Apple TV+ has hit it out of the park with many of its original series, from The Morning Show to Servant, and Ted Lasso. Severance, however, is unlike any other in the line-up. The talented cast that includes Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, and Christopher Walken help deliver a compelling, but also disturbing, storyline.
Best described as Black Mirror meets Homecoming, indeed, both those shows are ones that fans of Severance would also love. And many others would appeal, too.
There's no show more mind-bending and psychologically disturbing than Black Mirror, which tells a different story in every episode. But there's one underlying theme: it takes our obsession with technology and the rapid growth in technological development to look at the worst-case scenario outcomes. Every episode of Black Mirror relies on technology, some of which doesn't make sense.
Think of a social credit system that decides what advantages you get in life based on how many "likes" you receive from those you interact with daily or a technology that can let a parent block their child from physically being able to see inappropriate content. It's easy to see how these two shows would attract the same type of audience.
The first season of Homecoming is much like Severance in that there are people within an organization who are being studied and are involved in some type of technological experimentation without fully understanding the nature of what they are doing or what is happening.
Like Severance, it's also a show that deals with loss and the tremendous grief someone feels after experiencing it. There's also an A-list cast that includes actors typically known for movie roles.
Also heavy on technology, and with a storyline that involves people pushing back against the goings-on of a major corporation with tons of influence and power, Mr. Robot similarly has a depressed lead character who responds to his mental health differently.
Both shows have mind-bending, disturbing scenes that serve as social commentary as much as they do entertainment. While Severance might be far more futuristic, both explore the concept of a corporation that might be taking the idea of control of the public too far.
Hailing from Israel, Losing Alice has similar themes, including a woman who is tired of the state of her life. Though she is married with children versus Mark's situation, she finds herself meeting a strange friend.
It's similar to when Mark, in his real life, is approached by Peter who he knows and feels he has a connection to but doesn't quite understand how. Peter opens Mark's eyes to the fact that something might be going on with his other "work" self that he doesn't quite understand but should be mindful of.
Another Apple TV+ show, Servant follows a woman dealing with tremendous loss, just as Mark is on Severance. While the two take very different approaches to deal with their grief, there are similarities, including the theme of denial of the truth and the brain blocking out feelings and realities that might hurt.
Both also have elements of sci-fi and psychological thrills that keep viewers thoroughly enthralled and excited to see what might happen next and in what new direction the show might go. So much so, that there are plenty of crazy Reddit theories about Servant.
Combining technology with crime, psychological thrills, and horror, Clickbait has many of the same elements as Severance. Its focus is on social media and how it can cause a disconnect between our real and virtual selves.
Similarly, the Severance program uses surgery and chips in the brain to create a literal disconnect such that participants forget about parts of their lives when they are in one place or another. While Clickbait focuses on the kidnapping of a young man, the technology aspect is included as the kidnapper posts a video and threatens to kill him if it doesn't get five million followers. In both, the underlying theme is of people exploring different aspects of themselves.
As the first Portuguese-language Netflix original, 3% is a dystopian thriller versus one about technology creating a world that is even more technically savvy than it is now. However, the concept of dividing people in different ways is central to the show.
Instead of having people live personal and work lives completely independent of one another, however, in this show, people are divided into two very distinct societies: one that is thriving and another that is poor. During something called The Process, 20-year-olds from the poor side have the opportunity to join the small percentage of people who live lavishly. However, in many cases, failing means death.
While After Life is a black comedy-drama, fans who love exploring the topic of Mark choosing a seemingly desperate option to help grieve the loss of his wife might enjoy this show that centers around a man who does much the same.
Instead of participating in a severance program, however, Tony in After Life decides to live life without a care in the world. His strategy, however, backfires as people rally around him trying to help him become a better person instead of leaving him alone. Along with the humor, After Life is full of many meaningful quotes about love and life.
It's amazing to think of what science and technology might be able to accomplish in the future, and both these shows explore that concept in different ways. And in both cases, there are moral and ethical implications to consider, including ones that relate to a person's identity as an individual.
In Orphan Black, the controversial science includes experiments on human cloning. People are not only being secretly cloned, but a lab is also toying with human DNA and making adjustments that could be damaging, and even make the clones sick.
Similar to how Helly woke up in a strange office, not recalling anything about her life and realizing she underwent a procedure to sever her brain into two parts, Hazel in Made For Love discovers that she has a tracking device inside her that lets her ex see where she is, watch her, and even know how she's feeling.
While Made for Love focuses on a woman trapped by a tech billionaire ex unlike Helly in Severance, who was trapped effectively by her real self, the idea of people trying to get back their independence and deal with their emotions on their own is common within both shows.
