Severance (Ben Stiller thriller)

[up_the_hampipe]

This new Apple series has just popped the first two episodes out. It's a fairly intriguing and unsettling mystery so far with Black Mirror elements (the good ones):

It stars Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette, and most of the episodes are directed by Derek Zoolander himself, so who could say no.

[bgmnts]

Tell you what Stiller directed the cable guy and there are some moments in that that freaked me the fuck out as a kid, so obviously Stiller can direct stuff that isnt comedy quite well.

Could well be worth a watch.

[a peepee tipi]

Tell you what Stiller directed the cable guy and there are some moments in that that freaked me the fuck out as a kid, so obviously Stiller can direct stuff that isnt comedy quite well.

Could well be worth a watch.

Not really into the concept of this one, but check out Escape at Dannemora. It's a thriller miniseries he did with Arquette and Benicio del Toro. I found it surprisingly engrossing and binged it all in a night

[up_the_hampipe]

Not really into the concept of this one, but check out Escape at Dannemora. It's a thriller miniseries he did with Arquette and Benicio del Toro. I found it surprisingly engrossing and binged it all in a night

Also based on a true story.

Stiller is a very good director indeed, and he's certainly captured the cold creepiness of this concept.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

The opening credits are great, but the main musical theme rips off the work of David Shire on The Conversation.

[beanheadmcginty]

Ah, but will it be better than the excellent Danny Dyer film of the same name?

[Famous Mortimer]

Ah, but will it be better than the excellent Danny Dyer film of the same name?

I don't even know if you're joking, but I bloody love the Dyer "Severance".

[beanheadmcginty]

I don't even know if you're joking, but I bloody love the Dyer "Severance".

No joke. Especially that bit where the posh fella gets decapitated but has a smug look on his face because he's won the argument about whether your head briefly stays alive. And the bit with the rocket launcher, obvs.

[Chairman Yang]

I really don't like enjoying the first few episodes of a new mystery series because I know full well they'll just stall on any plot developments until some cliffhanger in the final episode.

Still, always up for a sci-fi tale about a dehumanising bureaucracy. It's also the nicest looking very-cheap show I've seen in a while.

[chutnut]

Loving this so far, something looks very off about Adam Scott that I couldn't put my finger on

[ProvanFan]

something looks very off about Adam Scott that I couldn't put my finger on

You've hurt Tig Notaro's feelings

[ProvanFan]

Do you think the intro to this was inspired by the work of Sawako Kabuki? (Caution: lots of tiny bare bums and more)

[jonbob]

Loving this so far, something looks very off about Adam Scott that I couldn't put my finger on

it's his chin, it looks like he's had surgery or they're doing something weird with makeup.

I loved the concept of this, but I couldn't even make it through the first episode, it seemed like it was made by the sort of people who would love being micro managing office middle managers and can't understand why people dislike them

[Better Midlands]

something looks very off about Adam Scott that I couldn't put my finger on

it's his chin, it looks like he's had surgery or they're doing something weird with makeup.

Just watched the first episode and came here to see if anyone had mentioned this, halfway through I was wondering if he had some sort of facial prosthetics going on.

Weird show, just going into episode two now.

[up_the_hampipe]

I'm enjoying this series but it seems to be raising more questions than it could possibly answer with so few episodes to go.

I like Christopher Walken though. He's much better in this than that Stephen Merchant show.

[phantom_power]

I really like that they have got Walken and Tuturro, both usually pretty broad actors who can border on hammy, and got these really subtle performances out of them, especially with

Spoiler alert

their burgeoning romance

[close]

[olliebean]

Just watched the first episode and came here to see if anyone had mentioned this, halfway through I was wondering if he had some sort of facial prosthetics going on.

I think it's just he's got a bit of a strange face anyway, and they're using the makeup in this to accentuate the strangeness whereas in most other things they probably try to de-emphasise it.

[Zero Gravitas]

Quite enjoying it, but it's pretty much all blunt mystery, the weirdness reveals are all "Yeah that's super weird and mysterious, I had no inkling that was going to happen." which gets pretty boring when it's pretty much the only trick. Great performances and I love the set design in lumon but it's not really in service of anything so far, getting late in the series for pacing truly satisfying discoveries in.

