Imagine. You arrive at the office on a Monday morning. You greet the guard with a limp gesture. It must be said that you would have been happy to stay calm, over the weekend, for one more day. You put your things in your locker, grab your badge and attach it to your body using a neck strap. The one which therefore becomes a tool of the great entrepreneurial machine. You get in the elevator and leave all your memories there, on the ground floor, only to find them again when evening falls.
Thanks to a memory surgery operation called Severance or Dissociation, creating two distinct individuals within the same body, your self at work knows nothing about you outside and vice versa. This is what happens every day to Mark Scout and his team of macrodata refiners, including professional lives and memories (people) and private (outies) are separated.
If, at first glance, the idea developed by the company Lumon Industries in season 1 of the Apple TV+ series Severance is tempting, allowing us to truly break away from the intrusive work thoughts that we bring home in the evening, it is also eminently problematic.
This is the problematic part, this psychological and social derailment, that season 2 of the brilliant science fiction series explores in these ten new episodes available on Apple TV+ from January 17. Written by Dan Erickson and perfectly directed by Ben Stiller, it remains to be seen whether they live up to the first chapter of Severance and whether they deserve to be remembered.
A fiction of anticipation
There are many striking fictions to have, if not inspired, let’s say anticipated our reality. Far from being just simple reflections of our imagination, works like The best of all worlds by Aldous Huxley – who gave a face to our hyperconsumerist and standardized society today – or 1984 by George Orwell, who questioned mass surveillance and the control of words and ideas in dictatorial regimes, were therefore able to foresee the potential abuses of our societies.
Other works have thus made it possible to ask ethical questions about artificial intelligence in the case of Westworldon the border between public and private space in a hyperconnected world in Black Mirroror on genetic manipulations in Welcome to Gattaca or Jurassic Park.
As such, and like the statue of Duck-Rabbit present in the office of Mr. Milchik (brilliantly played by Tramell Tillman) in the second opus of Severance – a figure both historical and ambiguous in psychoanalysis which shows either a duck’s head or that of a rabbit, but never both at the same time – Dan Erickson’s series makes the old notion of the double way its own. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
But this time by giving it a scientific consistency: the separation of our memories in a surgical manner is now possible and leads to the cohabitation of two individuals within the same bodily envelope. This is Dissociation. Severancein addition to being an astonishing and intelligent work of fiction, is a fiction of philosophical anticipation.
Severance, season 1: the ingredients for success
To say that season 1 was a success is an understatement: with an audience score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and rave critical reviews like GQ who does not hesitate to talk about “the best Apple TV series”, Severance has already made a big impression.
The reasons for its success? In addition to the high-concept at the heart of the story and its philosophical reflections on the world of work, the show was able to adorn itself with a unique visual universe based on a demanding and accessible cinematographic grammar.
With Ben Stiller, who confirms his talents as a director, nothing is trivial and everything has meaning. Starting with the contrast between the outside world, with its often dark and realistic aesthetic, and the sparkling white of the labyrinthine corridors of Lumon Industries, which reinforces the break between the two worlds.
In the twists and turns of this company with an obscure goal, the dystopia becomes “Huxlian” since it is often the absurd comedy (the level of inefficiency in Mark Scout’s office sometimes reminding us of that of Mike Scott) and the good humor which prevents our people to question their condition. But the simplicity of the decor, reminiscent of the offices of firms like Apple or Google, is not misleading. A chair, a desk, a computer: the people are there to work.
And to discern the outies of the peopleclues exist: changes in focal length in the elevator slightly modify our perception of the characters’ faces to make us understand that we are changing our interiority; differences in plane scale between the exterior, where we can breathe, and the interior, where isolation is more marked; multiplied close-ups.
A differentiation between two realities of which Ben Stiller has become the master since the very successful The Dream Life of Walter Mitty already flirting with the boundaries of reality and dreams. In addition, the writing and interpretation of strong and complex characters play a large part in our attachment to this already cult show. Especially since each character here must fit into two different realities (private life and professional life) and play two individuals who, certainly, have things in common, but are also divergent.
Of the people who all have a different relationship to the mysterious work of refining macrodata that they must carry out every day: rebellion for Helly, resignation for Marc, acceptance for Irvin.
A very complex universe which needed to be established in time: season 1 started slowly, before seeing its rhythm transform, leading to an exciting climax. The bar was therefore very high for this new chapter in the adventures of Mark Scout…
Severance, season 2: surpassing oneself
« Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? Younger, more beautiful, more perfect? » This slogan from Coralie Fargeat’s latest film, The Substancecould alone summarize the ten new episodes of Severance.
The reunion with the universe of Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson does not deceive us: the atmosphere is more uncomfortable than ever and The Office soon gives way to Twin Peaks or Matrix. The plot of this second chapter is well put together and allows us to further explore the universe of Severancewhether among outieswhose personal lives we gradually discover, or among the peoplethe Dissociated floor revealing itself to be more extensive than it had previously appeared.
On the casting side, if we find our entire team of refiners – Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry), Irvin (John Turturro), and others Christopher Walken, Tramell Tillman and Patricia Arquette –, the arrival alongside Mr Milchick of Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), an infernal guardian with a childish face, reinforces the disturbing strangeness felt in the office.
On a visual level, the grammar of the series is still recognizable. New settings, like so many Easter Eggs that we love to discover, add a very interactive aspect to the viewing. Without forgetting a beautiful new theme song which plays with a Corporate Memphis aesthetic with a geometric and illustrative style dear to the Gafam of the late 2010s. In the style of those of James Bondit already contains within itself many keys to understanding the plot and gives pride of place to the outlineless, anonymous faces, reminiscent of industrial work in which the individual is ultimately only a pawn among others to carry out tasks. repetitive tasks.
To emphasize these mentions made to the alienation of work, the music of Theodore Shapiro, already grandiose in the first chapter, continues to play on the motifs dear to the style of the pioneers of minimalist music like Steve Reich or Philip Glass. Cold, mechanical music that plays on repetitions, reinforcing the iterative aspect of the tasks to be carried out within the macrodata refining center.
Absurd work defined in episodes as “mysterious and important”. Nothing more. Contrary to the premises of the series and in line with the end of the first season, the characters we follow also seem much more human to us, more able to have an influence on their destiny, whether it is from Mark, from Helly or even from Ms Cobel…
Finally, where the second season really stands out is in its ability to go even further in the themes addressed, the societal reflections that this technology opens up. It seems that the series followed Riken’s precepts and succeeded in personal development. Questions that affect the individual are thus addressed, such as that of identity, dissociated characters, people as outiesstarting to hate their other self.
The question also of the consciousness of these people is also explored: do they die when they leave the company? Are they individuals or animals, as expressed inoutie of Helly, who is none other than Helena Eagan, daughter of the founder of Lumon Industries? And as such, do they have rights? But also more societal questions concerning the impact that this type of technology could have in other sectors of society in terms of freedom, obviously, but also equality and consent between different social classes…
A season 2 which, more than convincing us that it is at the level of the first opus, goes even further and multiplies the possibilities, the reflections in abundance… before a future season 3? As Ben Stiller revealed in the columns of Colliderit would be more than likely: “It should last as long as the story requires, and that’s something we have an idea of and are working towards as we begin work on Season 3.”
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