: Rather than assuming someone might blank you after invading their 'birthing ritual' and taking their coffee, the *only* answer must be that she's severed!
- Outies *can* terminate their employment? Wouldn't Outie Irving question his compulsion to make dozens of paintings of a terrifying hallway? They reminded me of this https://cakeordeathsite.wordpress.com/2019/05/08/the-passages-of-h-r-giger/
- Intro reminded me a bit of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaMEIuTxfwM (which until now didn't realise was a fan-made clip)
- Speaking of games, some definite Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide vibes.

- Devon seemed so much more self aware than *Rickon* and friends

Also scans of Lexington guide here for non-Apple users https://imgur.com/a/GOiKxEa

OMG yeah Stanley Parable is right - forgot all about that game.

In season 2 I'd like to see a bit more of how society outside of Lumon functions. 'Rickon and friends' had their own (pretty innocuous tbf) cult-y vibe, independent of the obvious cult of Kier stuff at Lumon. Curious if that's indicative of a more widespread predilection towards cultiness among people living in this town. It's been a while since I watched it so I might have forgotten some other societal context/tidbits to confirm or deny this, though.

In season 2 I’d like to hear more Joe McPhee.

- Outies *can* terminate their employment? Wouldn't Outie Irving question his compulsion to make dozens of paintings of a terrifying hallway?

well we know from all the documents in his house that Outie Irving is attempting to investigate the company in some way. The painting is possibly an attempt to access his memories of what happens when he's at work?

We are maybe halfway through this and it’s really good, Adam Scott (and more specifically, his face) just perfect casting for this. The humour is a very underrated part of this.

It's a really well-calibrated performance -- never too dark, too comic, too cowardly, too heroic -- it's just the right mix of each. You can see when he's thinking, and when he's not thinking. "The straight man, but not in a dull way" always seems like a difficult one to pull off.

^Booming post.

We are maybe halfway through this and it’s really good, Adam Scott (and more specifically, his face) just perfect casting for this. The humour is a very underrated part of this.

Easily one of the best episodes of telly ever. I'm going to stick with my 'I'd be happy for it to end there' opinion. It's pretty much perfect and I'm scared they're going to fuck it up.

Yeah I know what you mean. It reminded me of the s1 finale of Utopia which had two reveals I actually screamed at, and which I would have been happy for the show to end there - although s2 gave me some of my favourite television ever.

Chinaski otm.

Totally get that and agreed that if that was all we got, it's an exquisite way to end, but at the same time I BADLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

When my wifed suggested we watch this show I reluctantly agreed, fearing it would be a very heavy-handed show about workers right and whatnot and nothing more than that, but holy shit I was hooked from the first minutes of the first episode and we binge-watched the whole season. I can't remember the last time I loved a TV show so much.

Based on what the creators have said, it sounds like they have a lot of it planned out, so I'm optimistic about the next seasons

I don't have Apple TV but have been staying at my bandmate's house for rehearsals and she does, and I managed to finish this last time I was down. Bloody love it, but personally I feel like there was too much left unfinished in the last episode, great as it was. At least one of the plot, character or emotional arcs needed to be resolved for it to not need another series, and they were all left open. To be fair, my desire for more concrete resolution might be due to the precariousness of my viewing ability.

I really want to do a Music Experience options poll but I fear non-Severance fans might hate me for it.

Bob Balaban! Alia Shawkat! some other people i don't know or don't care as much about! https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/severance-season-2-cast-gwendoline-christie-alia-shawkat-bob-balaban-1235418421/

From the casting you'd guess a Severance x Knives Out crossover. Fun list for sure. Ólafur Darri Ólafsson!

Merritt Weaver! xp

That large a number of high profile new cast members certainly suggests they aren't going down the route of 'reset the status quo to the maximum extent possible' route

amazing series throughout -- been watching it alternating w/Andor (two episodes left in that) and watching the dystopian prison episodes of the latter at the same time as this was reaching its climax was an interesting vibe

Honored to talk about my performance on Severance here 🙏 pic.twitter.com/NHIzu13MMo

— Rajat Suresh (@rajat_suresh) March 11, 2023

How good

Rajat and Jeremy are absolutely terrible and I mean that in a complimentary way

Finished this tonight! It's quite good for six episodes then amazing for three. It could have maybe gotten amazing more quickly but fine, I can live with that.

