Severance”>
Adam Scott in Severance. Photo via Apple.
The hit sci-fi series Severance has returned to Apple TV+ three years after its debut in 2022. The Emmy-winning show, which stars Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette (with many episodes directed by Ben Stiller) is a stylish puzzle box combining harrowing contemporary questions with thrilling mysteries around every fluorescent-lit corridor.
Severance follows Mark Scout (Scott) and his fellow employees at Lumon Industries. He and his co-workers have all undergone a process that splits their consciousness in two, leaving an “innie” who goes to work and an “outie” who exists outside the walls of the Lumon building. Since neither has any memories of the other side of their life, Lumon’s theory goes, outsourcing your work brain makes the evenings and weekends a happier and more relaxing experience. However, the arrival of new colleague Helly R. (Brit Lower) and questions about the recently departed Petey (Yul Vazquez) lead to disquiet at a company where productivity is king.
At its best Severance teases and provokes in equal measure. Much of what grabbed viewers of the first season was a basic question: What is going on here? That mystery remained unclear when the show ended on a cliffhanger three years ago and remains tantalizingly murky in season two, with information about the true purpose of Lumen and key details of the macrodata refiners’ backstories being uncovered slowly. Severance also works as a sharp workplace satire with the faceless corporation, repetitive and banal work, and pitiful rewards all painting an uncomfortable image of the disconnect between C-suite ambition and the happiness of the labor force below them.
That combination of mystery elements and sharp-fanged social commentary has made Severance one of the standout shows of recent years, but it’s not the only show to tap into these themes. Below are a handful of shows with similar ambitions and comparable vibes
The one that isn’t what it seems: Undone
Rosa Salazar and Bob Odenkirk star in this trippy and bewildering show that uses rotoscope animation in its depiction of a woman, Alma, who discovers she can control time after a serious car crash. Alma uses her newfound ability to investigate the death of her father; what begins as a visually stunning exploration of grief gains new levels as questions arise about just how real Alma’s power really is. Co-created by Kate Purdy and BoJack Horseman’s Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the series remains a cult curiosity that, like Severance, treats radical changes to humanity with care and emotional resonance. (Amazon Prime Video)
The one that will make you quit your job: Corporate
Severance is a lot funnier than it gets credit for, but you won’t see a more hilarious, or brutal, takedown of employment culture than Corporate. Set at the sterile multinational Hampton DeVille, Corporate is relentless in showing just how toxic big business can be for those at the lowest level. If a chill has ever gone down your spine at the thought of what a shareholder meeting means for the next quarter, Corporate is for you. (Paramount+)
Two disorientating and beautiful shows: Devs & The OA
Both Devs and The OA, particularly the latter, have divisive reputations. In a mass of genetically acceptable TV, I tend to think that’s a good thing. Devs, which comes from director/writer Alex Garland, shares DNA with Severance in its depiction of work as a cult and imbuing its viewers with a healthy distrust for authority figures. The OA, meanwhile, is one of the most out there and memorable things Netflix has ever put its money behind. The show centers on the re-emergence of Prairie (played by The OA co-creator Brit Marling) a formerly blind girl who returns home after a long time missing with her sight fully restored. What happened to her and why is she back? They are just two of the many, many questions the fantastical show asks of viewers. (Disney+/Netflix)
The one that will make you put your phone in a drawer: Made For Love
Before she was earning accolades for playing Sofia Falcone in The Penguin, Cristin Milioti impressed as a miserable wife in this darkly funny critique of tech billionaire tyranny. Milioti plays a woman who, after a decade of marriage to a super-rich asshole, leaves to seek a divorce. It is only then she realizes he has implanted a chip in her skull that allows him to track her every movie and assess her “emotional data.” Watching her try to escape the clutches of this egomaniac feels like a microcosm of the wider world’s need to free itself from the control of a small cabal of Silicon Valley CEOs. Elon Musk probably isn’t a fan (or is for all the wrong reasons). (Editor’s note: It’s no longer available to stream on MAX, but other methods exist.)
And one stylish movie: Vivarium
Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots play a couple with dreams of an idyllic suburban life in this claustrophobic and chilling sci-fi/horror movie. The empty expanses of the Lumen offices in Severance could easily be located in the enclosed locale of Vivarium, where Eisenberg and Poots’ characters are kidnapped and made to raise a creepy pod child against their will. Like Severance, Vivarium will make you think twice about what kind of life you actually want to live. (Amazon Prime Video)
