Severance: Separate Lives

If you could leave all your personal troubles at home, when you went to work, would you?  Would you leave all your memories?  This is the plot of Apple TV’s new series, Severance.  Helly (Britt Lower) wakes up on a long table in a locked conference room at an unknown office.  She has no recollection of who she is or what happened to her.  A voice asks her to do a survey of five questions.  At first, she declines and attempts to escape, but eventually she relents.  We then meet Mark (Adam Scott), who is crying in his car, he cleans himself up and walks into work, while riding up on the elevator, his demeanor changes and he happily strolls through the endless, white, boring corridors of Lumon Industries macrodata refinement division.  It is explained to Helly, that she voluntarily went through a process that bifurcates a person into your work self and your personal self.  While you are at work, you have no recollection of who you are when not at work and vice versa.  Essentially creating two distinct personalities that have no knowledge of what the other one has done.  Everyone who works in this division of Lumon is part of the Severance Program.  But all is not what it seems.  Mark is warned by a previous coworker (who he of course doesn’t remember knowing) not to believe anything he is told.  And so the mystery begins.

It is an interesting idea, and I am not sure, given the choice, what I would do.  In the first episode, it is said that the procedure is controversial, and a lot of people are conflicted about the moral implications.  I have a very hard time leaving work, at work.  I fret about things, I have a hard time taking vacation days, and I constantly check messages.  It is enticing that all that time I spend worrying and fretting or even just problem solving, I would get back.  And how much more productive would I be, if the bad days at home, didn’t distract from my office work?  On the flip side, part of what makes me a good worker is my personal life.  I am driven by my memories and experiences, and not having those, I think would hinder my productive output.  And some of my closest friends were people I got close to at work, I would hate to only remember them, when I was at work.

Aside from the premise, I didn’t really find the first episode that interesting. The pacing was a bit slow and a lot of time is spent walking through the maze-like hallways, a bit too much time.  I understand its purpose and the message it is trying to convey, but it was just a bit much. Without knowing much about the series, there wasn’t a lot there to grab you and reel you in.  It wasn’t until near the end of the episode that we get a taste of what the series is really about.  The production value is good and the base story is intriguing.  The acting was all very well done, but I just didn’t connect with any of the characters. I am undecided if I want to give episode two a try.  Maybe my “work self” will like it better.