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First two episodes available on Apple TV+ with new episodes every Friday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA6Lgve2KJg Starring Adam Scott and produced/directed by Ben Stiller Severance follows Mark (Scott) a former history professor who works for the Lumon corporation on their "severed" floor. In the world of the TV show "severance" is a procedure you can undergo that bifurcates the subjects memories so that they cannot remember anything that happened at work and vice versa where at work they can no longer remember their personal life. Cast: Mark - Adam Scott Helley - Britt Lower Irving - John Turtorro Dylan - Zach Cherry Peggy - Patricia Arquette Burt - Christopher Walken Mr Milchick - Tramell Tillman I don't know about anyone else but I definitely am creeped out by the workplace stuff. Especially in the first episode where office Helley keeps trying to leave but her "outie" just walks right back in.
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Feb 19, 2022 21:20
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I wasn't really creeped out initially at all, but they do a good job of immediately zeroing in and examining the horror within. My first thought was just of jobs I hated in the past, that you carry home with you and ruin your life even outside your hours. Would be wonderful to have all that not exist in my free time. However, the work-me, only lives because of the pleasures of me-me, and I would absolutely kill myself if I were trapped in work-purgatory for my entire waking existence. The breakroom horror stuff almost felt like overkill once you're staring at the existential horror in the face, adding a layer of culty brainwashing probably isn't needed, but I am intrigued by the mystery and how it ties into their hosed up business. I dig the computers they work on, adding to the timelessness of their void realm. I also loved the extremely judgemental dinner party, I like judging and holding responsible anyone for the work they've chosen to do and the companies they do it for, and that seems like an especially juicy easy target. Probably a taboo table topic though. Don't talk about politics, religion, or the fact you split yourself into two one of which is trapped in a purgatorial work hell you reap all the benefits of.
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Feb 19, 2022 21:30
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The second episode really dives into why it is so horrible because just imagine waking up in an office and being told that you will never leave said office for the rest of your life. Just full on existential terror. Also I'm kind of wondering how things work for Mr Milchick since his job seems like it requires knowing things about both sides. Khanstant posted:Probably a taboo table topic though. Don't talk about politics, religion, or the fact you split yourself into two one of which is trapped in a purgatorial work hell you reap all the benefits of. It definitely seems like something you wouldn't normally talk about since Rickon seemed kind of abashed when Mark called him out about revealing it.
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Feb 19, 2022 22:31
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Can't discount the benefits of this arrangement. Think of how satisfying it must be to answer "how was work?" with a shrug, and it's not a passive-aggressive non-answer, it's not a body-language-sigh-of-grief just a sincere "idk." Truly the horror of Severence is actually just the horror of any old fashioned office job, wasteful unpaid commutes and being away from the comfort of home. WFM Severance, now that's a good deal. Wake up, stretch, brush teeth, and go sit at computer, memory-buzz -- suddenly find myself at 6 o clock, where I can sit down again in front of the computer, for fun this time. Meanwhile work-me, wakes up at the computer having skipped the hellish labor of stretching and brushing teeth, and gets to mostly scroll around on the computer for fun in-between bouts of designing graphics, plus he gets to skip the torturous annoyances of figuring out dinner. Khanstant fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Feb 19, 2022 |
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Feb 19, 2022 22:38
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I assume that people like Milchick are not severed. Being severed is just for regular people who they can't trust to keep the secrets of the company. Though the situation with the boss lady does seem weird. I could see that going either way. There is some existential dread with the entirety of your life being that you exist inside an office. You get off work and then you immediately wake back up and you're at work again. The feeling that you will never have free time ever, and you'll never have a relationship or do any regular life stuff would be terrifying.
