‘Severance’ Is the TV Show You Need to Binge This Winter

The Big Picture

• Severance on Apple TV+ is a mind-bending psychological deep dive with intelligent writing and terrific performances.
• The show revolves around Lumon Industries, a mysterious company where employees are subjected to a controversial severance process.
• Severance examines the work-life balance and the lengths people go to maintain it, offering a unique and eye-opening perspective.

Snowed in? How about using some of that free time to binge one of the best mind-bending psychological deep dives in recent television history? Severance, on Apple TV+, is a one-of-a-kind viewing experience that will blow you away with its combination of intelligent writing by creator Dan Erickson and terrific performances from Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, Britt Lower, and Christopher Walken, to name a few. From producer and director Ben Stiller, this brain-teasing suspense thriller is one of the best edge-of-your-seat offerings you could ask for. With Severance Season 2 in production, now it’s the perfect time to watch (or rewatch) this winter.

What Is Apple TV+’s ‘Severance’ About?

Set in the very near future, Severance tells the story of four employees of an enormous and mysterious company called Lumon. They spend their days in what is known as the “MDR” or Macro Data Refinement division of Lumon. They spend each day in a tiny cubicle staring at a computer screen that consists of rows upon rows of numbers. They are tasked with collecting random numbers into small groups and inserting them into files. It’s all very elusive and cubical mates Helly (Lower), Mark (Scott), Dylan (Zach Cherry), and Irving (John Turturro) have contrasting theories as to what it is that they really do.

The process known as severance is kind of complex. When a person gives their consent to be severed, they are signing off on having an implant placed in their brain whereby their consciousness is essentially cut into two mutually exclusive states of awareness. One of the forms is a cognitive state that exists while they are at work and the second is a completely separate state of awareness that exists when they leave the workplace and engage in their personal lives at home. Neither state of consciousness is aware of what the other one does. When Lumon employees arrive at work and take the elevator to the severed floor, all memory of what they do outside of work is erased entirely, and vice versa.

The process is seen as controversial by many outsiders, who claim that people that have undergone the severance procedure are subjugated into doing menial labor and lack the agency to do anything about it. The catch is that Lumon’s supervisors are not severed and can move back and forth between their employees’ dual states — and the employees are none the wiser. It’s a highly unethical situation that allows Lumon executives to manipulate the lives of their employees without them knowing.

What Is ‘Severance’s Lumon Industries?

Existing within a gargantuan complex of buildings, Lumon is a multi-conglomerate that was founded by a man named Kier Eagan. One of the brilliant aspects of the show is the reverence that Lumon employees have for Eagan as a sort of messiah, whose wisdom is omnipresent and endless. Everything that is done at Lumon revolves around the teachings of Kier Eagan and the lineage of Eagan heirs that have served as the company’s CEOs for the better part of 150 years.

Show creator Dan Erickson and Stiller use this blind worship with tremendous aplomb, even as most of the Lumon employees have absolutely no idea what it is that they do. There are several different departments that are intentionally kept at great distances from each other to discourage fraternization of any kind. Seemingly endless brightly lit whitewashed hallways separate divisions of Lumon like “MDR” and “O&D” or Optics and Design (which, as far as we can tell, is responsible for rotating pieces of art from the walls and manufacturing some pretty nifty company tote bags).

It all makes for a macabre maze where the employees are little more than lab rats. The mysteries of Lumon are unsettling for sure, and it’s this unknown element that ratchets up the suspense from episode to episode. Scott’s Mark and the rest of the “MDR” staff start to have questions about the players pulling the strings and whether they got in over their heads by agreeing to be severed.

‘Severance’ Uniquely Explores the Work-Life Balance

Each employee at Lumon has their own personal reasons for having agreed to be severed. For Mark S. (everyone is referred to using only the initial of their last name at Lumon), he is seeking to escape the overwhelming grief that his outside self feels over the tragic death of his wife. By being severed, he can spend eight hours a day not having to feel the pain of his loss.

It raises the much larger question of what lengths people will go to maintain a healthy and manageable work/life balance. We all strive to find that delicate line between what we have to do and what we want to do. Severance takes that idea to the next level and examines it from an exaggerated (but nonetheless eye-opening) perspective while adding some seriously meta elements that might have you rethinking your present situation. Whether you’re a cubicle minion or a corner office bigwig, the show reveals that everyone is fighting the same battle when it comes to a healthy equilibrium of work and play.

Season 1 of Severance was nominated for 14 Emmys, winning two in the process. Season 2, which is currently in production, has several new cast members in Game of Thrones‘ Gwendoline Christie, Arrested Development‘s Alia Shawkat, and Emmy winner Merritt Wever, to name a few. If you have some extra time to invest in the cerebral nine-episode series, we highly recommend that you get busy binging Severance. You’ll be glad that you did.

Severance is available to watch on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

Watch on Apple TV+