What I'm most struck by is how fucking weird the outside world is (even by the standards of our IRL outside world rn) - how stygian, how deranged, how isolating and stilted. Something is fucked-up and it goes beyond Lumon

Having thought that the actual work might be a macguffin, I do also think it is probably quite important to find out what they do and what its wider implications are. But that's probably one for the S2 finale

Wait, what episode was Defiant Jazz because that one's just straight up amazing?

yeah, it's episode 7

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt11280740/episodes/?season=1

i now note that imdb agrees with me on when it jumps to being amazing, haha

Dined near the crew in Port Rexton, Newfoundland on the weekend. Wonder when the episode they're filming will be out. Should check it.

how isolating and stilted

I guess the place will fit. It's very early in tourist season, with a very grey start to "spring". I'm not sure any other restaurants were open yet.

Binged this over the last few days.
- Adam Scott’s face is… something.
- “Does it bother anyone else that they never seem to do any work? I know it's implied but idk”
This probably wouldn’t have bothered me except that Irv was getting his pay docked for dozing on the job.
- I can’t figure out Harmonie Cobel’s motivation. She’s got the shrine but she’s at odds with the Board. Before she realizes Mark is Out, and he’s telling her he’s thinking about quitting, she hugs him and whispers to “get away from those people”. She also seems to be encouraging something between Mark and “Ms Casey”.
- I’m very intrigued by the O&D dept and what they’re actually doing in the back room. Like, the random objects they’re creating and those instructional cards?
- for some reason I thought this was a limited series to I was pulling my hair out at the cliffhanger.

Season 2 not sounding promising so far though. Behind the scenes turmoil apparently and now on indefinite hold due to strike

What was the turmoil? All I find is that production was halted due to the strikes, which is every show basically

Some falling out between the two showrunners.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/severance-season-2-delayed-due-to-showrunner-fighting-report

https://www.gq.com/story/severance-season-2-delayed-behind-the-scenes-drama#

Well it looks they brought in the writer who wrote the prison episodes of Andor, so that seems promising

kinda curious how/why they're spending $20m per episode

those kaypro ii monitors aren’t cheap these days

Alia Shawkat is notorious for her method acting, forcing the production team to create the severing technology for real

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULC9M8CCn28

2025-01-17 if you don't want to watch the 0:40 vid.

wow only 33 months between seasons

yay, my husband and I now have anniversary plans

At least we'll have something decent to watch at the beginning of Trump's second term

but not a lot

David Zaslav, the CEO of CNN’s parent company, at the Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on Tuesday: pic.twitter.com/TZ1ggoLJQY

— David Gura (@davidgura) July 10, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwP6M9zS_pQ

i think i'll have to pay the $8 to watch this.

I wonder how big their shooting set is. How many of the hallways did they actually have to construct?

That's obviously why it took so long. All the carpentry and drywall.

I'm gonna rewatch s1 at some point

I rewatched it and had forgotten so much yet also remembered so much.

it's such a treat of a show and I really hope they don't screw it up.

Kobel is such an utterly batshit character - I hope we find out more about her growing up in the Egan cult and what the shrine stuff was.

yeah rewatching as well. delighted all over again that mark s is in this.

Man, this looks promising...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UXKlYvLGJY

oh my god

jaymc at 6:16 10 Jul 24

At least we'll have something decent to watch at the beginning of Trump's second term

welp

So stoked for this to be back

I really want to do a Music Experience options poll but I fear non-Severance fans might hate me for it.

― emil.y, Monday, 26 September 2022 16:38 (two years ago)

Fuck it, I'm doing this.

Favourite genre from Severance's Music Experience options

hell yeah, January will be magic again

good profile of Adam Scott, with a few brief details about Season 2: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/12/30/adam-scott-profile

Oh yeah just read that. Good shit, I have high expectations.

