Anybody who’s watched the hit Apple TV+ collection “Severance” is aware of that it takes inspiration from many, many popular culture juggernauts that got here earlier than it. “Misplaced” is totally a reference level for the present’s creator Dan Erickson (and his inventive companion, govt producer Ben Stiller), as is the well-known anthology collection “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 america simply earlier than all the collection moved to Netflix for all future seasons. In an interview with The New York Instances 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 because of 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 ground).
“I keep in mind feeling so chilly and afraid after seeing that, this devastating concept of getting to expertise this limitless solitude,” Erickson mentioned, additionally telling the outlet that he straight connects this episode to the season 1 second in “Severance” when Helly R. (Britt Decrease), an “innie,” tries to flee the severed ground. “It is this nightmare of working out a door and you then’re simply working again in, and also you notice you are actually 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 instructed 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 know-how known as “Z-Eyes” the place he helped coach shy males with out a whole lot of confidence as they approached ladies; not solely was Matt within the heads of those males, however he additionally invited audiences to gawk as the blokes tried to select up unsuspecting ladies. After a horrible incident happens that leaves certainly one of Matt’s shoppers useless, he is punished. Matt, because it occurs, additionally used to work with “cookies” and retailer digital variations of actual folks within 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 little one (after I say “blocked” I imply he might solely see a grey, fuzzy silhouette of her in public) and ended up killing her father in a match of rage when he discovered that the kid was truly 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 easy to attract a direct line between “White Christmas,” the place know-how traps two males, and “Severance,” the place the severed know-how 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 Instances characteristic? There are just a few, and so they most likely will not be that stunning — particularly Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman’s surreal 1999 movie “Being John Malkovich.” Discussing how the Lumon severed ground looks like a way more sinister workplace house than something in the true world, Erickson mentioned, “I believe the concept of seeing a well-recognized house that is kind of warped and twisted most likely got here straight from ‘Being John Malkovich.’ They’ve this extraordinarily low ceiling; we have the vast open M.D.R. house with the central cubicle island wanting 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 instructed the outlet that Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film “Brazil” is certainly one of his favorites thanks largely to its dystopian vibes, which is sensible; that film facilities round staff controlling equipment beneath a totalitarian authorities. “There was that retro-future sense, however Ben [Stiller] was all the time 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 might be, they are not positive precisely what yr it’s. There is a slight bizarre sense of timelessness, or a mixture of various occasions, 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 offered to stream on Apple TV+, and “White Christmas” is offered to stream on Netflix.