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Feb 19, 2022 23:21
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I'm two episodes in, and this show is shaping up to be very well-made psychological horror. I'm fully on board. One thing I appreciate is the shows heavy, heavy use of symbolism and metaphor, which is everywhere from set design (an aquarium with two fish, split in two. A symmetrical parking lot.) to the shot designs. Their is one minor shot that particularly stood out to me. Before the shot, our lead has just (tiny ep 2 spoiler) angrily defended the severance procedure in front of a first date, and is now alone in his apartment. Half the frame is taken up by him, drinking, but the other half of the frame is complete darkness, representing the severed half of his life that he doesn't actually understand. Their is alot of craft going into each episode that make it an absolute treat to watch. Not to mention the bleak office comedy, and the horror. speculation ahoy: (big ep 2 spoilers) In episode one I was convinced the work the severed workers were performing on the computers was pure make work, and existed only as an experimental control so the bosses could see if its possible to coerce their experiment subjects into doing completely pointless and meaningless work - because if you can convince people to literally drag numbers into boxes, you can convince them to do ANY work. However, episode two heavily implies that the work they are doing might actually serve a real purpose, and be memmetically dangerous, or supernatural. The numbers were scary. Why were the numbers scary? The explicit references to hell, descent, ascent, falls, leaves the supernatural or just soft sci fi stuff like psychics on the table. Suggested thread titles: "The numbers were scary" "Please try to enjoy each fact equally"
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Feb 19, 2022 23:36
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This reminds me a lot of one of the best pieces of speculative horror fiction I ever read. Lena The tl;Dr pitch is that it is a faux wiki article about the first human mind ever digitized, about how no one considered what sort of copywrite or other ownership matters were important, and... Well: quote:In current times, MMAcevedo still finds extensive use in research, including, increasingly, historical and linguistics research. In industry, MMAcevedo is generally considered to be obsolete, due to its inappropriate skill set, demanding operational requirements and age. Despite this, MMAcevedo is still extremely popular for tasks of all kinds, due to its free availability, agreeable demeanour and well-understood behaviour. It is estimated that between 6,500,000 and 10,000,000 instances of MMAcevedo are running at any given moment in time. Caros fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Feb 20, 2022 |
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Feb 20, 2022 00:52
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Rob Filter posted:Suggested thread titles:
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Feb 20, 2022 01:21
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Rob Filter posted:
yeah it's starting to feel like there's actual SCP poo poo happening here and it's not just the base Philip K Dick type premise i looked at variety's glowing review of the first season and they say the back half is much better than the first three, which is encouraging because I really liked these two so far. eke out fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Feb 20, 2022 |
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Feb 20, 2022 06:22
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I mostly liked the first two episodes and I'm cautiously optimistic. The main cause for my hesitancy is the worry that it's going to completely fall apart at the end. I'm reminded of Devs, which started out really good but ended with a bunch of dumb nonsense. The nature of the company and the work they do is so obviously being set up as bad in a way that doesn't seem necessary. They were really laying it on thick in making sure we understand that the company is evil, but that's obvious from the outset and they really could have dialled it back. If they think they need to be this blunt about it, I'm worried that they only really have the premise and not a satisfying conclusion. But that's just a feeling; it's too early to judge with any confidence, so I'll keep watching and find out.
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Feb 20, 2022 10:14
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Yeah I'm worried that they think they need things like the break room to make it creepy and terrifying when their existence already does that.
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Feb 20, 2022 18:13
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Cojawfee posted:Yeah I'm worried that they think they need things like the break room to make it creepy and terrifying when their existence already does that. I was surprised when the break room wasn't just an empty room with nothing but a chair inside. Not enjoying work? Take a break, for as long as you need! Severance reminds me of servant playing very coy with the true explanation for what was happening in the first few seasons.
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Feb 20, 2022 18:46
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Cojawfee posted:I assume that people like Milchick are not severed. Being severed is just for regular people who they can't trust to keep the secrets of the company. Though the situation with the boss lady does seem weird. I could see that going either way. I'm hoping she's Severed too, would make her strange escalating behaviour be more interesting, she's got rage & control issues both ways. I wonder what a union for the workers would demand for better treatment of themselves, if they for whatever reason accept their outie/company isn't going to budge and let them out. I know I'd personally request a TV with stuff to watch for background noise and something to draw on and also I don't wanna look at the numbers. Tiggum posted:I mostly liked the first two episodes and I'm cautiously optimistic. The main cause for my hesitancy is the worry that it's going to completely fall apart at the end. I'm reminded of Devs, which started out really good but ended with a bunch of dumb nonsense. I enjoyed Devs and was kind of confused by your comment. But the more I dig into my memory of Devs and how it ended, the more I'm remembering that was kind of adjacent to the interesting parts and poo poo kind of fizzled out. Wound up looking up the synopsis for a refresher and yeah, I remember the nonsense now and why there won't be a followup. I'm hoping for some kind of X-Files/Archive 81/SCP/Control aspect to this company and the work they are doing. Just brainwashing for corporate control or abuse seems plausible and appropriately bleak but they can go a lot of ways from here.
