Severance - Series Premeire Discussion Thread

[u/LoretiTV]

Season 1 Episode 1: Good News About Hell

Aired: February 18, 2022

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Synopsis: Mark is promoted to lead a team who've had their memories surgically divided between their work and personal lives.

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Directed by: Ben Stiller

Written by: Dan Erickson

[u/Ellsbellsmoge]

I'm hooked. Can't wait to see where this goes. The not a dinner dinner scene absolutely enraged me with how pretentious they all were, though!

[u/alisonrose1992]

The Petey twist was interesting...didn't think they would show us an unsevered person so quickly. Wonder how much he knows...

[u/AngelChu]

they probably screen their workers beforehand to make sure their personal lifestyle wouldn't affect their worklives (though you can see a bit of adam scott's character drinking to deal with the loss of his wife?), but my first thought was "man it'd be really messed up if you somehow got pregnant"

[u/candycane7]

Those 2 first episodes would be great black mirror episodes. Very excited about the rest of the season.

[u/thrillhouse83]

It’s a great start but I just don’t see how the innies can tolerate working 24/7. Sure they feel the effects of sleep but they never get to. They live in complete tedium. I don’t understand why they seem so content with the smallest things like a waffle party instead of just lying around depressed and wanting to kill themselves. Are they being fed serotonin or something?

[u/petielvrrr]

Okay a couple more thoughts:

1. When Mark gets to work the parking lot is completely full (as well as the lobby). When he leaves there’s like 2 cars. Does Lumen stagger all of their employees? Or just the severed ones? Is it possible that most people in the building are severed? I would assume so, but they make a point of saying “severed floor”.

2. Why is incentivizing creamer, but not finger traps, weird? Again, WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE FOOD. I just honestly can’t make sense of it.

3. The handshake feels….. significant. Like why did Mark have to think about it and why did his boss look surprised when he asked for it?

[u/BurnsRedit]

Can’t wait for the office Christmas party episode.

[u/gsm3ed]

Why is the technology so out dated. What year was this supposed to be

[u/Hungover52]

Does Adam Scott look significantly different now? I don't know if it's time, makeup, or something else happened, but everytime I see his face it feels slanted, like it's not quite real.

[u/BurnsRedit]

It’s like if Charlie Kaufman mashed up Eternal Sunshine with The Matrix, Men in Black, and Black Mirror.

[u/camlloc255]

Interesting show - the visuals are really cool. Brings up so many thoughts about how much of work affects your outside life. Questions/thoughts:

1. Anyone constantly thinking belly buttons? (outtie/innie)

2. Why did he switch his watch when he came in?

3. The whole point of Mark wanting to sever to forget his wife doesn't really make sense bc he isn't experiencing the time that he's at work. So he's just remembering his wife in a truncated time span, right?

4. That whole non dinner party was so unnerving. I get such a creepy sense of what the world must be like

5. I thought it was cool how Mark's temperament and mood slowly changed as he walked through all the aisles at work. And that was before you really knew what was going on.

6. Is his neighbor/boss severed? I'm assuming she's not and is there spying but just wanted to check.

[u/Accomplished_Tank143]

Doesn’t make it easy changing jobs. Can’t interview after hours, you wouldn’t know what to say. Loved the child room with 3 beds.

[u/average5k]

Both of Marks watches are stopped and are 1 minute apart when first going into building. Date on outie watch says 4th when going in and 5th when coming out.

[u/Cant_Think_Of_UserID]

The office building reminds me of the video game Control that came out a few years ago, the retro tech and imposing architecture.

I would never last a dinner party like that, it's like those people have completely disappeared up their own arses.

[u/petielvrrr]

Okay so I am very much hooked. But it’s been a few days and I finally found this sub today, so my thoughts are boiling over:

1. If this severed thing was in real life, you can bet that I would be asking for a 6 figure salary MINIMUM, with a 20-30 hour work week. My outie only gets to experience the tired parts of Mon-Fri & the weekends? Nah. That’s not enough “work-life balance” for me. Also, finger traps and pie parties are not going to cut it as incentives.

2. WHATS GOING ON WITH THE FOOD. They apparently have it at the restaurant, they have really good looking sandwiches after the dinner party, but they don’t have dinner at the dinner party?

(The rest is me asking hypothetical questions about life as a severed person and how weird the whole thing would be)

3. I’m just imagining what it would be like to go through a body change like pregnancy or weight loss while working at Lumen on the severed floor. Like if I’m trying to lose weight, but I don’t know how to tell “innie” me what’s going on, and “outie” me doesn’t know if “innie” me is even following the rules. That sounds maddening.

4. Vacations for the “innie” person sound…. Confusing. You take a week off (or hell, take maternity leave) then come back to see that the dude next to you grew a beard in 5 minutes.

5. What happens if you have kids and your kid has an emergency in the middle of the day? Pretty sure it would be illegal to refuse to employ parents to avoid this issue, so I’m just wondering what that implies for the show.

[u/thenewyorkgod]

Why the fuck are there episode 2 spoilers in this episode 1 discussion threat? people should be banned over these spoiler comments

[u/corkmasters]

I wonder if there's any significance to Mark and Petey both being sick: was Mark just sniffling and clearing his throat because he'd been crying, and that was a hint that Petey had been crying before work the day before? Or is there something else to it?

[u/ElmoreHayne]

Petey said he had help taking out the implant, so does that mean that somebody out there knows how to remove the implant and is working against Lumon?

[u/skinnyeater]

I just watched this. Im 2 months late here but anyway. How is no one commenting about when the boss lady told Outie Mark “You are good people”. Instead of you’re a good person. It’s like she’s referring to Outie and Innie Mark

[u/ofpeaceandmagic]

I haven’t even finished the first episode but I have to say the music really reminds me of the Moon soundtrack

[u/asshair]

Anyone get Maniac vibes from this show?

[u/PepperStanwyck]

Why did Helly have white roses in her hand when Mark almost hit her with his car (dude!) in the parking lot on her first Severed day? If I knew how to blank out words in a post I would so stop reading now. Stop! Spoiler!

Ok I think outie Helly got a congratulations for severing party from her upstairs coworkers, and that’s why even though she left before Mark’s staggered exit, she was still there.

[u/ndotny]

Hey it’s “Brian“ from Succession!

Guess he was sick of being stymied at the Waystar Ft. Lauderdale location by that variety of enemies who are jealous of his talents … maybe he wanted to take a job that was closer to his nephews Cooper and Clark.

[u/tyramail1]

It's like Black Mirror. Except good.

[u/[deleted]]

I wonder what significance the colors hold? Everything on the severance floor seems primarily green. Upstairs there’s green and yellow, as well as in the room where we are first introduced to Helly. Their badges are blue, and blue also seems be a recurring color aside from the badges.