‘Severance’: Ben Stiller has finally found his magnum opus
2022 has been an excellent year for television. From Nathan Fielder’s sprawling metafictional masterpiece The Rehearsal to Olivier Assayas’ TV adaptation of his own film Irma Vep, there have been some truly unique new shows that have captured the public imagination in striking ways. Within this highly competitive arena, Ben Stiller has come out on top with his latest show, Severance.
As a director, Stiller has made some memorable contributions through Tropic Thunder, Reality Bites, the Zoolander series and more. In 2018, he also impacted the contemporary landscape of television through Escape at Dannemora – a limited series which depicted the true story of a female prison employee helping two convicted murderers escape.
While Stiller’s previous efforts are definitely significant with respect to their cultural frameworks, it looks like he has finally found his magnum opus. Severance is the show of the year, featuring a highly talented ensemble cast in an unsettling retro-futuristic commentary on late capitalism and corporate culture.
Almost like a logical extension of Office Space, Severance is not only the best new show available on streaming services right now, but it also happens to have the greatest opening scene. When the camera reveals an outstretched employee on a meeting table struggling to answer basic questions about her identity, you know it’s only going to get crazier.
Adam Scott is fantastic as Mark S., a model employee at the mysterious Lumon Industries. If you think Severance is just another uninspired ideological attack, you could not be more wrong. That’s because Lumon isn’t just a fictional analogue of Amazon or Facebook; it’s a corporate cult that tries its best to exploit and brainwash employees to maximise their profits. Well, it’s almost like Amazon or Facebook.
Oh, it has also developed pioneering technology to partition employees’ memories into two sections – one that retains the memory of professional life and another that only has knowledge of the individual’s personal history. How fun! During a conversation with EW, Stiller noted that Severance builds on the tradition of office comedies but manages to achieve a singular tone.
Stiller explained: “There was something in the tone of it that reminded me of these office workplace comedies I’d seen over the last 20 years in movies and television that sort of developed as a genre unto themselves. To me, it was almost like he was playing with this familiar tone and comedic cadence in the dialogue of people who joke with each other and banter at the office.”
He added: “And yet there was this other layer to it, which was the question of: who are they, what are they doing, why are they there? And none of them even knew that. So it had this surreal undertone. Right from the beginning, I was just taken by that, because it felt familiar yet different. And I started imagining what that world looked like, and that was really exciting to think about.”
Ranging from iconic films like Brazil and The Truman Show to video games such as The Stanley Parable, Severance wears its influences on its sleeve but manages to pull off the almost impossible task of appearing wholly original in this day and age. Stiller delivers a masterclass in exposition while the narrative tension rises to a deafening crescendo as we uncover the darkness lurking within the labyrinths of Lumon.
After working on this idea for several years, creator Dan Erickson has finally entered the big leagues with Severance. According to Stiller, the early drafts of the show were even more surreal than the final product, but the semi-grounded approach definitely works in this case. The audience oscillates between mundane moments, such as tedious discussions about work targets and incomprehensible oddities, resulting in a bizarrely wonderful viewing experience.
Erickson’s titillating concept, Stiller’s stellar direction, the impeccable art design and the stunning cinematography all deserve credit, but Severance would be nothing without its cast. Starring Patricia Arquette, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman (who is silently menacing in a fascinating way) and more, it is this ensemble that adds to the mystique of the show’s universe. John Turturro and Christopher Walken engaging in a forbidden office romance? I mean, come on! Severance has it all.
A lot of the online discussions around Severance have revolved around the psychology of the show, especially the division of individual identity and the integral position of memory within the human condition. These philosophical strands are at the heart of Severance, but these ideas have been abundantly explored elsewhere.
What Severance brilliantly succeeds at is constructing a modern, easily understandable, yet riveting translation of Marx’s theory of alienation. It takes us through the various stages of capitalist exploitation, showing us just how workers are alienated from their labour, the activity of labour (nobody at Lumon knows what they actually do), from others (nobody knows anybody outside Lumon) and lastly, their own humanity. By incorporating and innovating on a very specific sci-fi framework, the show’s critique comes off as artistically honest and politically relevant.
