Severance Season 1

I’ve rewatched Severance Season 1 as preparation for the new Season 2. I’ve also been listening to the podcast where Ben Stiller and Adam go through each episode starting with Season 1. It’s been more revelatory this time. I remember watching it previously, but forgot most of it, likely because that was at least 2 years ago and it was still COVID-times. Now, things hit a different way.

These moments really stuck with me this time around:

• The questions asked when Helly is on the table are not random. If she remembers her past, the chip implantation did not work. If she can’t remember a state, not enough regular non-memory information was retained — the kind of info you need to be a person in this world.
• They know some of what goes on outside of the severed floor, but not much. Dylan thinks they are cleaning up the ocean, so he knows there is an ocean and it might need cleaning. Irving thinks they are taking curse words out of movies, so he knows that movies exist.
• “Your outie enjoys the sound of radar.” I thought this was such a non-sequitur until I saw later that Irving’s dog’s name is Radar.
• “I am a person, you are not. I make the decisions, you do not.”
• The “Defiant Jazz” dance scene and the ability to choose one musical instrument. Helly chooses the maraca.
• I hadn’t previously connected the black goo that Irving imagines with the black from his paintings. He drinks a lot of coffee in his outie life, so, it also make me wonder if a lack of sleep makes him more susceptible to this part of his life “leaking through.”
• The doors they install are not actually installed. They were there previously. The workmen are removing covers to reveal doors that were already in place.
• On first watch I remember thinking Ricken’s book was ridiculous, because it is. So are Kier Eagan’s quotes and proclamations. But I didn’t appreciate how to them, on the inside, these words are all they have. There is so little art or media in their lives. The paintings and dance parties are very few. So of course, Ricken’s book and its anti-Lumon comments are a revelation to them. “Page 196 slaps.”

The writing and pacing and character development is all so, so good. It made me wonder:

• What the heck is Ms. Casey? What is the floor she is put on? She said she was “alive” for only 107 hours, most of them in these 30m sessions. Do they only wake her up when she has an appointment to attend to? What kind of life is that?
• Baby goats. I do not want to know what they need the baby goats for.
• Ms. Cobel has really taken upon herself to test how deep the severance goes. Apparently, love does not transcend, because Mark does not remember his wife. Not even when the candle from her things is burned in a session with Ms. Casey. That makes me wonder, how experimental is all this? Are they all down there doing nothing but being part of an experiment?
• To some degree, our work lives and our home lives are a form of severance. We have personalities we exhibit at work with likely some difference in how we conduct ourselves around non-work people. It is not this extreme, of course, but now I feel as though it is not far off, either

It’s a recommended watch.