anyone seen SEVERANCE yet?

agree but it is so far handling getting there well, dig the pacing & minimalist vibe

hate this show so much, there i said it

hey, someone has to

I liked the setup, not sure how I'm feeling about the progression so far. The little office world and the cast of bizarre characters is kind of charming, but it's not quite pulling me in and I feel like it needs to start going... somewhere.. soon

Turturro and Walken playing weird dudes that are kind of vibing about the art in their brainwipe prison

Does it bother anyone else that they never seem to do any work? I know it's implied but idk

I assume that the "work" is only an excuse to keep running this experiment. That said, I am finding it all a bit Wes-Anderson-does-dystopian. A lot of whimsy, not a lot of real substance.

the show's kind of reminding me of that amazon one, Homecoming

I hate Ricken so much

Petey’s cellphone has hella battery life

I love Ricken. That actor's played some ridiculous characters in the same vein and I get why that type of guy drives people nuts, but I enjoy that on screen

tbh I don't really see how you have the show without a Ricken-type character.

ricken is so hilarious to me, i love him. feels like there is a lot of Stiller’s humor in that character specifically. like, idk, literary Zoolander. he’s SO oblivious

I can also imagine that writing that book must have been great fun.
I'm enjoying this show more as it goes along. I thought in the beginning that it was boring and I didn't like it, but I've got into its pace now.

I was surprised to discover that there are only two episodes left in the season

that passage from Ricken’s book about “camaraderie” being based on the word “camera” nearly killed me

A lot of these shows seem to have only eight episodes per season.

xpost omg yes we were dying

A lot of these shows seem to have only eight episodes per season.

Yeah, it feels like an artistic decision that will turn out to have some business reason behind it, like eight episodes doesn't count as a full union season, so everyone's salaries don't automatically increase at the start of the next season, or something like that.

Seems clear that the season will end with Mark joining the resistance and with few questions resolved

Hard to argue with.

Although I do think we will probably get a few more reveals about people's, um, Outies.

This is fun, and thanks for the recommendation -- I wouldn't have noticed it without reading this thread.

I'm watching it during covid isolation - which feels a litle on the nose

Only seen three episodes - central cast is terrific. So far, the comic tone feels like it undercuts the dramatic tnsion - but maybe that'll change. And there's too much resting on the mystery denoument.

But it rules as My Little Isolation Show and everyone's lovely company (so far)

New episode is up. Never sure what time it actually drops. At one point I was getting alerts for certain shows.

Tell you one thing: I really dig Patricia Arquette’s nosy neighbor routine despite myself.

Spook too soon maybe

A lot of these shows seem to have only eight episodes per season.

This one has nine.

Loved the reveal at the end of this episode (although was expecting something along those lines but maybe a different character)

Renewed for season two too

Oh, and that defiant jazz reward scene was fantastic

Yes it was

Also Burt's retirement video was straight up comedy

I'm hoping Burt and Irv are actual outie partners.

Had that thought too

I doubt this was influence, but this show reminds me a bit of the film/MST3k episode Parts: The Clonus Horror: clones are raised on a campus with no contact with the outside world as "spares” for the person they were cloned from. The clones are treated in a simple, almost childlike way similar to how the work incentives at Lumon are juvenile things like finger traps, or how they are spoken to at the wellness session. Clones are given a big party when they "graduate”, which actually means they are whisked to a surgical room to have their organs harvested, similar to how Burt’s retirement seems to mean he (the innie, at least) effectively cease to exist, despite it being presented as a joyful occasion. The influential/rich people who commission the clones for parts don’t consider their clones to be actual people, similar to the outie’s attitude to the innies. And, of course, the plot is that the clone protagonist becomes aware of the outside world and finds a way to escape and expose the operation.

I keep thinking there might be some cloning aspect to this show as well and wondering when Petey 2.0 will show up.

