Apple TV

Severance star, Adam Scott, has given an excellent performance throughout the show.

Recently, I was introduced to an absolute gem of a show: Severance. 

As someone who faces most show recommendations with reluctance and tends to avoid shows at the peak of their popularity, I was hesitant to start Severance. I typically prefer comedies, dramas, and rewatching the same shows I’ve seen a million times over, and so starting a new show is considered “branching out” under my standards. I decided to start Severance after I got tired of about 100 videos of it on my “for you page” and three people mentioning how life-changing it was to me.

I started with season one, naturally, and finished the entirety of the season in four days; although I would’ve been faster if I hadn’t decided to watch it with my dad, who doesn’t have the same bingeing patience as I do. And honestly, the show was incredible. 

To put it simply, it is one of the most visually beautiful and compelling uses of colors and framing I’ve ever seen in media, with a concept that is so basic yet explored so well.

I quickly caught up to the released number of episodes in season two and was faced with a grueling one-week wait between the next four episodes, and it was almost unbearable. Considering the first season came out in 2022 and fans of the initial season had to wait nearly three years for the next episode, a week doesn’t seem like much. 

If you’ve never heard of the show before, the story takes place in a small midwestern, possibly northeastern town (part of the show’s mystery is the setting). The town is centered around the company Lumon, which employs a large population and controls multiple businesses throughout. 

The interesting part of Lumon, and the main setting of our story, is the severed floor. The severed floor is a basement floor beneath the depths of the Lumon center, where employees sever their brain into two: one side that only ever remembers being at home, called the “outie,” and one side that only ever remembers being at work, the “innie.”

This concept has been discussed for as long as work has existed—a sort of paradise: what if you could separate your home life from your work life? 

Severance takes this hypothetical and plays around with the concept in a really interesting way, the ultimate point being to show you that it’s not a good idea. These severed employees are unable to access memories from the other half of their life that they don’t live, therefore forming two completely separate consciences and personalities within one brain. The outies, as the show dubs them, step into the elevator to go to work and immediately open their eyes to find that their work day has already been completed. And the innies open their eyes on the elevator out, to find that it doesn’t feel like they ever even left.

After a lot of world-building in season one and setting up the show to be able to take many different directions, season two was extremely satisfying.

Following an excruciating cliffhanger from the season one finale—I can’t believe people had to wait two years for answers—the show finally resumes. With a larger budget and audience, Severence was able to find its groove much quicker than in season one.

Although season one had pretty limited sets, due to the majority of the show taking place on the severed floor of Lumon, they played around with scenery a lot more in the following season and expanded the world in which Lumon exists. There are many stunning shots of nature and the buildings, and their use of shapes and colors to convey certain tones and messages is part of what makes the show compelling.

They use many subconscious methods of portraying emotions, situations, and circumstances through color and lighting, specifically through the use of clothing. Cool colors like blues and greens are used to represent ideals and people closer to the core principles of Lumon, and warm colors are used to represent those farther from the core principles.

Throughout season one, we see how these colors are portrayed on different characters to show their emotions and current goals abstractly and without explicitly stating them. 

Season two, unlike one of my grievances with season one, was fast-paced and quick with the plot and plot progression. Without the need for lengthy world-building and explanation for everything they did and set up, season two was able to explore some of the extremes to which their concept could go. 

The chip that separates the brain to allow the two different consciences hadn’t really been given an in-depth explanation in season one to explain its bounds and how it worked, but season two looked more into the intricacies of it, playing around with the barriers in which the chip is activated, the way it was designed and installed, and how the severed consciences form their own personalities.

This is the first new show to come out recently that’s truly made me excited about the future of television. It’s been a long time since a show has put me on the edge and excited me for a new season. So until the next season comes out, likely in around three years, I’ll be eagerly awaiting it and browsing theories about it.