CREATOR EXCLUSIVE
Brain Freeze
Tech mystery Severance examines a very dodgy work/life balance
“Thanks for coming. I just wanted to catch up…”
→ WITH TECH STEADILY giving us the ability to bypass so many of life’s mind-numbing tasks, it begs the question: if you could do that on a more dramatic level, would you? Apple TV+’s new sci-fi series Severance poses a world where that’s an option.
It’s set in the near future, where employees of the almost 150-yearold Lumon Industries can choose to undergo a “severance” procedure which, via an incision in the brain, separates a person’s work life from their home life. Once inside the Lumon building’s elevator, the employee sheds all memories of their “outie” life and exists for eight hours inside the windowless bubble of their job functions.
Adam Scott (Krampus) is Mark Scout, a recent widower drowning in grief who undertakes the severance to check out from his sorrow. But when his office best friend, Petey (Yul Vázquez), disappears from the office and appears in Mark’s outside life, a bigger conspiracy unfolds.