What if you could have not just work/life balance, but work/life separation? Surely no company would do anything dubious or problematic with the ability to entirely cut off its employees from memories of their personal lives, right?
This first teaser for Apple TV+’s Severance (no relation to the Ling Ma novel of the same name) quickly suggests otherwise.
Severance is created and written by Dan Erickson, and it’s the only thing on his IMDb page, which may explain, at least in part, why Apple is leaning on executive producer and director Ben Stiller’s name to promote the show—which looks at once eerie and familiar. It’s those white halls and too-empty rooms! Bad corporations in movie and TV always have white walls and too little furniture.
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Here’s the summary:
Mark Scout (Adam Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in ‘work-life balance’ is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work … and of himself.
We love a good memory drama (is it time to rewatch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? It might be!), and Scott is joined by a very appealing cast for this one: Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, Dichen Lachman, Jen Tullock, Tramell Tillman, Michael Chernus and Christopher Walken.
The first two episodes of Severance premiere on Apple TV+ on February 18, 2022, with the rest following weekly.
