The title refers to a procedure practiced by corporate giant Lumon Industries in which employees sever their memories of what transpires at work from what happens outside, and vice versa, theoretically bringing new meaning to the phrase “work-life balance.”
Yet when a member of the team suddenly leaves, and a newcomer arrives, it upsets the chemistry within the office, triggering thoughts about what really might be motivating the practice — and what the company might actually be doing that its robotic, happy-talking top brass appear eager to avoid.
Answers don’t come quickly, but the scenario becomes utterly fascinating, with Adam Scott as Mark Scout, the low-key new leader of the team; and Britt Lower as Helly, the new arrival who asks way too many questions.
For Mark, the severed memories have served a particular purpose, allowing him to create distance between work and the pain he was experiencing after the loss of his wife.
Scott turns out to be the perfect Everyman, but the cast is uniformly good. Why the others would agree to this Faustian bargain is only one of the breadcrumbs that “Severance” takes its time sprinkling, in a series that leaves plenty of runway for more at the end of its nine episodes.
Light escapism it isn’t. But until the show’s fictional technology becomes reality, a series like “Severance” is just the sort of cerebral concept to help take one’s mind off the daily grind of working 9 to 5.
“Severance” premieres Feb. 18 on Apple TV+. (Disclosure: My wife works for a division of Apple.)
