This article will cover up to episode 6 of Severance to get you interested in the show itself. Severance is one of those shows to me that feels both sterile and deeply human at the same time. Up through episode 6 of Season 1, it’s incredible how the show creates tension without relying on constant action or huge reveals every five minutes. This article will also talk about the connection between this show’s themes and how it connects to academic life, specifically ERHS.
What surprised me most about Severance is how, although it is sci-fi, it doesn’t feel like it. When watching, I didn’t feel like the severance procedure could be considered sci-fi. It’s so casually introduced that you don’t even notice it sometimes. To expand on the severance procedure, it is a procedure that splits your work life from your personal life completely. It sounds somewhat convenient. Innies are the ‘personalities’ that work inside the corporation, Lumon, and outies are the personalities that live outside and have their own personal lives. The innies do not ever leave, they do not sleep, and their existence is simple and vague work. This realization is only confirmed by the example of our main character, Mark. Severance does a good job of making him feel emotionally numb without making him boring. Mark’s outie uses severance to avoid the grief of losing his wife.
Students may often use their own forms of escapism to deal with stress. Some bury themselves in social media, games, music, sports, or overwork themselves. Others may mentally ‘check out’ during the school day just to get through it. Similar to the workers at Lumon, routines can become automatic.
This film focuses a lot on escapism. This is as common in school as it is in the show. When it comes to comprehension, the K-12 as well as university systems often focus on standardized test scores and arbitrary yet rigid testing methods. The comprehension comes from actually understanding what you’re doing. Students may go into courses without knowing the real-world utility of the information they are learning. This does not mean that school is bad at all. In fact, ERHS offers many strong academic opportunities and programs that help students prepare for the future. However, Severance raises an important question: What happens when people focus so much on performance and productivity that they disconnect from themselves?