Severance, the hit Apple TV Plus show that landed on our screens earlier this year, truly spoke to the current moment. A world where shadowy, uncaring corporations seek to control our lives, subsume our entire identity within the company apparatus, and manipulate us while promising ‘work-life balance’ – all of these things will feel familiar to office workers in the modern world.
Severance works from a fascinating premise – what if you could separate your home life and work life, permanently? What if a one-off medical procedure could split your psyche in two, creating a willing worker bee when you come on-site, and a work-free self when you go home to relax, neither aware of the other?
The show, directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdie, taps into a deep desire to have distance from the persona we play in the workplace, to not be defined by our jobs, and to make the hours at the desk skip by as fast as possible. Show creator Dan Erickson was inspired to write the pilot while working “a series of office jobs” in LA, wishing he could “disassociate for the next eight hours” while also being deeply disturbed by the thought, he told the Seattle Times (opens in new tab).
“Writer Fuel” is a series of cool real-world stories that might inspire your little writer heart. Check out our Writer Fuel page on the LimFic blog for more inspiration.
