‘Severance’ and the Trauma of the Bullshit Job

Reviews have been pouring in for the second season of Severance: “weird,” “too weird?,” and “even weirder than the first.” The darkly satirical and extremely popular series finally returned to Apple TV+ last week, three years after it became one of the buzziest shows to debut on the platform. It’s a peculiar mix of sci-fi and psychodrama, but weird as it may be, what makes Severance compelling is that any American who has had a job can relate to it, at least a little.

Severance is about severance—a fictional procedure whereby corporate employees receive a brain implant that completely separates their work memories from their personal memories. The result is two distinct consciousnesses sharing the same body: the “innie,” who only wakes up when the host body is inside the office, and the “outie,” who lives a full and vibrant life in the real world, using the money earned by their workplace self. Innies and outies are aware of each other’s existence, but they can never directly interact and have no knowledge of each other’s experiences—an innie might show up to work with a headache, and wonder if their outie got drunk the night before. Basically, severance is the world’s most ironclad NDA, with a side of split personality disorder.

And since the very first episode premiered in 2022, people have been asking themselves and each other the obvious question: Given the option, would you undergo severance?