Severance

Severance looks beautiful and is directed with enormous sensitivity and style by Stiller. His quartet of oddball actors, Arquette (a frequent Stiller collaborator), Turturro, Walken and Tillman, elevate an already shining script and a story that is always a finely calibrated 12 to 15 degrees off kilter, while the everyman quality of Scott throws the whole into perfect relief.

Viewers looking for all the answers by season’s end will be disappointed. But put aside those qualms and the mercurial, affirming Severance is in contention for the best new series of 2022.

Funny, terrifying, and brilliant in equal measure, Apple TV+’s “Severance” is one of the most impressive new shows of the last couple years.

Whether you invest in the allegory, character arcs, or both, “Severance” hits its marks.

Severance isn’t just one of the most tonally honest versions of office life; it’s an entirely new genre of corporate horror that’s a force unto itself.

With smart performances, an intriguing script, and buckets of style from Ben Stiller in pure thriller mode, it easily climbs up the list of Apple TV+’s best shows.

Those frequent glimpses we get into Lumon's darker and more sinister edges are what make the series a compelling watch, but rather than sink too deeply into irreversible darkness, Severance also focuses on highlighting the truth that human connection can be found even for those who have made the intentional choice to divide themselves. ... But one facet that contributes to its overall success is the direction, with episodes of the series helmed by both Ben Stiller and Aoife Mcardle to extraordinary effect.

It’s a magnetic universe Erickson, Stiller (who directs six of the nine episodes of Season 1), and “Brave New World” director Aoife McArdle craft, one that pulls in the icy, mysterious pacing of Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman. It’s got twisty sci-fi worldbuilding that reminds you of a more procedural read on “Inception” and “The Matrix,” too, with maybe a spike of “The Truman Show” for good measure.

Severance’s entire cast is a symphony without a single off-note. Scott stands out as the series’ emotional anchor, and Tillman delivers a breakout performance as the office warden Milchick. ... Severance’s deadpan humor is more like Being John Malkovich than Zoolander and Tropic Thunder. Stiller deftly balances absurd comic moments with genuine character development.

“Severance” gets under your skin, as the existential mystery at its core expands slowly across nine episodes. The new Apple TV+ sci-fi series is brilliantly unsettling, with captivating lead performances by Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette.

Suffice it to say, sitting down to watch this show isn’t an especially relaxing experience. By the end of its 9-episode first season, though, “Severance” becomes the best kind of TV surprise: one that rewards early patience with a real knockout of a back half.

Playful and mordantly funny, “Severance” is like a Charlie Kaufman-designed nightmare, from the midcentury-menacing set to the way it sketches the innies’ hermetic lives. ... The nine-episode season suffers from streaming slump in the middle, but it hooks you early and accelerates late.

The best kind of science fiction sometimes feels set about 10 minutes in the future, and so it is with "Severance," an extremely creepy, slow-moving but instantly engrossing Apple TV+ series.

"Severance" is at its best and most revealing when it grapples with the more existential issues of its brainwashing technology, especially in how it affects relationships.

Blessed with a sharp cast that includes John Turturro and Christopher Walken as senior innies, “Severance,” which is produced and mostly directed by Ben Stiller, manages to adeptly juggle the grim and the giggly (melon ball party, anyone?). More importantly, it never fails to entertain. In the end it leaves you begging for more. Always a good sign.

The final few installments yield urgently satisfying answers while leaving plenty of loose ends for a potential season 2. America's indelible myth of work/life balance will take more than nine episodes to bust.

Severance does not suck, though it takes about an episode and change to eventually transcend what had seemed like hard limits on viewer engagement. Part of the solution lies in the solid, vaguely sci-fi premise

“Severance” is political in spite of itself—the employees’ dawning realization of their mutual oppression makes them accidental proletariat. And yet it is almost impossible to watch the show and not think of real-life parallels to the situation at Lumon.

Altogether, Severance is an impressive creation. It’s a sci-fi mystery, an quasi-religious thriller and much more besides – but more than anything it really is a portrait of work and how we let it take over our lives.

For all its sci-fi stylings, Severance will ring true for anyone trapped in a job they hate.

Severance is classic slow-burn TV, lulling you with its hypnotic weirdness before piling on the twists. By the end, I was on the edge of my seat begging for a second season. [14 - 27 Feb 2022, p.7]

This is strong, old-fashioned serial drama, in which characters propel plot—and not the other way around. Contrivances are rare, and when they do pop up, there’s minimal undermining of the show’s intricate storytelling.

It’s wacky, unsettling, and remarkably assured.

It’s hardly the first satirical take on office life but slick direction and an endlessly compelling, frequently weird premise make Severance worth calling in sick for.

Before long, these employees satisfyingly rise up to break free of those arbitrary cubbies, after seeing not merely the system’s exploitation but undeniable evil. By then, viewers will have long been hooked by not only that vital social commentary and the series spiky humor, but also Severance’s office shredder sharp direction and — above all — its white-collar hero cast.

Some plot twists introduce logistical difficulties that feel more like holes than like blanks waiting to be filled in. But the show only becomes more distinctive and captivating, as its nine-episode debut season races toward a genuinely jarring finale.

Severance, though, gets more cumulatively effective as it goes along, and builds to a string of cliffhangers that left me eager for more instead of frustrated.

The whole thing builds in very satisfying ways, up through a season finale that is so tense, I may have forgotten to breathe a few times. That concluding hour is far more pleasurable than anything the innies get to experience as they complete tasks they don’t fully understand, in service of a world and lives they’re never allowed to visit.

There’s a dark humor, absurdist vibe that, alongside the mysteries (What are the workers doing at Lumon? Why does Mark’s boss live next door to him?), makes “Severance” appealing. But some of that interest gets undone by over-long episodes and a thudding pace.

It's intriguing, and worthwhile for audiences in search of something genuinely different. Whether that can be sustained over the course of an entire series of television remains an open question.

[“Severance”] pushes the idea of work-life balance to the outer limits. In doing so, it asks viewers to think about identity in a fresh new way. It pulls the reality from beneath your feet and works far more often than it doesn’t.

The idea of giant tech conglomerates consuming our lives, whether or not we work under their employ, is admittedly dour stuff. But thanks to its smart, sophisticated direction and sharp performances, Severence is never didactic, and mercifully doesn’t feel like work.

While director Ben Stiller does a fine job of placing us inside the expansive yet claustrophobic grounds of Lumon, and the cast is universally excellent, “Severance” starts with a slow crawl and builds to a steady walk — but never really takes flight and spends far too much time leading us to a reveal we knew was coming five episodes earlier.

As high concept television goes, Severance is pretty lofty, but its ambition is compelling – not least because it might just be the bulls*** jobs backlash we’ve been waiting for.