I have now watched eight of the nine episodes in Season 1 of Severance. It ends on a crazy cliffhanger I should have seen coming, and Episode 9 (season finale) will be a doozy. I can't wait to watch it.
This is such a great show. Greatly produced, wonderfully acted, written so well. I've seen comparisons to first season of Westworld due to its exploration of consciousness, and it is similar but for first season focused on a particular application. it also ties into workplace themes (bureaucratic oddities, relationships, private versus public, dumb regulations, chain of command, management obfuscation, etc.) But there are hints this could expand outside into a more social sphere than just work.
Adam Scott is just wonderful. Most things I've seen him in, he's hilarious and snarky -- but he actually does have decent dramatic chops (I remember seeing him early on in his career on Six Feet Under when he played a minor character) and I think this might get him further work outside just pure comedy. Ben Stiller also directs some of these episodes, and they're all great. There's also a few big names in this series (I didn't want to spoil one, but it was like "no freaking way"), and two of the old timers have some scenes together and are just amazing, they show why they've been around for decades. Patricia Arquette is another who just has had a wonderful career and is rather a scene stealer when she's in it (kind of like if a more nuanced / viper-in-the-grass version of Dolores Umbridge was your boss).
EDIT: Finished Severance later that night. Wonderful finale, with some questions getting answered but more being raised in their place, and we start to see the seeds of the impact this tech might have on the larger world beyond just workplace impact. I've actually seen some bitching about the "cliffhanger" ending, but the show was already renewed, and it TOTALLY makes sense for the cliffhanger (it was really darn predictable where it would be end), and all of it was earned... the mysteries are part and parcel of the show and there was a payoff for some of the things we were concerned about. I really love this show.