Though it must be said the highlight of the article was where the show creator was like “I don’t think Ben Stiller would object to my saying on the record that his perfectionism slows down our timeline” followed by a later quote that he wants to “clarify that Ben Stiller’s perfectionism in no way delayed the show.” Guess he didn’t have such a good read on what opinions Stiller would be cool with him sharing after all! lol

i don't think ben stiller would object to my saying on the record that he lacks a neck

but i want to clarify that the length of ben stiller's neck is in no way abnormal

Enjoying a quick binge/rewatch of s1. Still great!

this review in Vulture has me excited (headline: "It Was Worth the Wait")
https://archive.ph/aQ2Uc

similar vibes from the rolling stone article

i think they sent out all ten eps for review, which is another good sign

I highly recommend rewatching before s2 starts. I forgot how bingeable the show is, and especially how gripping the last couple episodes.

But I also forgot major plot elements after so many years, for instance the budding romance between Christopher Walken and John Turturro. Just completely forgot that very obvious character arc.

Yeah, I rewatched it last year. That last episode is still one of the tensest pieces of television I've seen

just finished rewatching s1. Remembering when it first aired I went online and said the finale was the best hour of TV I'd ever seen in my life. Still feel that way. There was one moment that I forgot about where I literally jumped up and dropped the remote and my phone and paused and had to wait a second. When Mark is walking away and calls her Mrs Cobel

Such an unusual promo stunt -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYVyTvnAsQw

been binging the podcast. good stuff.

Jump the shark moment

Shut up dog

Just rewatched the last two episodes of Season 1 in preparation and noticed that S2E1 is now up. Will save it for this weekend.

just watched it. 100% sure Helly R is her outtie

That was good. I think I agree with dan.

That was so good. Pineapple bobbing and the mirror room lol. Not 100% on Helly as she did seem genuinely passionate when declaring "We are not our outies!" to Mark. Also, the girl playing Ms Huang was terrific.

I'm rewatching season 1 to be prepared for the new season since I have forgotten a lot of it. It is fascinating and surreal and the filming and sets are beautiful, but it is so stylized and absolutely sterile and astringent that I haven’t been able to recommend it to my family and friends. I know they would hate it

Enjoy your balloons 🎈

Loved the first episode. Picks up right at the same level where they left off.

yeah agreed

also liked the contrast of him starting S2 ~sprinting~ forever through the hallways this time (vs walking them forever in s1e1)

I felt the animated video bit took me out of it a bit - not sure that they'd recreate scenes from Severance so faithfully...? Or maybe it just felt a bit too 'Community' idk. Agree though that pineapple bobbing and the mirrors were lol.
Loved it still though. "Does your Perpetuity Wing have animatronic Eagans?"

I thought the same thing dan did. Why would she lie about what she saw? Unless there's another game afoot and this was misdirection

because Helly is her outie spying for her Eagan family

yeah I suspect this is what we're being made to think. but...

her physical mannerisms etc are noticeably different almost as soon as she comes out of the elevator.

Can we make this one of those threads that you don’t look at if you’re not caught up we don’t have to keep doing the spoiler thing?

yes please

For now, though: I can see the Helly thing both ways. If it is Helly and not Helena, she might not want to admit that her outie is Helena because she doesn't want the others to turn on her. But it's funny how her vehemence about her innie and outie being two different people makes sense no matter which one is talking.

Thankyou for noting that'll happen - I am holding off on watching S2 til Ive had a S1 recap and also would like to have a few eps in backlog to watch at once, so I will duly avoid here til then! x

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OraR-G4RiLc

One thing I'd be curious to see more of would be a sense of how much the rest of Lumon is aware of the severed floor and how much interaction they might have. Like presumably the "regular" Lumon employees know about it and the "severed floor(s?)" is known, but are there like mailrooms folks absolutely dreading when they have to make a trip down to the severed teams?

I've been kind of bored with TV lately, so I've been especially excited about Severance S2. Listened to all 10 episodes of the podcast over the last week and have been poring over theories on Reddit. It's fun to feel invested in a show like this.

Mr. Milkshake

a curious choice by zip recruiter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJaOhQ_4XW0

Lord, the new title sequence is intense

It's like a visual speedrun of a Muse album lol. Quite enjoyed it tho yes

Anyway, uh they never did become international causes celebres then ofc lol

oh yeah
ha
Loved Dylan's interview

Another great episode.

