In “Severance,” the creepy-sardonic workplace drama on Apple TV+ starring Adam Scott, employees at a company called Lumon Industries submit to having a chip implanted in their brains that “severs” their memory in two: Whatever happens at the office stays at the office (where they have zero knowledge of their life outside of work) and once they leave the building they have no recollection of anything that happened over the last eight hours under the fluorescent lights of their cubicles. As far as their memories are concerned, they might as well be two different people.
Imagine how thrilled a company would be knowing its labor force is free from outside distractions. Never again will executives have to contend with demands for a work-life balance because Lumon has manufactured a way to rigidly enforce “balance” through amnesia.
It’s not just bosses who might see the appeal. Hate your job? Here’s a way to ensure none of that weighs on you once you go home. Miserable at home? Here’s a 40-hour break from that every week. Win-win! Except this bifurcation might start to resemble something hellish: Your office self is always at work, with no reprieve, where you perceive your existence as only that of a worker drone with no connection to the world outside. “Severance” takes things a step further: What if vaguely sinister things are happening at the office? What if the break room isn’t where the coffee machine is located but refers to an actual place, hidden ominously behind closed doors, that exists to mentally break disobedient employees? What if your daily life as an “innie” (to use the show’s parlance) is a trap but only your “outie” has the power to quit — and probably never will, unaware that anything is amiss?