Because of baby goats, because Haley R. tries to commit suicide but then the next day only has some bruises, because the guy’s wife dies in a car crash but then lives on as an innie

The only thing about that theory is that you don't want the clones to get old, surely? Young organs are better than old ones, so would you let them reach traditional retirement age before you "retired" them? But it does seem plausible otherwise.

A moment there of Eyes Wide Shut.

The only impressive thing about the Clonus movie was the casting for the young & old version of the protagonist. It was eerie! Everything else about it was hilariously bad, hence the stellar MST3K episode.

turturro is still my fave but the guy who plays milchick is great too - doesn't look like he's done a ton of stuff before this.

lumon sure does love having super-creepy parties. whether it's a dance party, an egg party, or a waffle party, it's going to be creepy and have intense lighting.

burt keeps painting the hallway down to wherever adam scott's dead wife goes when she's not working - so presumably he has some knowledge of whatever goes on back there? or he has gone through the same process as her (cloning/revivification)?

Excellent post, na. Yes, Milchick is particularly good, everything about him, even or especially his work uniform, but especially his surprising range of emotions, kind of like Naomi Watts in Mulholland Dr.

i'm sure all of our questions will be answered in the next episode

Ha, yes, exactly.

The only real issue with the premise is the idea that they know enough to have witty social interactions and vocabularies but perfectly don't have any memories of their other life. It should all be intertwined. If they can converse fluidly and make quips etc., those skills come from learned experience, so the basis of those skills is "remembered". Therefore are other basic things that are based on experience/memory maintained? Do they know what the sky and grass look like? How can they know some things and not other things? They're infantilized and yet they still can speak to each other with normal social intelligence. So it's kind of a discrepancy when you think about it but I'm sure one could make up a sci-fi explanation for it all. It doesn't ruin anything for me but I was just thinking about it. Fun show.

Also I don't get whether Rickon is successful... they have a nice house and he has a book deal but he is such a cartoon character and is tbh just a bit too goofy to really fit in with the rest of the universe of the show. Still fun! Just thoughts!

none of it really makes much sense if you think about it too much, lol. it's not really bothering me though.

rickon fits in with the tone of the show imo, given that it veers from creepy to depressing to absurd constantly. he's like the animated screen helly gets when she hits 100%.

Feel like Rickon must also have some kind of academic post or else is associated with some sort of Healing Institute.

I assume people with amnesia know all sorts of things except for the details of their own life, so maybe the severance process mimics that although I don’t know anything about any science of amnesia only familiar with it as a plot device.

something else that they can't really explain bc it would make less sense if they try to explain it: how known is it to the general public that Lumon is, in addition to being a huge corporation, a very creepy cult? is that stuff supposed to be secret, only used to control the severed? or is it part of the mainstream corporate culture as well?

Dunno, but that is a good point, especially given Patricia Arquette's considerable devotional shrine.

I figured that is supposed to explain the company loyalty among the dedicated employees that aren't severed.

I think the company definitely has cult-like roots if not an actual cult in practice

The work that the primary group we're observing seems odd, but what they're doing on computers seems to be associative logic puzzles. I keep wondering whether what's really going on (outside of the bizarre rituals) is refinement of the severance procedure.

The people working at most jobs at Lumon are:
- Raising goats (possible early test subjects for implants)
- Curating art (cataloguing creative endeavors, which could be some metric of mental acuity and creativity they want to quantify/qualify)
- Doing weird logic/categorizing puzzles on computers (measuring how the implanted human mind performs)

The cloning theory has some legs. I think overall, Lumon is trying to create a way to monetize and trade in modified humans that can do certain tasks with no objections or memory, and maybe refine humans (via technological innovations) in a way to do those things more effectively

The politician's (?) wife who didn't remember her pregnancy could be an application for the rich. Other than that... humanoid robot slave race, obviously

Wow, good analysis!