Dylan's interview was hilarious

With the narcissism of small differences guy.

fetid moppet!

fwiw, the animated sequence in s02e01 is apparently narrated by keanu reeves

the interview with Adrian Martinez was hilarious. Love thinking about him taking such offence at the term door prize

Stop hiding! This is a spoiler filled zone. Just don’t look at it until you’re caught up.

Iceland from Somebody Somewhere is a good addition.

we have a winner!

"door prize" moment was an odd one, having never heard of a "door prize"

That was terrific. It looked beautiful, too - so much great photography.

There is a real battle between the need to keep *it* hermetically sealed and allowing the outside world to intrude just enough to permit peril and incongruity. They've managed that line so well (so far, at least).

.

oh right, 'door prize' is a thing?

if doors are some kind of joke to you, i guess

How dare you. I've had a passion for doors since I was 5

semi gloss tho

I definitely know the phrase 'door prize'. I don't think I ever thought about what it means or ever really knew, but knew it well enough that I laughed.

suppose I'm the kind of person who finds doors hilarious.

how did they resist having him say some iteration of "let me show you the door" at the end of the exchange????

The name’s a mouthful, or as I say, a doorful.

They make their doors in house. Such hubris.

i appreciate that they didn't clear up the mystery of Helly R yet

^this

Well kinda but they did tag on a making of feature the w/ the actress discussing how different the innie and outie are to play.

i don't get how that would work considering it's geographically triggered

Feels like something they can switch off if they want to - I noticed they didn't show the inside of the lift in this particular ep.

you guys sure do love spoiler tags

Wonder if anyone was familiar with the closing credits song on one of the episodes, “God Walked Down,” by The Allergies.

Nah, not really

Has anybody talked about The Prisoner in regard to this show? Watching the first season, stuff like coming across the goats, made me think of all those random scenes where number 6 is walking through a building and looks through a window and sees some kind of weird experiment/procedure.

I've generally felt that they're not doing anything on the severed floor, that it's all just a way for them to be tested, to test the effects of the procedure, or how to manipulate people in that state or something, but there was a comment in this last episode, when Helene said something like "we need Mark to finish project..." something or other which made me think maybe there is something.

In any case, the way Cobel/Milchik act also recall the various number 2s of the Prisoner to me. How each different number 2 would try different techniques to crack number 6, being nice, being mean, being confusing etc.

Seems like Mark is the only one who is doing something real, if disguised, and the others are there to keep him company. It is occcuring to me now that it is similar in some ways to Philp K. Dick's Time Out of Joint.

xpostThe Cold Harbor Project

It’s what we saw on Mark’s screen with the picture of Gemma last week

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/01/25/we-know-what-severances-cold-harbor-is-kind-of/

XP to Dan, totally been thinking along the same lines wrt The Prisoner.

After watching some YT thing with Stiller & Erickson, I got a sense that their introduction of some of the unusual ideas and mysterious imagery was to be not *all* explainable as part of some mythos or code, but mere texture and fun for them to toss into the mix.

Much like The Prisoner had those unexplained scenes you mention, where you look through a porthole in a door and some guy is strapped to a chair, bathed in funky lighting making weird noises etc:

Oh and one of the 2 million Severance theory-based essays on YT posits that the world the show takes place in isn't exactly like ours, something to do with the cars/number plates and the number of states or something, idk.

Their corporate video cited the wrong number of countries in the world iirc

The cars definitely seem like older models. But the computers do too.

Also no one recognizes the famous actor Christopher Walken.

the cars of season one

something to do with the cars/number plates and the number of states or something, idk.

iirc outtie Irving had a piece of mail that showed his address in "Kier, PE."

the world the show takes place in isn't exactly like ours

this has seemed pretty self-evident from the beginning! the real world of the show has always been a little off via production design choices as well as how some of the characters behave. it's like 1985 with occasional interruptions from 2015.

^this

Noticed this - the cars, TVs etc all 70s/80s. But then cell phones.

Also no "severance" technology here

THAT WE KNOW OF

pocket door hive

also Helly’s dad reminds me of Pierce’s dad Cornelius Hawthorne in “Community” -all he needs is porcelain hair

I thought the same thing!

