Why I Can’t Watch Apple TV’s Severance

“You’ve GOT to watch Severance.” After the fifth person in my sphere uttered these words with so much enthusiasm you’d think they were saving my life, I finally got a subscription to investigate the hullabaloo.

On a rainy Sunday afternoon, I binged the first three episodes. Intrigued, yet growing more concerned. This wasn’t a show about work-life balance—as the premiss suggested. People signing up to a program that allowed them to disconnect from their life outside of work seemed relatively harmless, maybe even understandable. The motivation for the protagonist, Mark, is the opportunity to get some relief from the grief of losing his wife. I thought perhaps this might be a show about extreme dissociation and grief. 

Then, as well-meaning people were punished for making human mistakes and asking legitimate questions, I realized this was a show about a highly organized method of control. But that wasn’t the part that creeped me out. 

The part that gave me the heebee jeebees was the smiling niceness of the authority figures. The posture of “we’re doing this for your good”. The constant reminders that the workers chose this life and that the people in charge knew best. 

I went to bed that night and had three different nightmares during sleep. While they were all completely separate, with different settings and characters, they each had a connected theme: I was trapped. I awoke the next morning and determined Severance was not for me. But that hasn’t stopped me from asking friends for a detailed synopsis of the show. I want to know what happens. I just don’t want to live through it. 

I don’t want to live through it because I’ve already lived through it in real life. While nobody inserted a chip into my brain (that I am aware of), I endured extreme brainwashing and control to the level that even though no one ever locked me in a room, I felt entirely trapped. I was trapped by beliefs and psychological layers of control. The door was open. I could have walked out any time. But I stayed because of severe manipulation and the fear of what could happen if I left. I stayed because of the smiling authority figures who convinced me they knew best. 

It’s the smiling part that creeped me out. The all-too-real phenomenon that cult leaders and abusers don’t have devil’s horns. They rarely carry pitchforks or laugh maniacally. Usually, they look just like you and me. They shake your hand, attend charity events, vote, go to work, baptise their children, and borrow books from the library. In every respect, they look like decent human beings. In about 80% of their life, nothing they do is alarming at all. 

It’s the other 20% that’s the stuff of nightmares. The syrupy sweetness that accompanies their abuse and convinces you that their mistreatment is your fault. In Severance, the creepiest part was the smiling niceness that accompanied the inhuman treatment. That was the part that was just too real for comfort. 

I like some psychic distance from my entertainment. I don’t want to be reminded of my real life. It might be easier for someone who hasn’t endured indoctrination or mind control to find something entertaining in the show. I know a couple therapist friends who watch it for psychological analysis. 

As for me, I’ll stick to my murder mysteries and teenage vampire dramas. Those things never give me nightmares.