I like your theory of logic puzzles, although I originally thought the MDR tasks were a kind of disguised version of some other process à la "Where Will The Little Green Man Be Next?" in PKD's Time Out of Joint?, in case I haven't mentioned that already.

Man, somebody beat me to it and posted that on a metafilter over a month ago!

I don't have Apple TV but have been staying at my bandmate's house for rehearsals and she does, and I managed to finish this last time I was down. Bloody love it, but personally I feel like there was too much left unfinished in the last episode, great as it was. At least one of the plot, character or emotional arcs needed to be resolved for it to not need another series, and they were all left open. To be fair, my desire for more concrete resolution might be due to the precariousness of my viewing ability.

I really want to do a Music Experience options poll but I fear non-Severance fans might hate me for it.

Bob Balaban! Alia Shawkat! some other people i don't know or don't care as much about! https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/severance-season-2-cast-gwendoline-christie-alia-shawkat-bob-balaban-1235418421/

From the casting you'd guess a Severance x Knives Out crossover. Fun list for sure. Ólafur Darri Ólafsson!

Merritt Weaver! xp

That large a number of high profile new cast members certainly suggests they aren't going down the route of 'reset the status quo to the maximum extent possible' route

amazing series throughout -- been watching it alternating w/Andor (two episodes left in that) and watching the dystopian prison episodes of the latter at the same time as this was reaching its climax was an interesting vibe

Honored to talk about my performance on Severance here 🙏 pic.twitter.com/NHIzu13MMo

— Rajat Suresh (@rajat_suresh) March 11, 2023

How good

Rajat and Jeremy are absolutely terrible and I mean that in a complimentary way

Finished this tonight! It's quite good for six episodes then amazing for three. It could have maybe gotten amazing more quickly but fine, I can live with that.

What I'm most struck by is how fucking weird the outside world is (even by the standards of our IRL outside world rn) - how stygian, how deranged, how isolating and stilted. Something is fucked-up and it goes beyond Lumon

Having thought that the actual work might be a macguffin, I do also think it is probably quite important to find out what they do and what its wider implications are. But that's probably one for the S2 finale

Wait, what episode was Defiant Jazz because that one's just straight up amazing?

yeah, it's episode 7

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt11280740/episodes/?season=1

i now note that imdb agrees with me on when it jumps to being amazing, haha

Dined near the crew in Port Rexton, Newfoundland on the weekend. Wonder when the episode they're filming will be out. Should check it.

how isolating and stilted

I guess the place will fit. It's very early in tourist season, with a very grey start to "spring". I'm not sure any other restaurants were open yet.

Binged this over the last few days.
- Adam Scott’s face is… something.
- “Does it bother anyone else that they never seem to do any work? I know it's implied but idk”
This probably wouldn’t have bothered me except that Irv was getting his pay docked for dozing on the job.
- I can’t figure out Harmonie Cobel’s motivation. She’s got the shrine but she’s at odds with the Board. Before she realizes Mark is Out, and he’s telling her he’s thinking about quitting, she hugs him and whispers to “get away from those people”. She also seems to be encouraging something between Mark and “Ms Casey”.
- I’m very intrigued by the O&D dept and what they’re actually doing in the back room. Like, the random objects they’re creating and those instructional cards?
- for some reason I thought this was a limited series to I was pulling my hair out at the cliffhanger.

Season 2 not sounding promising so far though. Behind the scenes turmoil apparently and now on indefinite hold due to strike

What was the turmoil? All I find is that production was halted due to the strikes, which is every show basically

Some falling out between the two showrunners.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/severance-season-2-delayed-due-to-showrunner-fighting-report

https://www.gq.com/story/severance-season-2-delayed-behind-the-scenes-drama#

Well it looks they brought in the writer who wrote the prison episodes of Andor, so that seems promising

kinda curious how/why they're spending $20m per episode

those kaypro ii monitors aren’t cheap these days

Alia Shawkat is notorious for her method acting, forcing the production team to create the severing technology for real