What’s behind Severance’s explosive success?

Apple TV+’s sci-fi drama Severance has broken records with the launch of its second season, which the company says has surpassed Ted Lasso to become the most-watched series in its history.

The show returned on Jan. 17 after a three-year hiatus, with the Season 2 finale scheduled to drop on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.

What’s behind its explosive success? Part of it could be its portrayal of extreme corporate control that people find relatable, critics say, coming at a time when workplace issues are front of mind for many.

“I love this show. I think it’s so thought-provoking and provocative and just impeccably directed, every single frame of the show feels very purposeful and deliberate,” said Jen Chaney, a TV critic based in Washington, D.C.

Though the show’s concept may feel like it’s from an alternate universe, she said, it still speaks to people’s issues with the modern workplace, such as work-life balance. 

“There is a component there that resonates with a lot of people.”

A metaphor for compartmentalization

The Emmy-winning show, created by Dan Erickson and executive produced by Ben Stiller, follows Mark Scout (Adam Scott), who leads a team at Lumon Industries, a biotechnology company. Some of Lumon’s employees have undergone a “severance procedure,” which splits the consciousness of their work and personal selves, respectively referred to as their “innies” and their “outies.” The innies work on seemingly mundane projects whose purposes are kept secret even from them.

The ethics of the experiment are called into question when Mark finds himself at the centre of an unravelling personal mystery. He and his fellow innies realize they must confront the true nature of their work and find out who they really are.

“It does an incredible job of capturing the drudgery of corporate life,” said Amil Niazi, a Toronto-based culture critic.

The show is in a way a metaphor for compartmentalization, Chaney said. Between a never-ending news cycle and personal obligations, many people may be contemplating how to stay up to date while remaining productive in their everyday lives. 

“And even though Severance isn’t saying any of that explicitly, I do think there’s a little bit of a subtext in the themes of the show that maybe makes it extra resonant right now.”

Timing a contributing factor

The timing of the show’s release may have also contributed to its popularity. Season 1 of Severance was released in 2022, when the world was still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and workplace discourse centred around issues like “quiet quitting” — putting in the minimum effort required to keep one’s job — and whether employees would be called back into offices. 

“The first season came at a really interesting point in time when people were really starting to re-examine their relationship to work. And the concept is just so immediately relatable,” Niazi said.

“For all of the strange goings-on and the sci-fi aspect of the show, it really just asks, ‘What if your work and home life were completely severed in two?’ And I think that premise is really intriguing to a lot of people.”

Reception to the first season was strong, but because of the pandemic and the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, there was a three-year wait for the second season.

While such a gap in many circumstances would’ve killed a show, Niazi says it gave the show time to develop new fans in the interim and build a strong support base online.

“Ben Stiller has done an amazing job of really responding to fans, helping to feed some of the theories and really diving in on social media in a way that we’re not used to seeing creators, especially at his star level, doing.”

Are you an innie or outie?

The success of Severance is also a win for Canadian cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné, who made her directorial debut on Episode 7 of the show, to positive critical reception.

“I think we can relate to it in many ways,” she said of the series. 

“We are so lost in our phones, in our work, and we are numbing a lot and trying not to feel certain things. So we can all relate to this process of not wanting to face certain things in our lives.”

However, she said, the innies’ quest to find themselves may speak to “a voice inside of us that wants to come out,” as well.

“I feel like we see parts of ourselves — and the fact that it’s so well made and executed — people feel like something’s been given to them.”

Gagné sees herself as a reverse innie-outie.

“I definitely have been lost in my work for a really long time and forgot about myself. So it’s almost like the person that everyone knows me as the outie is this cinematographer person. But my innie is kind of a director. And now it’s like I found my innie and she’s kicking and screaming.”