All the screenshots in this post were taken directly from the series by me.
After giving "The Studio" a chance, I decided to delve a little deeper into the catalog of series available on Apple TV, a streaming service that, while often ignored in those grand discussions about giants like HBO Max or Netflix, has surprised with its ability to create risky works that seem to prioritize art over numbers, something respectable in an era where it seems that the most important thing is to keep viewers hooked over the quality of what we are shown.
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Regarding "Severence," I honestly didn't know much about it. I knew it was a series that mixed drama with science fiction and took place in a sort of corporate environment, and I also knew that Ben Stiller was involved in its production. This ignorance regarding the series' content worked in my favor, since "Severance" is one of those projects that is more enjoyable the less knowledge we have of its content.
The premise is relatively simple: there's a company called Lemon that performs a surgical procedure on its employees. By implanting a chip in their brains, a sort of split personality is created, creating an internal individual who will be in charge of carrying out our work within the company. While away from the company, we can live a normal life, unaware of what happens in our work environment.
What may sound like a beautiful fantasy to those, like me, who only started working formally a couple of years ago, triggers a series of moral and philosophical conflicts, especially regarding the consent of our version of ourselves, relegated to existing solely to fulfill our work.
However, the true starting point of Severance arises when a girl named Helly, who underwent this procedure, finds herself unable to adapt to this new life and struggles to escape.
Although Severance may seem like a run-of-the-mill series to many (often compared to the dystopian style of gems like Black Mirror), I appreciate not only the excellent production level with which it is crafted, but also its ability to keep the viewer in a constant state of tension, unable to accurately predict what will happen in the next episode.
It's a stinging critique of corporate America, which often crosses the lines between decent work and voluntary slavery, a message that ironically feels very timeless, despite being deeply rooted in the times we live in.
Starring the excellent Adam Scott, accompanied by great actors like John Turturro, Christopher Walker, and Patricia Arquette, Severance is a brilliant series that, in two seasons, has managed to earn a well-deserved place in modern television, far from perfect but quite solid in terms of quality.
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