Back during my prime days of working in the IT industry, if I was offered the chance to sever my work self from my personal self, I would have said HELL FRIGGING YES. Bring it on. I don’t have a deceased wife or girlfriend. I don’t have kids I want to get away from. I don’t have any traumatic experiences I want to forget. However, what I did have was a problem with simply letting go. I’ve had a real hard time, for example, of not checking work emails, not logging in to check on our systems and services for every single alert that comes in, along with, well, working in general. Severance should have been right up my alley. This series, however, is yet another example of how not to do mystery.

I’ve read a bunch of user reviews after completing the first season, and I agree with the majority of them in that if the first three or four episodes didn’t hook you, you’re not likely to like the series. I remember reading about the many awards that the show has received, and Apple TV is known to produce some really good sci-fi shows and movies. But Severance, while I like what they tried to do, is just a bit too slow even for me. What really got me irritated is how the show has nine episodes when it could have likely been condensed to five or six. Fortunately, not all episodes are an hour long. But I just couldn’t do it. Starting at around episode six, I had to begin watching them at 1.50x speed. I think I saved myself around 16 minutes per episode.

So, what exactly is the problem here? Well, every single character is just not that interesting to watch. This is a shame because we’re talking about 8 actual personalities if we’re counting Mark, Helly, Dylan and Irv’s innie and outie. Mark is obviously the main protagonist, and we learn in the beginning that he chose Severance because he couldn’t handle the death of his wife. When he’s severed at work, that’s many hours he no longer has to deal with and confront the pain and grief of his wife’s death. Mark’s outie life, however, is just a bore. His innie, while still boring as well, at least gives us viewers a look at what severed life is like. Oddly enough, we don’t get to see the other’s outie lives until the season finale. I mean Dylan does occasionally provide some much, much needed comic relief with his banter and whatnot but that’s really about it.

The other problem I think is how the show never truly punishes the characters for breaking rules. Countless times they were caught doing things that most Lumon workers are not supposed to do, and yet they just either get a slap on the wrist or they go into the “break room”. I guess the big ol’ scary break room is supposed to break the will of the naughty office worker, but apparently it didn’t do jack shit. Lumon is supposed to be this big, badass technological company that heavily monitors their employees, but apparently, they can’t even bother to install microphones in the work areas.

What’s the deal with Ms. Cobel? Like seriously. What is her role and why is she so obsessed with monitoring Mark’s outie life? We know from the very beginning that she’s not actually severed. She lives next door to Mark, and she inserts herself into his life. Why? So, the initial issue in the beginning of the show is Lumon’s fear of reintegration with the whole Petey episode thing. However, that part slowly drifted away as the series went on, and towards the end, it was more about the innie characters wanting to get a glimpse of what their outie lives are like and, of course, to take Lumon down because evil corporations and shit. But why Mark? Why not Dylan or Irving? Is it because Petey was Mark’s best innie friend? But again, as the episodes went on, it just seems weirder with her trying to be the babysitter to Mark’s niece and the whole driving bat shit crazy in the car scene. Was it to test something with the Severance process to ensure that it indeed works to keep a person’s innie and outie lives separate? I admit I lost track after a while.

My last complaint is how dark the colors are during night scenes. I thought it was just me, but other viewers noticed as well and hilariously, only watched the show at night to minimize any glare on their TVs. The blacks are really, really dark and in some scenes, it’s really hard to tell what’s happening. Fortunately, due to the slow pace, nothing much of importance is my guess. I mean, I get it with the symbolism. While in the office, it’s all bright lights and whatnot to symbolize how happy Lumon workers are. Whereas on the outside, after work, the dark colors represent something more depressing. But dammit, could they please brighten up the freaking dark scenes next time around so we can see what’s going on?

So, what did I like about Severance? As mentioned in the beginning, I love the theme of the show. But that’s about it? It was initially interesting to learn about the world, the characters, the lore, and the mysteriousness of it all. But that eventually dries up and something more needs to hold the story up. They just can’t keep piling on mystery after mystery. Like how is Mike’s wife actually alive and working at Lumon? What is that whole weird thing regarding the Refiner crew and Optics and Design? The mysterious board of directors? And umm… the goats? Hopefully, this will be explained more in season two, but I’m not sure when or even if I want to continue with the show. Severance is one of those weird shows where I don’t actually hate it despite all the rants I made about it. I’m just failing to see how it got so many high user ratings and awards.