Severance: Can 'Weird' and 'Popular' Coexist?

I’m thrilled to report a resounding yes. If you know me, you know I love nothing more than a weird drama. This love has been a bit of a lonely experience; the best weird shows are either ‘cult classics’ (The Leftovers, Six Feet Under, Twin Peaks, Sense8) or started out mainstream but ended up with a legacy that I could only describe as infamous (…Lost…). Today’s streaming era has only exacerbated this lonesome road: with so much to choose from and no appointment viewing, it feels like catching lightning in a bottle to find someone in my life watching the same thing at the same time as me. That is, until Severance.

I don’t need to unpack this season or that finale, but I’ll tell you I loved every second of it. The truth is, I couldn’t do as good a job as all my friends and family members who dissected it with me every week- not to mention the countless people online who managed to make a compelling case for every theory from the Board being a collective consciousness of the Eagan lineage living in Jame’s brain (I’m buying into this one) to Ricken being a goat (this one not so much).

Still from Severance. Image courtesy of IMDb.

Y’all have shown up for this show in a way that has honestly filled my heart to the brim. I don’t have any light that hasn’t already been shed on the brilliance of the plot, characters, performances, or cinematography. So instead, I’m here to talk about the cultural moment I feel I’ve just witnessed… and make a pitch to bring back standing weekly TV appointments.

I think I had every viewing experience possible with Severance. I actually am pretty late to the game- I watched all of season 1 for the first time in a single day back in December. Needless to say, it was incredible, and from then on, I waited with bated breath for season 2 like the rest of the world. When I first pulled up Apple TV+ on release day and saw only one episode, my initial reaction was “Jesus, all the lead up to this day and we only get one?”. I’ve since done a complete 180.

The time to digest the developments of each new episode, to theorize, to reflect, to discuss, is what allowed it to become as big as it has over the last ten weeks. It’s also what allowed it to build community. Severance is so good that when a new episode did drop, rather than watching it whenever was convenient, everyone was watching as soon as they possibly could. It’s not the only show releasing weekly of late, but it’s the closest thing to synchronized viewing I’ve ever seen in the streaming era.

Adam Scott, Britt Lower, John Turturro, and Zach Cherry in Severance. Image courtesy of IMDb.

I was able to attend the Severance event at PaleyFest this past Friday, the release date of the season 2 finale. The event included a screening of the episode followed by a panel with the cast, director Ben Stiller, and creator Dan Erickson, moderated by Ben Schwartz. Despite technically being the same day the episode came out, I was so antsy all day waiting to watch it. I felt behind- all my Severance buddies were checking in, having already seen it, their world rocked. I was checking Reddit to be super sure they were, in fact, showing the full episode at the event, and everyone online shared my anxieties and eagerness to see it.

I’m not quite ready to call “Cold Harbor” the best episode of TV I’ve ever seen (it might be- I’m mulling it over), but I am ready to say that it was the best time I’ve ever had watching an episode of TV. And I generally have a pretty good time watching TV.

Seeing it on a big screen in a room full of fans truly confirmed the quality and community I’ve felt throughout this season. I was gripped. Innie and outie Mark’s camcorder conversation was impressively compelling. Their simultaneous conflict and cooperation had me on the edge of my seat, hand over my mouth. Mark’s reunion with Gemma was tear-jerkingly beautiful. And I simply had the time of my life watching Milchick groove to a marching band under colored fluorescent lighting. I didn’t want the episode to end. But the best part was that I could really tell that the rest of the sold-out theater felt the same way. Everyone cheered, laughed, and clapped in all the right places.

Still from "Cold Harbor". Image courtesy of ScreenRant.

I was concerned as this season progressed that the audience would start to turn on it. Shows like this, which in their early days have weirdness bubbling just beneath the surface, at some point have to take a turn. What, in season 1, were one-off moments, will eventually have to take center stage. A glimpse of a breathing tube and shrine to Kier in Cobel’s apartment will become an entire episode. A tour of the Perpetuity Wing can, in the moment, be nothing more than fuel for the theories of die-hard fans- but soon the whole story will hinge on the seeds planted there. Stumbling upon a room full of goats can be written off as a ‘kinda weird part’ of an otherwise straightforward episode, but it can’t have happened for no reason.

Season 2 spent much more time in the weird, and in doing so turned a hugely popular show with an outwardly simple premise into something incredibly specific, strange, and unique. In the cable era, this would have absolutely been an HBO series, a network whose entire business model is based around the assumption that its shows will have a small audience.

Still from Severance. Image courtesy of IMDb.

So while I found myself smiling from ear to ear, thinking “this show is so wonderfully strange”, I was also holding my breath for it. But I could feel that entire audience eating it up just as much as me. Laughing at the way Patricia Arquette says “Mark”, clapping along with the marching band. I exhaled in relief and joy. There’s just something so heartwarming to me about so many people getting on board with something so thoroughly unique. And something so exhilarating about the successful telling of a detailed, bizarre, yet ultimately very human story.

It makes me feel that as people, we really can understand each other. We’re capable of getting in tune with one another’s nuance. We can perceive the layered, emotional, and murky nature of situations and think about them critically. In fact, we love to. And we’re good at it. That’s what storytelling means to me and what makes me an optimist in this world.

I really think we’ve just watched Severance cement itself in TV history. And if this earnest reflection hasn’t convinced you to give up binge watching… you don’t have to. A weekly release doesn’t prevent anyone from waiting 10 weeks and wolfing it all down at once. But it does create the opportunity for human connection and shared experiences. And that simply has to be what it’s all about.