A lot of Severance first time takes place inside the Lumon Industries building, specifically the underground “broken” floor where the main characters work. It’s a stark, strangely empty space where departments are kept separate, to the extent that office culture encourages them to fear each other. But maybe it’s just like being off-putting SeveranceThe outside world, which promises to get more exploration in the show second season.

You think the audience can relate more immediately to the outside world. The Lumon we see is mostly populated by people who choose to go through a process that creates a completely separate identity for them—one that never leaves the office. It also contains incredibly ancient technology used to complete “mysterious and important” number crunching tasks that no one can really explain; a room inhabited by baby goats for unknown reasons; strange rituals designed to boost morale in what is an absolutely soul-sucking place; and outright idolatry of Lumon’s founder, Kier Eagan, and his descendants.

However, there is not much relief to be found when the “innies” change into their “outties” and go home at the end of the day. In addition to dealing with anything bad they think severance is a solid career move—for Adam Scott’s Mark, it’s a mental vacation from remembering his wife died in a car accident a few years ago—they live in Kier, a community as depressing as it is dystopian. and COLDalthough we haven’t spent enough time there to know if it has any other seasons than a frozen, slushy, harsh winter.

Although there are mild summer months in Kier, that doesn’t dilute the bad feeling that pervades the town, nor does it stop the mystery of Kier that is not really… anywhere. In the first season, we were told that Kier and the nearby town of Ganz — home to Ganz University, where Mark used to teach pre-Lumon history — were in the state of “PE,” which clearly wasn’t. real place The car’s license plates read “Remedium Hominibus,” which translates (“A medicine, for humanity”) it seems to be a reference to Kier Eagan’s pharmaceutical dynasty.

but Severance there is a stand in our world, as the reference to some geographical locations (Alexa, who dated Mark for a while, from Montana) and cultural elements (Petey and his daughter jam in Metallica; Irving’s outtie paints his same dark image of Motorhead blasting) suggestion. And despite the in-office vintage tech, which matches Lumon’s love of carefully crafted artificial environments, the outies are clearly 21st century: they have cell phones and use the internet.

Still, though, there is a sense that Kier is a place that is, well, detached from what we might be familiar with. It’s a company town. Restaurants are named after members of the Eagan family (“Pip’s Diner,” presumably named for the former Lumon CEO), and Mark’s existential panic takes place in nights spent at his subsidized residence. Lumon—a generic townhome on a street full of similarly generic townhomes, with as many vacant residences as Lumon with vacant offices.

Later in the season, we see Mark’s co-worker Irving with a similar apartment set-up, albeit in a different neighborhood (at least he has a dog; Mark has a pair of sad goldfish). We also learned in season one that Mark’s neighbor (Patricia Arquette) is actually his boss at Lumon, which of course his outtie doesn’t know; he was not cut, but he took on a different identity to better spy on his activities. Mark may not know that fact until the end of the first season, but it adds a sinister layer to what is already a lonely, joyless existence.

Not everyone who lives in Kier works in Lumon. In season one we meet Mark’s sister Devon (Jen Tullock) and her husband Ricken (Michael Chernus), who are about to become parents for the first time, and whose social life mostly revolves around Ricken (a self-help author) and his pretend friends. . Through these characters, and later as we follow Mark’s confused efforts to learn more about Lumon’s inner workings, we learn that there is a real resistance movement against the dismemberment. We also witnessed the fact that non-Lumon employees had conflicting points of view about being cut off—the kind of conversation to make an awkward dinner party even more awkward.

To counter that, we also learn that Lumon has powerful allies in the government, including a state senator whose beautiful wife underwent a procedure so she could give birth and not remember it, leading to a couple of strange- Devon’s encounters both inside and outside the country. facility where they both have their children.

how SeveranceThe geographical world may expand in the second season remains to be seen—the glimpses of the future suggest that we will spend more time in outtie-land, and we will also come out in that season one finale, where the innies of Mark and his co-workers Irving and Helly R. briefly enjoy their outtie life. The season two premiere, which takes place inside Lumon with innie Mark, reminds us what a big moment that was—not only because of the realizations they all have about themselves, but because the innies are not always exposed to the outside world otherwise.

At the start of season two, one of Mark’s new co-workers excitedly asks him “How’s heaven?”; he also asked what state they were in and how the wind felt. His lack of answers or even enthusiasm about seeing what is essentially a total fantasyland is a letdown. But maybe if he saw Kier himself, he would understand.

New episodes of Severance arrives Friday on Apple TV+.

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