Watching it last night with the dead wife being at the forefront again I suddenly thought of Solaris and the coincidence of the sibilance in the two titles made me wonder if it was a deliberate echo.

this has seemed pretty self-evident from the beginning! the real world of the show has always been a little off via production design choices as well as how some of the characters behave. it's like 1985 with occasional interruptions from 2015.

Yeah, I guess I've always just assumed so far that the computers, cars, weather and all the rest were stylistic choices and partly a device to make the viewer suspend disbelief.

The weather especially makes me feel that the whole setting is happening in some sort of Truman Show snow globe.

Oh, I've always felt like the world outside Lumon has been just as uncanny and fucked-up as the world inside, and that there's definitely something amiss/VR about it too

What I'm most struck by is how fucking weird the outside world is (even by the standards of our IRL outside world rn) - how stygian, how deranged, how isolating and stilted. Something is fucked-up and it goes beyond Lumon

― imago, Tuesday, 9 May 2023 21:59 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

who's this wise guy

bob balaban cracked me up in just a few seconds this week, truly one of our finest comedic actors

“What do you think this is, a carpet factory?”

Really enjoyed the first two episodes of the new season. It's so well done that I honestly don't really care what's going on. It's all so weird and menacing and not of this world that I think I would prefer a few seasons of menacing ambiguity over "answers" or whatever.

Yeah, the answers will probably suck, I have become fatalistic that they always do after Orphan Black, keeping the mystery going is the thing.

You’re sitting in me right now.

I think my theorizing comes down to whether Mark is their best worker and they need him functional because he's the only one giving real results, or if there is something specific to him, such as the not-dead wife, that makes him essential.

I didn't rewatch the last season before this one started, but my impression is that the severance procedure is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Lumon is up to. Something they're doing with the little computer number games has to do with mapping how the brain, and specifically memory, operate.

The saddest version would be that Mark's there specifically to identify patterns that correspond to shared experiences with his not-dead wife because something happened that made her want to Eternal Sunshine him out of her head.

Presumably they're also able to make the severed, work day personalities different and not just a tabula rasa version that makes new memories, because that little girl was not acting like a little girl.

I think the last shot of S2E1 suggests that what he's doing relates specifically to Gemma.

yeah i think so too

Hadn’t thought about that but makes sense

innie mark knowing that outie mark was married to ms. casey probably messes up their plan, right? probably more interesting if it doesn't

They imply/state/show that Lumon is all over the world, but so far the world we've been shown hasn't made any room for the rest of the world/country/region. For all we know both the innies and outties are innies, if that makes sense. This could be a nesting dolls situation, which may explain why everything in the "real"/outtie world is so off-kilter, too. No, what Lumon is up to, and why it might be vitally important? Eh. Like I said, for once I don't really care, nothing they reveal will make any real sense so I'm just along for the ride!

I think Milchick may have given us a clue when he was selling Lumon/severance to Mark as a way to help deal with Gemma’s death.

I’m starting to believe that Lumon wants to market severance as a kind of therapy, where your unconscious self goes in and identifies the things causing you problems in your conscious life and excises them (scary numbers into boxes.)

I dunno, in this world Lumon and severance is already a known quantity (maybe globally)! Enough to be controversial/cost you jobs at a door store.

i think this all ties into what Helly’s Dad said about “revolving” and that ultimately they’re working on some kinda live forever procedure for rich weirdos

One thing we learned is that there are other teams that have never hit quota. Mark’s team may be the only one that has.

I’m starting to believe that Lumon wants to market severance as a kind of therapy, where your unconscious self goes in and identifies the things causing you problems in your conscious life and excises them (scary numbers into boxes.)

― Iza Duffus Hardy (President Keyes), Monday, January 27, 2025 6:35 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

this also jives with the woman who used severance to deal with pregnancy/childbirth

See also The Beast.

severance as a kind of therapy

In Mark's outie scenes we learn he couldn't hold down his old job out of grief. And he likes the idea of disconnecting for hours at a day... but there's no indication that it helps him in his normal life, other than as income. It seems to be held up as an excuse for not actually dealing with his grief.