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Feb 20, 2022 21:04
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I think they'd have to give the innies some free time or something. I don't know how much they know about the outside world, but I guess the show would suck if they just didn't understand the concept of weekends or whatever. I can't imagine how Irv was able to work there for 3 years never having any time off aside from when someone might read some facts about his outie that he has to enjoy equally and also can never share with anyone else. It's really hosed up that they just work all the time, never get compensated aside from with little trinkets they can't use, and then they instantly go right to the next day when one day ends. They tell Helly that she isn't livestock, but she kind of is. She does work for them and gets nothing in return and never gets to experience anything else. I think if that movement goes anywhere, if they can't end severing, maybe they could argue for letting the innies get like a weekend to do something fun once a month or something. Though I'm sure Lumon would say that due to new regulations requiring giving the innies free time, that free time will be deducted from the money the outies get.
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Feb 20, 2022 21:30
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They do get some downtime as there was that whole thing with the ball.
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Feb 20, 2022 21:32
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the first workplace reform i would suggest would be ending the mystical-psychological torture sessions, i think it'd greatly improve morale
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Feb 20, 2022 21:36
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I'm sure we'll get more info on but I'm definitely interested in is this whole "cult of the company founder" thing they have going on. It is going on with the severed workers so I'm sure we'll get an introduction through Helley coming up soon but it also seems like the outies believe in it too. We got that conversation between (outie)Helley and Milchick about the big face thing.
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Feb 20, 2022 22:45
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I loving love this show. I noticed that the new employee handbook notes that the innies were selected because they possess "both the intuition and emotional intelligence to perform [the data sorting] tasks quickly, efficiently, and most importantly, reliably." Between that and the scary numbers stuff and all the mentions of hell and etc, feel like there's definitely gonna be some metaphysical aspect. Like human intuition is found to access some kind of reality substrate poo poo, but the only way you can get at it is by stripping away all facets of personality that would otherwise get in the way. All of the innies have trouble selecting stuff and are discouraged from expressing preference. They're making every effort to suppress a sense of self. can't wait to see more.
typhus fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Feb 21, 2022 |
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Feb 20, 2022 23:58
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I suspect this could all go in a magical realist direction, where the point isn't the answers so much as the juxtapositions created by the real mixing with the unreal -- there's that moment in the second episode where they imply the severed floor is so big that you can get lost trying to find other departments, and that departments actively hide the location of their offices from each other. Also the path that Mark takes to work in episode one is much, much longer than the path Helly takes when she's trying to escape in episode two.
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Feb 21, 2022 04:19
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Definitely enjoying this so far, just possibly wishing they held back on the Petey plot line and there being super dark poo poo going on. I just think the concept itself is fascinating and there’s a ton of world building that could’ve gone on for a few episodes at least, maybe just hinting there’s something brewing.
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Feb 21, 2022 05:34
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There's definitely something weird going on in the outer world, that dinner with nobody eating and no food with the empty platitude guy trying to justify the difference between life and food. The company/Egon guy might have produced various pharmaceutical miracles including the ability to survive without food. There's some subtle stuff like one of the memory questions in the opening being what Egon liked to eat for breakfast and then Milchik casually reminding Helly that he famously liked to have 3 raw eggs and milk for breakfast just before her surgery in the second episode. Implying that the whole conversation is engineered so they can short term memory separation. I'm guessing that Helly is either a reporter or a corporate higher up invited to prove that separation is harmless and the working conditions are fair fez_machine fucked around with this message at 09:52 on Feb 21, 2022 |
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Feb 21, 2022 09:47
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fez_machine posted:There's definitely something weird going on in the outer world, that dinner with nobody eating I assumed this was mocking Lumon's idea of "work life balance"; it's a company town with a company diner, but no one eats there -- and the only difference between the regular seating area and the VIP area is a small sign and rope. Even the sign on the card ("PIP'S VIP") is just so goddamn awful; it looks like it should rhyme, but it doesn't, in another example of balance that's gone awry.
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Feb 21, 2022 09:55
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Open Source Idiom posted:I assumed this was mocking Lumon's idea of "work life balance"; it's a company town with a company diner, but no one eats there -- and the only difference between the regular seating area and the VIP area is a small sign and rope. I was referring to the dinner party with the empty red placemats and a tall glass of water. After that scene it cuts to the sandwich prepared by the sister character which is the only time I've seen anyone eat outside.
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Feb 21, 2022 12:01
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fez_machine posted:I was referring to the dinner party with the empty red placemats and a tall glass of water. After that scene it cuts to the sandwich prepared by the sister character which is the only time I've seen anyone eat outside. Ohhh. Yeah, I think they were just pretentious fucks. Petey's making a stew when he's hanging out in that greenhouse, and Patricia Arquette brings over some food in episode two, so I think your argument doesn't quite fit unfortunately.