[Mr_Simnock]

At the moment I have seen 2 episodes, quite enjoyed them although half way through the first I was getting a little bored, it just needs to up the pace a little bit. This has some serious 1970's sci-fi tones to it though, I always enjoy that. I love the keyboards they use at the desks, wonder if I can get hold of something similar to use at home?

[Zero Gravitas]

Blue SA keycaps https://www.thekeycapclub.co.uk/products/domikey-sa-blue-wave-keycap-set
Plonk those on an ansi board with some MX blue switches and you're a good way along, buy some ear protection though.

[Ja'moke]

I really love this show. It hits that perfect balance of weird mystery and tongue-in-cheek humour. Big fan of the characters too.

Hell of a cliffhanger in the latest episode.

I also don't really care if we ever find out what Lumon is really up to. I just enjoy the whole concept of the show and its characters.

[up_the_hampipe]

Particularly enjoying the guy who plays Milchick. His dancing in last week's episode was great.

[shiftwork2]

This has grown on me and I have spent a little time this morning wondering about next week's final episode.  Apple TV+ may have actually hit on something 4/5 rather than the 3/5 that seems to apply to the rest of its mediocre stuff.

[Memorex MP3]

Guesses:

- Patricia Arquette and Milchick are actually their severed selves (this has maybe been confirmed at some point? seems fairly obvious?)
- Hetty (helly?) is somehow deeply involved with the company
- John Turturro and Christopher Walken are together in real life
- the season will end with Mark dumping a ton of info onto Ricken and a lack of any grasp whether Ricken understood any of it


I wasn't really paying enough attention to the stuff about Mark's wife so I don't know what's happenning right now, did they ever explain how she died?


Mostly pretty fun but I've found the office satire side of things rather lame, think it could've stretched stuff out a lot more if it was able to be more biting in that regard

[phantom_power]

I wasn't really paying enough attention to the stuff about Mark's wife so I don't know what's happenning right now, did they ever explain how she died?

Spoiler alert

She isn't really dead. She is the wellness woman. I am not sure how or why they faked her death

[close]

[studpuppet]

I'm only three in, but enjoying this. Ben Stiller is my 'Actor you've never ever enjoyed in anything ever' nomination, but I like the directorial feel of both this and Escape At Dannemora, regardless of whether the stories are good or not.
I like that he seems to take care over framing even the most inconsequential shots - there's a shot where Helly fills up a glass with water to swallow a pen cap with a message to her outside self. The camera is down behind the tap at an angle looking up at her face. There might have been lots of easier other ways to shoot that, but I like that attention that elevates the piece.

[phantom_power]

I think Cable Guy, Zoolander and Tropic Thunder are all better directed than they needed to be a his Walter Mitty adaptation is really under-rated

[mjwilson]

Guesses:

- Patricia Arquette and Milchick are actually their severed selves (this has maybe been confirmed at some point? seems fairly obvious?)
- Hetty (helly?) is somehow deeply involved with the company
- John Turturro and Christopher Walken are together in real life
- the season will end with Mark dumping a ton of info onto Ricken and a lack of any grasp whether Ricken understood any of it


I wasn't really paying enough attention to the stuff about Mark's wife so I don't know what's happenning right now, did they ever explain how she died?


Mostly pretty fun but I've found the office satire side of things rather lame, think it could've stretched stuff out a lot more if it was able to be more biting in that regard

I did have a wild theory that

Spoiler alert

Walken is the original Kier somehow, but I didn't come up with any details and I don't see it turning out that way

[close]

.

[Memorex MP3]

Spoiler alert

She isn't really dead. She is the wellness woman. I am not sure how or why they faked her death

[close]

Spoiler alert

so it def couldn't be that she is dead and they're trying to replace the people with reanimated corpses or something?

[close]

RE Patricia Arquette being possibly severed, I guess it'd be weird to sack her and let the severed one be the one to go home. Still think she probably is though.

Just realised John Turturro's daydream a few episodes ago is obviously tied to his paint thing.

[shiftwork2]

Just realised John Turturro's daydream a few episodes ago is obviously tied to his paint thing.

That paint / tar business features heavily in the titles.