I love this show. I love how creepy and mysterious it is and yet also offbeat and comedic. The 70s office decor juxtaposed with the "modern" outside world that is a bit off and empty is really intriguing as is the work they are doing. What's with the scary numbers and the goats? Why has Miss Casey only been alive for a few hours? Does she have an outie or is she just woken up when they need her? What the hell is with the strange "burlesque" show? What happened between the departments? I really hope they actually answer these questions and don't flake out like they did with Lost.

I also love how it depicts corporate culture specifically the weird kind of nonsense "gifts" workers get for essentially tearing themselves apart in servitude to the company - "dont worry that you can never go outside, here's a melon bar", "don't think about the fact that this is the only reality you'll ever know, you get to choose the music for a ten minute party", "don't worry that you can never be in love or even have a friend outside, we'll give you a weird waffle party which is designed to mess with you and make you more loyal to this place."

The other thing I love is how it shows how memory and experience shapes you and if you don't have memory, you're hollow. Things like Irving's obsession with rules and Dylan's finger guards (or whatever they were) become so crucially important to them because there's nothing else to draw on.

I just loved this show. I want to rewatch because there is tons of stuff I missed, but its so good IMO.

/end ramble

I love Severance. Unlike so much science fiction I see on television, it's smart, well acted, and absolutely logical. It reminds me of the work of Tom Disch, who dealt with a similar themes of mental splitting and servitude.

What Severance depicts is a new kind of slavery, in which workers are induced to enslave a part of themselves. It casts a fascinating light on corporate power, culture, the ways in which workers rebel (Dylan was my hero from the very first.)

I thought it was the best show I've seen in ages. My thoughts echo ones below, so I don't have much else to add.

Oh my gosh, so timely! I honestly tried to get through the first 2 episodes with some difficulty when it first began. I wasn’t going to try again but yesterday I couldn’t find anything that grabbed me and started over.

I re-watched episodes 1 and 2 and am now on episode 6.

I worked within a corporate setting for quite a few years. This show is pretty incisive about corporate culture and how upper management wants staff to be drones. Tiny spoiler: I think more corporations would happily chip employees to simply do the work and forget home and family obligations completely while at work.

I will continue watching because it is so well-written, acted and directed. I hope that I can get to the deeper messages after I finish watching.

It has been renewed for season two so I don’t expect all the plot lines will be neatly tied up in season one.

Brilliant show. One thing I didn't get though was Mark severing in order to deal with his grief. But how does he feel the benefits of it? He still experiences his depressed grieving existence continually, and mostly in the dark. I know a lot of that time is also him sleeping but it just seems like he is shortening his time alive which isn't very effective. I don't really understand the benefits to him.

Also, does anyone have any theories yet on what kind of work they're doing? What do you think about the theory that they're all dead (Mark died in the car crash along with his wife) and their consciousness is in a simulation?