Well, if it working yet they wouldn’t have to keep doing the project.

definitely signs it's some kind of general purpose horrorshow where people decide what they do and don't want to feel or experience, even when it's part of the human experience of pain, trauma, death, etc,

Now that I've considered it has Philip K. Dick vibes? yes, it 100% does

By way of "Parallax View."

i think this all ties into what Helly’s Dad said about “revolving” and that ultimately they’re working on some kinda live forever procedure for rich weirdos

What with the goats in S1 and Mark's outie saying he identified Gemma's dead body but clearly "she" was still alive on the severed floor makes me think they may be trying to develop some sort of cloning procedure

But as Josh says, I'm just here for the ride

Catching up with S1 still, hopefully will be able to click on all those spoiler tags soon. I appreciated this time how all four of the macro data refinement team came to their breaking point in different ways - helly was there from the start, dylan with his son, irving the true believer when he loses burt (plenty of religious parallels there) - and mark's just kind of going along for the ride (or showing solidarity with his team, to be more generous).

I also forgot how fucking funny it is - burt's goodbye video! "I'll never forget any of you - although I can't actually remember anything about you, your faces, even how many of you there are". They scored a coup getting walken for that part. Mark's brother in law is also great although you do wonder what his sister sees in him.

Learned in his podcast that Mike Birbiglia was up fit that role as well. Would’ve been different but I can def see that.

Mark's brother in law is also great although you do wonder what his sister sees in him.

that dude is that exact character in everything i've seen him in and i love it. putting his silly book in the context of being divine wisdom was one of the best bits in season 1.

John Turturro mentions in this interview he asked for Walken to play Burt:

I think the cast is terrific. I think Ben is really a strong director and we’ve gotten to know each other, learned how to work with each other well. And of course, I love working with Chris, so that’s a real cherry on top of the cake. That was my idea, and I’m really happy I had that idea.

My thinking was, “Who could I fall in love with?” I worked with Chris many times, I’ve directed him. When there’s someone you can laugh with and have fun with, that’s a form of love, really. You just get someone, and they get you. You know what I mean? I love Chris. He’s a beautiful guy. We have so much fun.

He’s also very vulnerable person. He’s a very open person. He’s got an imagination, like a real big imagination. And he’s not always the same, he spins it different ways. People imitate him, but he has big range as an actor and he has beautiful delicacy. There are things he’s done that have been really delicate and things that have been really scary. And he’s a great dancer. People who can dance that way, there’s something very joyful about it. They give you joy. And I like being not the oldest person on the show.

that dude is that exact character in everything i've seen him in and i love it. 

I think he's looking to stretch out:

https://deadline.com/2024/06/michael-chernus-john-wayne-gacy-peacock-devil-in-disguise-1235979304/

i mostly remember him as piper's brother in orange is the new black (playing that exact character)

He was in mumblecore TV show Easy a bunch, is a Noah Baumbach regular in Frances Ha and the Meyerowitz Stories, which puts him in the Ben Stiller orbit too. Funny in Ramy.

xxp Well that's gonna be nuts

I like ricken

Well!

so many guest stars. I know everybody in hollywood is begging Ben to get a spot but I find it a bit distracting. More Miss Caseys less Brienne of Tarth and Merritt Weaver...as awesome as they are.

I love Merritt Wever, so I will never mind seeing her. And I don't know Gwendoline Christie (I take it she was on Game of Thrones?), so she wasn't a distraction for me.

yeah, and the Star Wars sequals. She's very tall and pretty great.

If we're gonna speculate on silly mysteries, I'l liking the whole "cloning" thing.

Mark saw his wife's body, Ms. Casey is only an innie. They're doing tests on goats, people have talked about dolly the sheep. They goatkeepers asked to see their bellies, a jokey callback to Burt and co. thinking MDR have "pouches" but maybe it's some coverup about whether or not they have belly buttons. I noticed you don't see Helly's. Maybe Helly is the original clone.

I don't really believe that, I'm just posting it in case it turns out that way. I still think I deserve credit for predicting that Mad Men would end with the Coke commercial on ILX months before anybody else mentioned it.