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Feb 21, 2022 13:07
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Open Source Idiom posted:Ohhh. Yeah, I think they were just pretentious fucks. Yeah, the sandwich, along with the apology from the sister, pretty clearly implied that they were expecting to be fed, and that no-food conversation dinners is an annoying hipster trend.
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Feb 21, 2022 13:34
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Someone confirm for me - I could swear we did not see inside the Break Room, the only "special" room we saw was the Wellness Room in the scene with Turturro and Lachman, hence thread title? (I will confess that this is my faulty memory rather than me being Bad At Watching Television). .... just checked: No, didn't see the room itself, just a dark corridor, and Cobel greeting Mark at the other end, then a cut to the date. Memory vindicated, not going mad after all. Only Kindness fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Feb 21, 2022 |
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Feb 21, 2022 16:49
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SimonChris posted:Yeah, the sandwich, along with the apology from the sister, pretty clearly implied that they were expecting to be fed, and that no-food conversation dinners is an annoying hipster trend. That totally tracks. It reminded me of some of the scenes in that show "Easy" where it's just a bunch of hipsters discussing how to live almost philosophically. It even had that guy who plays the loudmouth brother in law in Orange is the New Black and also a similar sounding character in Easy playing a loudmouth brother in law once again here in Severance. That guy seems to be a little type cast at this point. This time though they weren't showing characters like that to appeal to similar types of people, more to mock them it seemed. That guy who spoke with such confidence and said something so childishly wrong about WWI also spoke with such confidence about focusing on the foodless aspect of the event, when anyone who has ever socialized would probably know that love and togetherness are enhanced by sharing food, and anthropologists could confidently and with much hipster douchiness explain why that whole party was a ridiculous display of contrarianism, perhaps as a way to feel smug and superior without doing any work or research. We later have that brother in law confidently buy into raising a child with a lifetime's worth of beds when anyone who has used a bed will tell you that the bed being newly made is the whole point, and that it's worse to use an old bed forever. It's surface level douchy hipster stuff taken to an extreme. It could be to highlight the oddness of the society that contains severance technology, and in a way it could be affirming through the protagonist's eyes that these people are no better than him or his innie, mindlessly believing and regurgitating nonsense with utmost conviction. Many might also simply see it as a throwaway scene to develop some side characters and have Scott react to them to show his disconnect from his social community, especially if we don't see many others like them. But if the full minded people spend their leisure time being wrong about everything and reveling in their own ignorance, I think we could come back to that no-dinner scene and see the effect of half the society not putting their work experience to use outside of work. That being that people are inadvertently unaware of significant chunks of information so they base their understanding and behavior around self-imposed, unscientific notions. There's some social commentary about humanity in there somewhere I think if you dig.
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Feb 21, 2022 17:24
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I have a disease where after a dinner is finished at a restaurant I want to leave immediately, I am somewhat okay with waiting until everyone is done eating, but when people are like "let's get coffee and occupy this table for another hour" I get mad wriggly and anxious to fuckin go. Partially because I was a server for so long I will never not be cognizant of the opportunity cost I am draining from my server, but also because it's time to go we are done doing the eating activity, if we wanna chat that's what living rooms and bongs are for. So the notion of a dinner party sans dinner is freaking torture, and my friends are great, unlike the insufferable yuppies Mark hangs out with. The bed thing was so ridiculous I really wanna know why it was written. I have to assume the writer or somebody involved had an anecdote about some GOOP-buyin californioid who literally or basically dod this exact same. If so, I hope that person sees the show and feels slightly mocked.
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Feb 21, 2022 18:21
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This going to come across as very random but if they ever did a retro 70's version of Batman, Adam Scott would be the perfect Bruce Wayne. Now back to actually talking about the show.
