When it comes to the new Apple TV+ series Severance, work-life balance isn't really the right term for what is going on with Mark and the rest of his coworkers. A work-life balance in Severance means that people don't remember anything about their personal life when they are at work. They also don't remember anything about their work when they are outside the building.
This severing of memories from work and home is part of a procedure that the employees of Lumon Industries do of their own free will. Once they go through this process, their personalities are basically split into two, the Innies and the Outties. The Innies are the work personalities, who feel as if they never actually leave work, because their memories end once they leave certain work spaces. The Outties are the personalities when they are away from work.
What makes the Apple TV+ series so interesting is watching how the people that have gone through the Severance process go about their lives. It's actually an interesting concept when thought about for any length of time. There are certainly people everyone works with that they don't really know anything about outside their work life. They don't know what people do at home, whether they have friends or family and what they do in their spare time. This show takes that to a whole other level, as Mark has to actually try and figure out what he himself is doing when he goes to work and then when he leaves.
Work Life Separation
One of the things that makes Severance, so good right at the offset is that the viewer never really feels very comfortable inside the world of this Apple TV+ series. Director Ben Stiller has made it clear that there is nothing normal about the Severance procedure or a company that is asking its employees to undergo something like this. Even before things take a turn, it becomes quite clear that things just aren't right. While Mark's coworkers seem like nice enough people, his bosses are sketchy and shady right from the beginning. That certainly helps to set the tone.
At the same time, it becomes clear quite early into the show that things might not be entirely what they seem. The first episode of Severance opens with a woman waking up on a conference room table. A voice over the loudspeaker starts asking her questions and the audience is immediately thrown into what seems like an ominous world with an evil corporate overlord. It turns out the audience gets to see that same scene from the point of view of Mark and it turns out that this sequence, at least, is mostly just a new supervisor not really understanding how to do his job yet.
Mark, who is played perfectly by Park & Rec's Adam Scott seems like a nice enough guy. However, it's shown very early on that his Outtie isn't exactly living his best life. He lives alone after his wife died (in a way that hasn't been divulged yet) and doesn't seem to have any friends he spends any time with when he's not at work. He does have his sister, Devon who is trying to help him get over the death and live a "normal" life.
Of course, even when he is doing "normal" things like going to a dinner party, it's not exactly normal as Devon's husband has decided to have a dinner party without the dinner. As the conversation centers around the company at the center of the Apple TV+ show, viewers get a little more insight into what the public thinks about practice of Severance. It turns out that the public wonders quite a bit just what kind of people would want to go through this particular process. For Mark, he makes it very clear that it's helped him deal with his wife's death. It seems as if the rest of the series will gradually fill in the gaps on why his office mates have decided to go through the same process.
Things Gradually Take A Turn
The scene where Mark is introduced to Helly (played by Britt Lower) is one that everyone who has gone through Severance has to go through at first. It turns out that Lumon Industries is quite secretive about the work that Mark, Helly, Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Irving (John Turturro) are doing. Part of the reason the Outties and Innies are created is because the firm doesn't want the workers to remember anything about their work. Interestingly enough, even if they did remember it wouldn't make much sense, as everything they do has to do with coded numbers that are sorted into digital boxes.
It turns out that it appears that the only people viewers are introduced to who aren't "severed" are the supervisors. These include Tramell Tillman's Mr. Millchick and Patricia Arquette's Peggy. Both characters are equal parts creepy and scary, simply because they know what's going on and no one else does. It helps that they brilliantly fit the theme of the Apple TV series. That theme does run throughout the first two episodes with "isolation" being the name of the game.
Mark's Outtie feels isolated from the outside world both because of his wife's death and because he's undergone a procedure no one else understands. Severance happens to be something that is looked down upon by some people, as shown in one particular interaction between him and some protestors that are trying to get the procedure banned. That isolation continues even when the four office employees are all together, thanks to the way the business is run. Even though things often seem like a regular day in the office at times, there's an undercurrent that runs through the company that is clearly a bit unnerving. When the Apple TV program starts talking about what happens in places like The Break Room and when someone "dozes" it's clear that Lumon isn't all that it seems.
One big question that does arrive from the first two episodes of Severance is whether the show can continue the same tone throughout the season. The show relies quite a bit on being weird. That can become a bit grating if it's done over and over again, especially if it's done just to be weird. If Ben Stiller and the rest can continue the level of chemistry throughout the series, it will be one of the best on any streaming service this year.
Severance episodes 1 & 2 are available Apple TV+ now with new episodes coming every Friday.