Honored to talk about my performance on Severance here 🙏 pic.twitter.com/NHIzu13MMo

— Rajat Suresh (@rajat_suresh) March 11, 2023

Saddened to report that whatever potential parallel world Severance is set in, The Stone Roses' 'Second Coming' exists in it.

But in that world it was their biggest album.

I mean, it was also bigger than the debut in the US, wasn't it? I heard "Love Spreads" on alt-rock radio in 1994 alongside Green Day and Stone Temple Pilots.

I never heard a song from it.

Took me far too long to recognise Gwendoline Christie.

Can't wait for next week

"My husband has had trouble keeping other jobs."

"He dumb?"

"He a dick?"

lol

DANGER MOUSE

yeah Stone Roses on Severance was a disconcerting experience

Natalie is the creepiest person on the show

MISS HUANG

So much in that episode! Goatman!

That scene with Dylan's innie and his wife was so poignant. That she could say those things to him, then the glimpse of his home life, where the weight and mundanity of existence render them weightless. Goddamn.

https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-you-you-are/id6738364141

hoping that featuring 'love spreads' is a hint that someone (besides devon) is someone's sister

natalie is incredible

some amazingly awkward pauses between hel* and mark s., gretchen and dylan g, and especially milchick and natalie. "The Board wishes to express that I, Natalie, received the same gift upon receipt of my current position and found it extremely moving."

STONE ROSES???

the song is part of the tv show's soundtrack and not audible to the characters, as far as we can tell. stand down the alert, there is no indication the music of the stone roses exists within the world of severance

jumping the shark vibe

this season is a mess

Wait, doesn’t the song play when Mark turns on his car stereo?

That’s an xpost but I’m just ignoring calstars 2nd shark jumping comment in the past couple weeks

It plays on a car stereo

Season 1 didn’t need the stone roses

Some of you have strong feelings about the Stone Roses, I see.

And it's Cobel's stereo.

EMINENCE FRONT

I mean, it was also bigger than the debut in the US, wasn't it? I heard "Love Spreads" on alt-rock radio in 1994 alongside Green Day and Stone Temple Pilots.

EMINENCE FRONT

Music supervisor George Drakoulis.

(Bought a hot dog from)

rmde you nerds lol
stones roses needledrop like a red rag to a bull itt

goat room vibe-shifted into the fuckin wicker man right quick … whatever is happening in there i dont like it and want to watch every second of it

i said to mr veg i only understand maybe 20% of what is happening in this show but i could honestly watch it forever

Vast majority of viewers did not recognise the Stone Roses track, if you did you should be angry at yourself not the show.

Hearing the SR track was like biting into a chocolate chip cookie and finding a dollop of horseradish in the middle

I thought it was Driving South for a few seconds, which impresses how, um, uniform Second Coming is

holy shit that song was on for like 30 seconds, who gives a fuck

Hahaha. Truth. And it's a banger anyway.

Oh yeah my main response was being irksomely impressed by how quickly I realised who it was

I probably remembered it as in Mark’s car because you know Adam Scott probably loves that song.

the song started with cobel and continued through the scene of mark parking in the lumon lot

Ben Stiller said this on the podcast:

"That song, that Stone Roses song, "Love Spreads," it's not something that probably you would guess would be a music cue to go with Cobell, but I really felt like Stone Roses. It's her era. If we don't know what time frame the show is actually in. But for Patricia and myself, that '90s era music, it felt like the right era for her. When we put that song on for the radio that she turns on, just there's something about the vibe of that song."

What's odd is that's it's diegetic, but the sound mix doesn't change when it cuts away from her in the car

if Adam Scott was in a band it would be Bedhead

It would an R.E.M. cover band.

Be

i like the song! i thought it was fine in the show! yr all just shook bcz Mrs Cobel is suddenly flaunting her gen-x cred lol

wait til she shows up in Salt’s Neck rocking a MBV tshirt

I’m confused. Why would anyone be mad about a Stone Roses song in the soundtrack. Did I miss a memo?

they're an ilx shibboleth

lol how random

I think there’s just something wrong with a lot of us. especially me, as I literally dreamt of other Brit pop songs of that era that would have worked last night.

nobody surprised that Dylan's kids were watching Danger Mouse? was it at all popular in the US?