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Feb 21, 2022 18:41
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Khanstant posted:The bed thing was so ridiculous I really wanna know why it was written. I have to assume the writer or somebody involved had an anecdote about some GOOP-buyin californioid who literally or basically dod this exact same. If so, I hope that person sees the show and feels slightly mocked. Their is an overarching theme of infantilization running through the show (what's for dinner kids? The weird childlike fantasy of the wellness centre facts. Protag yelling at severance protestor that they look like a child, etc.), and putting our protagonist in a literal children's bed so that his brother in law could literally tuck him into bed at night (lmao) furthered that theme. The scene also serves as a capstone of the previous scene showing how a broad cross section of rich American liberals fail to understand the exploitation of severed workers; either by blaming them for their own exploitation, or by fully standing behind their company literally coercing them into having experimental brain surgery. You can pretty easily draw parallels between childhood and severed labour. In childhood, you literally have no power and your parents make all the decisions for you. Working in a severed office, your coerced into that child-like state of no power, agreeing to all the decisions your boss makes for you. A corporation metaphorically gives birth to the severed on an office table. I'm interested to see where the theme goes, because these people are not children, they have agency that is been supressed, and poo poo is going to go down. Good scene. It's a clever show.
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Feb 21, 2022 18:49
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The vibe I get from this show
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Feb 21, 2022 20:55
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Imagine finishing work, developing a hangover out of nowhere and having to immediately start working again.
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Feb 22, 2022 01:03
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Rob Filter posted:Good scene. It's a clever show. That's a great read and I wish friday was here for both this and vibeo game.
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Feb 22, 2022 01:27
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I wonder what the neighbor’s late husband’s blueprints will turn out to be. Floor plan for the basement level I assume, although it could be a misdirect.
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Feb 22, 2022 06:11
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Do you reckon whatever code-detector would foil your classic memento/prison-break tattoo info smuggling idea? I'm skeptical of the whole thing, AFAIK besides the mystery of escaped homeboy, the attempts Helly did to test the code thing were all situations that would've been "detected" by simple orwellian surveillance. I think there's also room for there to be basically anything that happens on the way down or up they haven't shown us yet. For all we know while they are memory-zonked they just strip search and then set off the code-detector alarm to keep up the illusion of a code detector. Would still be surprised if escaped-guy kiestered as his big trick.
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Feb 22, 2022 06:37
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Just started watching this and drat this show is interesting. Very Black Mirror or DEVS esq. I'm wondering if we'll see what the inners get up to without supervision like in that Star Trek episode of Black Mirror where they're just getting drunk and socializing because what else can they do.
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Feb 22, 2022 07:51
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this sounds cool i will watch it
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Feb 22, 2022 08:36
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Just caught the first episode, loved the first half, second half kind of lost me a little especially most of the characters at the dinner party - really, these people weren't smart enough to know that the soldiers in World War I didn't refer to it as World War I?  - though I think Mark's grief and obviously failing efforts to try and ignore it or detour around it have a lot of promise. Agree with what was posted above about wishing they had either waited till later in the season or not at all to introduce that there is some great conspiracy at work, I think just exploring the concept alone of somebody who is only conscious of the working moments of their lives and how they'd feel about that, about themselves, and about the "other" them who gets to enjoy the benefits of their work would have been more than enough. I loved that shot of Mark walking to his cubicle from the elevator, and the recontextualization of the opening scene to showcase the mundane and kind of bumbling presence of what was so sinister and disturbing from Helly's point of view was a really nice touch.
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Feb 22, 2022 11:44
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Jerusalem posted:Just caught the first episode, loved the first half, second half kind of lost me a little especially most of the characters at the dinner party - really, these people weren't smart enough to know that the soldiers in World War I didn't refer to it as World War I? I kind of agree with your first half/second half comment. The dinner party was the closest the episode came to losing me, but it still didn't. The WWI bit was strange, but I took it as that maybe these people on the outside aren't quite normal either. The whole no-food dinner thing set me up for that. Of course, they could just be pretentious middle class types trying to come up with something to make their dinner party interesting. There were one or two other lines which felt too Hollywood to me - 'did the prowler make you feel seen?' - which grates on me. It feels like an intrusion from the creators real lives which doesn't fit. But actually, not too bad at all with that. The sister was portrayed as too sane and cool a person to be hanging around with these numbskulls, and even having a baby with one of them. Besides that, I thought this first episode was excellent. The directing was so good, the score was good, the acting was good. The premise is excellent and the whole time I was happily imagining all the possibilities you can do with this. They could have held off on the corporate darkness a bit, because the severance concept is so insane that it doesn't need any extra juice to get going, but this was episode 1 and they will have wanted to make sure they put in a hook to come back. I'm sold so much on the premise, it wasn't necessary, but it's fine. Anyway besides these minor things, which might not even be issues in the whole show, episode 1 was really, really well put together. roomtone fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Feb 22, 2022 |
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Feb 22, 2022 17:43
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wow episode 2 stank! just kidding, it was just as good. no dodgy dinner scene either.
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Feb 22, 2022 19:14
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