Severance (AppleTV+)

g5000

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Season 2 has been released.

This is a really weird, but deeply engaging show. I've never seen anything like it. It just pulls you in.

It's directed for the most part by Ben Stiller who I absolutely cannot stand. But he has knocked this ball out of the park. He should stay behind the camera and not in front of it.

The story revolves around four people who are "severed". They have normal lives above ground (outies) and separate lives in an underground office (innies) which itself is in a long white maze.

The innies and outies of their personalities have no knowledge of each other except being aware they have opposites. This is due to a voluntary brain implant which switches them between innies and outies as the descend and ascend in an elevator to and from work.

This arrangement results in the innies perpetually being at work. As soon as their workday ends, they enter the elevator, and a moment later (from their perspective) it is the next morning.

Apparently the work the innies do is for a company called Lumon, and is highly secret.

There is Mark (Adam Scott) who is recently appointed as the department chief of Macrodata Refinement (MDR) by his superior, portrayed by Patricia Arquette. "A handshake is available upon request."

There is Irving (John Turturro) who has been there the longest and is beginning to have psychotic episodes. His outie is also experiencing a dark, repetitive vision.

There is Dylan (Zach Cherry) who lives for the perks employees receive for achieving production milestones. These include pencil erasers, toy finger traps, a music/dance experience, and many other progressively better prizes.

And then there is Helly, the newcomer.

I've never been one for redheads. Of all the women I've dated only one was a redhead.

But Helly is smoking hot! She is played by Britt Lower, who I have never heard of before.

Even the rolling-shoulder tough guy strut she has makes me emotionally erect.

There's a lot of surreal humor in the show, and a lot of sinister undertones. There are also a hundred different subtleties which make this one of the best shows I've ever seen.

For example, one of the perks is pencil erasers, yet there are no pencils in the office. Nevertheless, Dylan prides himself on how many he has acquired.

Lumon Industries is a global conglomerate which operates on a primogeniture basis, and a pseudo-religion has been built around the founding family. Irving is particularly devout, frequently citing the corporate bible.

Above ground, Patricia Arquette is an ascetic, with an altar in her home devoted to the corporate religion.

And I have to mention Christopher Walken is in this show. His character, Burt, is much more subdued than we are used to seeing from him, and his famous vocal inflections are almost imperceptible here.

Do not miss this show. You'll be amazed how good it is.

 
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Yep - somewhere here is another thread.
No way to explain the show without people saying - "WTF?... and you watched it??".
But, nevertheless it is a very good, engaging show that you get hooked on.
 
Britt Lower is so good in this epic, anything she does after this is going to thoroughly suck.

It took John Hamm forever to break out after Mad Men. He finally achieved a decent role in the Fargo anthology.



Nice Helly:

Britt-Lower-2.jpg




Evil Helena:

helena-severance.jpg
 
Britt Lower is so good in this epic, anything she does after this is going to thoroughly suck.

It took John Hamm forever to break out after Mad Men. He finally achieved a decent role in the Fargo anthology.



Nice Helly:

Britt-Lower-2.jpg




Evil Helena:

helena-severance.jpg
Show is great and she is killing it.
 
I just finished Season 2.

Quite a weird and wonderful and twisty season.

Watching the Mark character argue with himself was a brilliant setup that only this show could do.

The last two minutes are really well done and yet disappointing at the same time.

The cliffhanger made a third season a must.
 
We haven't watched Season 2 yet, waiting until the whole season is there.
Guess now it is, so we will start watching it
 
holy crackpipe.........my abnormal psy teacher in college who worked in a mental ward would have a field day with all the layers of this show
mind control, ethics, manipulation, foreshadowing, light and dark......

the sheer fact the "office" is cold and bland and in a maze and the show is always in winter gives it a very chilly dead feeling, gloomy with no hope

oh and helly is a tasty little thing.....! the good helly, not helena

this has elements of clockwork orange without the violence but is closer to 1984 with lumon having such overall control
 
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