Severance Review: Good News About Hell/ Half Loop (Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2)
Maintaining work-life balance is not a new issue, but the pandemic and rise of telework blurred the lines between home and the office for a greater number of people than ever before.
It’s a problem, but Apple TV+’s new sci-fi thriller Severance offers a chilling solution. Make those two parts completely independent, not divided by a murky line but a precise cut.
That’s the choice Mark Scout (Adam Scott) and his colleagues make as employees of Lumon Industries, an enigmatic corporation that offers a “severance” process to divide consciousness when at work and at home.
— Photo Courtesy of Apple TV+
The sci-fi thriller genre has had a steady stream of content on the small screen, from Homecoming to Devs, but Severance‘s titular process automatically draws you in. An overhead shot of a woman lying unconscious on a conference room table is an unsettling way to start.
It provides a compelling setup as we meet Mark and his new trainee Helly (Britt Lower). When she wakes up at the beginning of Episode 1, she’s just as freaked out by not knowing who she is as the audience.
Her resistance to accepting the fate her “Outie” signed her up for raises questions of free will and creates conflict when she nearly escapes. Lower plays foil to Scott’s “Innie” version of Mark, who tries his best to be a company man.
Of course, not even he can fully explain what it is they do by looking at coded data for “scary” numbers to delete.
— Photo Courtesy of Apple TV+
Mark contends each side of him is the same person, but the first episode challenges that. As Mark points out to Helly, every day they show up at Lumon it’s a choice.
No one forces them to consent to the procedure or to continue to work there. This assertion feels contradictory if Innie Mark, the part that knows what his real job is, gets no say about whether he returns to Lumon each day.
On the outside, Mark is a sad widower looking for any chance to avoid the memory of his wife and face his pain. Both versions are depressing in their own way.
Scott plays both with aplomb, shifting enough between scenes to sell the idea of two selves while still maintaining a through-line between the two characters and their basic natures. It’s not hard to see Innie Mark as the less jaded version of himself.
— Photo Courtesy of Apple TV+
Episode 1 builds up the tension both through its aesthetics and character introductions before throwing viewers into the deep end of the mystery. Patricia Arquette as Mark’s threatening boss Harmony Cobel (who in a strange twist also moonlights as Mark’s hippie neighbor, presumably to spy on him) sets the tone for Lumon’s true intentions as she watches their every move.
Even more terrifying is Tramell Tillman’s performance as Milchick, an enforcer who hides his fangs under the guise of being a friendly middle manager there to support the team.
The aesthetic details contribute enormously to the ominous feeling of Lumon’s giant and soulless headquarters. Its sterile white walls, labyrinthine hallways, and slightly outdated-looking equipment and furniture create an uncanny work environment that feels out of touch with its modern setting.
The open space and empty cubicles surrounding Mark’s team give them the appearance of being stranded on their own, which they are for 8 hours a day.
With the majority of scenes outside of the office happening at night or in dimly lit spaces, the metaphor is obvious. The Outies are in the dark.
The question of why someone would choose to sever their life and the ethics of that decision would be enough to drive the conflict of a series. It’s the secret of what the severance process is hiding for Lumon that makes Severance into a thrilling mystery.
A particularly uneasy scene on Episode 2 happens when data refiner Irving (John Turturro) is forced to see a counselor (Dichen Lachman) after experiencing what seems to be a mental break. Despite the welcoming office she sits in, it’s clear her strange methods are to put Irving back in line and not help him, proving the company doesn’t really care about them.
The appearance of Petey (Yul Vazquez), Mark’s colleague who mysteriously quit, puts Outie Mark on a fast track to trouble as he gets drawn into the conspiracy about what Lumon is hiding. Petey’s shocking death at the end ensures Mark has to find the answers himself if he wants to learn the truth.
In a sense, Innie and Outie Mark are two different characters both sucked into the same mystery. They have different pieces of the puzzle but no way to connect them thanks to Lumon’s strict protocols in place to prevent any information sharing.
Severance takes its time to build up to reveals, but it’s time worth spending. The longer you spend in its world the more anxious you become, starting to crave answers like Mark and Helly.
If you’re looking for an enthralling new mystery with a distinct visual style to dive into, Severance is a must-watch show.
What did you think of the premiere of Severance? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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New episodes of Severance stream Fridays on Apple TV+.
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Breeze Riley
Breeze Riley is a pop culture enthusiast who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing about it. Although she's a convention-going sci-fi and fantasy nerd, she's just as likely to be watching an off-beat comedy or period drama. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.
One thought on “Severance Review: Good News About Hell/ Half Loop (Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2)”
Petey died?
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