Anybody who’s watched the hit Apple TV+ sequence “Severance” is aware of that it takes inspiration from many, many popular culture juggernauts that got here earlier than it. “Misplaced” is completely a reference level for the present’s creator Dan Erickson (and his artistic accomplice, govt producer Ben Stiller), as is the well-known anthology sequence “The Twilight Zone” — and apparently, a really particular installment of one other anthology present, “Black Mirror,” helped Erickson give you the concept for “Severance.”
The episode in query is “White Christmas,” a standalone episode of “Black Mirror” that aired on the British community Channel 4 and was broadcast in the USA simply earlier than your entire sequence moved to Netflix for all future seasons. In an interview with The New York Occasions in 2022 after the primary season of “Severance” concluded, Erickson mentioned that “White Christmas,” which got here out in 2014, was such an unsettling episode that it gave him some concepts for “Severance” — particularly due to the truth that, in “White Christmas,” the characters are trapped in an everlasting loop with no method of leaving (just like the “innies” on the severed flooring).
“I bear in mind feeling so chilly and afraid after seeing that, this devastating thought of getting to expertise this infinite solitude,” Erickson mentioned, additionally telling the outlet that he immediately connects this episode to the season 1 second in “Severance” when Helly R. (Britt Decrease), an “innie,” tries to flee the severed flooring. “It is this nightmare of working out a door and then you definately’re simply working again in, and also you notice you are really caught on this liminal house with this type of nightmare logic,” he concluded.
What occurs in White Christmas, the Black Mirror episode that helped encourage Severance?
Let’s again up for a second: what occurs in “White Christmas,” and the way does it tie into “Severance?” The episode clearly takes place at Christmastime, and straight away, we meet two males — Matt Trent (Jon Hamm) and Joe Potter (Rafe Spall) who’ve been caught in a distant cabin collectively for 5 years, although we’re not informed why at first. Regardless of the shut quarters, they have not actually bonded, and when Matt begins explaining why he is there, the floodgates open, so to talk. Because it seems, Matt used to work with a expertise referred to as “Z-Eyes” the place he helped coach shy males with out numerous confidence as they approached girls; not solely was Matt within the heads of those males, however he additionally invited audiences to gawk as the fellows tried to choose up unsuspecting girls. After a horrible incident happens that leaves one among Matt’s shoppers lifeless, he is punished. Matt, because it occurs, additionally used to work with “cookies” and retailer digital variations of actual individuals inside a small, egg-shaped contraption, and to say he was merciless to these clones is an understatement.
That is when Joe opens up and divulges that he was “blocked” by his former fiancée Beth (Janet Montgomery) whereas she was pregnant with their baby (once I say “blocked” I imply he may solely see a grey, fuzzy silhouette of her in public) and ended up killing her father in a match of rage when he came upon that the kid was really the results of an affair Beth had with another person. The twist on the finish of “White Christmas” is actually too good to spoil right here, however all I will say is that we discover out that each Joe and Matt are being punished for his or her crimes, and it is simple to attract a direct line between “White Christmas,” the place expertise traps two males, and “Severance,” the place the severed expertise traps “innies” within the bowels of Lumon Industries.
What else impressed Dan Erickson to create the distinctive world of Severance?
So what different influences does Dan Erickson talk about in that New York Occasions characteristic? There are a number of, and so they in all probability will not be that stunning — particularly Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman’s surreal 1999 movie “Being John Malkovich.” Discussing how the Lumon severed flooring looks like a way more sinister workplace house than something in the actual world, Erickson mentioned, “I believe the concept of seeing a well-known house that is form of warped and twisted in all probability got here straight from ‘Being John Malkovich.’ They’ve this extraordinarily low ceiling; we have got the large open M.D.R. house with the central cubicle island trying a lot too small for the house.” (Notably, in season 2 of “Severance,” Adam Scott’s Mark S. does encounter a too-small door whereas coming into the “goat room,” which positively has “Being John Malkovich” vibes.)
Erickson additionally informed the outlet that Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film “Brazil” is one among his favorites thanks largely to its dystopian vibes, which is sensible; that film facilities round staff controlling equipment underneath a totalitarian authorities. “There was that retro-future sense, however Ben [Stiller] was at all times very adamant that we floor that in a logic and in a psychology the place Lumon is making an attempt to disorient the employees in time and house,” Erickson mentioned. “They do not know the place they may very well be, they are not certain precisely what yr it’s. There is a slight bizarre sense of timelessness, or a mixture of various instances, and, to me, that was conveying that we’re not in Lumon, however we’re nonetheless in Lumon.”
Past that, Erickson cited Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “Cat’s Cradle,” the 1999 cult favourite “Darkish Metropolis,” and, extremely, a Sizzler steakhouse advert from 1991 (which is, to Erickson’s level, extremely freaking bizarre). In any case, “Severance” is obtainable to stream on Apple TV+, and “White Christmas” is obtainable to stream on Netflix.