About as popular as Count Duckula... insofar that simply being on kids cable TV meant that kids would watch it.
Is SeverWorld meant to be pre-internet 90s though?

This is my favorite show on right now… but I am not a fan of the goats. It’s just too random and self-consciously weird.

Matt sadly my all caps post didn't gain the traction of the Stone Roses one

Def helps in setting up the world of Severance as existing outside our time

Internet detectives on the case!

https://www.polygon.com/tv/517190/severance-s2-episode-3-danger-mouse

Danger Mouse was on Nickelodeon all the time when I was a kid.

There's definitely some weird stuff going on with the time period -- there are smartphones, but all the cars look to be from the '70s and '80s. One theory I saw was that Kier exists somewhere isolated from the rest of the world and developed technologically on its own timeline.

Even on the Severance podcast Ben Stiller says "We don't know what time period the show is set in" so it's definitely a thing they're not divulging yet.

I think my favorite set dressing bit is Mark's severed fish tank with two fish side by side

i noticed that right away and was wondering if, now that he's merged/unsevered, if his fish will get to hang out. unless of course they are those fish that will immediately fuck each other up

that would be a tragic, yet symbolic, plot device

unless they are … rumble fish

Random thought...

HipstopianTM: Set direction / world building where things are dystopian looking in a deliberately stylish sort of way for the sake of the media's aesthetic in service to its audience rather than due to a logical in-universe reason.

so much great photography

they are really laying it on thick... so many shots where half of someone's face is completely in shadow, or the scene is split into two lighting wise, etc.... it's like come on, we get it! is noir the right genre callback here?

there's a trend in digital cinematography to use antique and vintage camera lenses which takes away some of the 'sheen' and perfection of digital sensors. might just be in my head but it seems to me that the 'outie' scenes are all shot using these dirty lenses - notice the copious amounts of lens flares, color shifts, oval shaped bokeh from anamorphic lenses etc. - and the 'innie' scenes are shot using modern camera lenses, which are technically extremely perfect. i only started noticing that this last episode though and i don't feel like going back and rewatching the first two episodes to confirm my hypothesis. so don't @ me if i'm wrong!

That feels accurate

think my main issue with this current season is that the show is at times more devoted to the internal logic of its puzzlebox than in making an interesting show. i don't think i needed a callback to the goat room, i was fine having that being a one-off weird thing from the first season. contrary to current trends in fandom that demand an explanation for every single thing, i think not every single thing needs to be explained!

anyway big shout outs to the sister, she's by far my favorite character on the show and she feels like a good anchor for when the show gets too navel-gazey

also what's up with these parents who can't take of their children? dylan can't make the pillsbury dough cookies, ricken needs to be reminded to feed the baby in an hour. in an hour! remember, in an hour.

goat room callback at least seems to be developing on it tbf, the fact there's a bunch of severed people who seem to have been down there for ages without going back up (what do they eat?)

(has anyone reported them missing or are they, like, death row prisoners whose executions have been faked?)

(or are they all simply 'dead' like Gemma...)

at least the weird snowglobe nature of the outtie world makes that a bit more plausible.... easier to believe people can just go missing when the outtie world feels as vague and formless as the innie world...

There's definitely some weird stuff going on with the time period -- there are smartphones, but all the cars look to be from the '70s and '80s. One theory I saw was that Kier exists somewhere isolated from the rest of the world and developed technologically on its own timeline.

― jaymc, Monday, February 3, 2025 10:11 AM (yesterday)

honestly i think they should have gone full steampunk and developed an alternate history to the smartphone. that smartphone was so jarring when helena pulled it out

xp well yes, it's just as hermetic, by design

it'll turn out that the outtie world is the real fake realm, in some sort of Truman Show bigtop

yeh in that respect the callout to pkd upthread (esp 'ubik') will have been right

the 'outie' scenes are all shot using these dirty lenses - notice the copious amounts of lens flares, color shifts, oval shaped bokeh from anamorphic lenses etc

Mostly I just notice how dimly lit everything is in outie world, like Ricken and Natalie meeting with some intense mood lighting and Mark and Devon doing their lite brite project under like a single 10w bulb

But I will try to start noticing these other things too, sounds interesting