SEVERANCE Episode 1.1

SEVERANCE is a psychological thriller on Apple TV+ that takes the idea of work-life balance to the max. In Episode One of Season One, Mark is an employee at Lumen, a company that has implemented a controversial procedure that splits a person’s memories into two parts – one while at work and another everywhere else. This procedure intends to help higher-up employees focus on their work without interference from their personal lives while protecting the company from corporate espionage. However, by splitting the memories, the part of the person with the work memories is essentially locked in the office for the rest of their life, while the other is unaware of what’s going on.

Mark experiences the shock this can cause when he shows up to work one day and his work best friend, Petey, is no longer working at Lumen. He is extremely upset, especially because he doesn’t know if Petey quit or if the company fired him and he will never see him again. Soon after receiving this news, the boss calls him into his office, where he promotes him to Petey’s position before being asked to train his replacement.

Still saddened by the news, Mark trudges on with work and reports into a room adjacent to a conference room where a woman is unconscious on the table, which appears to be the new hire he must train, starting with an entry survey. The woman wakes up when Mark asks questions and is extremely upset and disturbed, especially because she has no memory. After multiple violent outbursts, she asks to leave, and Mark escorts her to the exit, but when she tries to go out the door, she only finds herself back in the office building.

Mark explains that she opted to participate in the severance program, splitting her memory into work and outside versions. She always enters the building because her outside self wants to go back in. This explanation is reinforced when she sees a video of herself taken a few hours prior, in which she explains to herself that she’s freely partaking in the severance program.

That night, Mark’s sister picks him up after work for a dinner party with her husband and their friends. Things turn south when the severance program is brought up, and it is revealed that Mark has participated in it. Later, his sister apologizes and asks Mark to spend the night so he won’t be alone. He accepts the invitation but has trouble sleeping and is spooked in the middle of the night when he sees a man prowling in her yard.

The next day, Mark goes about weekend chores, such as cleaning the gutters of his home, before taking himself out to dinner. While at dinner, a man approaches who was in the yard the night before. Petey is his best friend at work, but Mark doesn’t recognize him. Petey, however, has found a way to reverse the severance program and has seen Mark as a backup plan in case he goes missing before he can expose Lumen’s practices. He hands Mark a letter explaining things further and an address he can visit if he ever wants more information.

The first episode of Season One of SEVERANCE is an entertaining, BLACK MIRROR-like show that warns against the consequences that can occur when bad people control cutting-edge technology. The first episode is brilliantly made, revealing information about the severance program little by little, as if the viewer had woken up with no memory of what was occurring. Thus, the audience is placed in the same shoes as someone entering the program. Furthermore, the acting is extremely well done, and the music adds to the creepy feel of the show.

While the show encourages viewers to thoughtfully consider the technologies, they’re subjecting their minds and bodies to, it does so in a way that is not appropriate for all viewers. The subject matter is heavy and would take a toll on younger viewers. Furthermore, it features extreme foul language, with 26 profanities and obscenities in the first episode alone. For this reason, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for older teens and adults.