"Severance" Thread ; "But I'm her, Mark. I'm her."

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I just happen to have watched Brazil this weekend for the first time in ages, obviously some thematic parallels with Severance. I've only watched a few episodes of Severance, a couple of which after doing a pinch of ketamine. Watching under those circumstances got a bit... uncomfortable... but it sounds like things lighten up a bit as it progresses, so I'll be binge watching the rest of it eventually...
 
an0maly said:
I have re-watched both seasons, with some time between episodes, and it remains firmly, in my view, as great as my initial impression. During the rewatch, I was thinking about the great films and TV that the ideas in it draws upon. These are all from great to masterpieces, and I highly recommend them, first watch for you or not, in the context of Severance or not as well.

Of TV, the 2014 Black Mirror episode "White Christmas" and the two The Sopranos coma dream episodes "Join the Club," and "Mayhem."

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What's the one on the bottom left? Thanks for the Clockwatchers tip, I've never heard of it. Might could throw Fight Club in there somewhere, but I might mostly be saying that b/c of the ending (having just rewatched Brazil)..
 
an0maly said:
I have re-watched both seasons, with some time between episodes, and it remains firmly, in my view, as great as my initial impression. During the rewatch, I was thinking about the great films and TV that the ideas in it draws upon. These are all from great to masterpieces, and I highly recommend them, first watch for you or not, in the context of Severance or not as well.

Of TV, the 2014 Black Mirror episode "White Christmas" and the two The Sopranos coma dream episodes "Join the Club," and "Mayhem."

clockwatchersposter.jpg

Awakenings.jpg 15342.jpg


playtime-bo-kev.jpg
eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind-md-web.jpg
Click to expand...
I mentioned Playtime somewhere way back in this thread, as well as Charlie Kaufman.

It’s been ages since I saw Awakenings but I can see what you’re getting at.

Clockwatchers is a great call, I saw that the one time I managed to get to Sundance and enjoyed it but haven’t thought of it much since.

There’s also plenty of Pleasantville, which I hadn’t thought of until watching the recent season.
 
duluoz said:
I mentioned Playtime somewhere way back in this thread, as well as Charlie Kaufman.

It’s been ages since I saw Awakenings but I can see what you’re getting at.

Clockwatchers is a great call, I saw that the one time I managed to get to Sundance and enjoyed it but haven’t thought of it much since.

There’s also plenty of Pleasantville, which I hadn’t thought of until watching the recent season.
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Toni Collette's performance in Clockwatchers is amazing, and to this day one of her very best. Good call on Pleasantville, and another film with an adjacent theme is the odd Rock Hudson film Seconds, where he changes his life/identity through plastic surgery. It's mostly just odd, but has great existentialism moments that echo with the deeper Severance theme of being trapped in a life and escaping it, and how the escape fails. Hudson was brave, and quite good, stepping his career into that kind of project.
 
So on the Emmy's, I guess I am pretty happy overall. Tramell Tillman and Britt Lower's wins were so deserved, and the show quite rightly got Cinematography, Production Design, Original Music, Weaver as mentioned above, and to my surprise that the category existed--Title Design--certainly the best I have seen as well!

On The Pitt winning best series, just a respectful no from me. I get it, but Severance was simply too dynamically unique and too complex for many Television Academy voters. The Pitt was very intense and high energy, but the fact is it re-treads television and movie ER narratives that have been seen many times over. I do respect that the medical realism and increased harsh portrayals in it were far better than done before.

Still less of a problem was Noah Wylie's Best Actor win. He was great, no question, but I thought the range and challenge of what Adam Scott delivered was better. Wylie had to deliver basically high anxiety nonstop, and a nervous breakdown. Scott had to do that plus fear, deception, extremes of confusion, love and hatred, hallucination, illness, and bizarrely enough, at times what was almost two different people.
 
an0maly said:
I get it, but Severance was simply too dynamically unique and too complex for many Television Academy voters. The Pitt was very intense and high energy, but the fact is it re-treads television and movie ER narratives that have been seen many times over. I do respect that the medical realism and increased harsh portrayals in it were far better than done before.
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Orrrrr… could also be that it was overly convoluted and kitchen sink, and the payoffs were not quite worth the ride. Or at least not worth the hype.

I understand your point about many voters/people not having the disposition or makeup to appreciate the show, but there are also plenty of people (like me) who can get into that type of show, but just found themselves groaning, rolling their eyes, and frustrated at how things dragged on. Despite its good qualities, risk taking, how pretty it was to look at, etc.
 
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