YMMV / Severance (2022)

• Adorkable: Irving and Burt. The former is a preppy stickler for the rules, while the latter comes with Christopher Walken's trademark awkwardly endearing charisma. The two older gentlemen quickly fall for each other, which results in a humorously sweet courtship where neither Innie has any experience when it comes to romance.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Irving going to Burt's door in the last minutes of the finale. Is he making a desperate attempt to reach his lost love? Or, seeing the information on Lumon he's compiled and remembering Mark's advice to "find someone [they] trust" and knowing he doesn't have much time, is he making sure the files get to a safe place in case the Innies are found out?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: "Waffle parties" are a real thing with a tradition stretching from the 1700s through the 1960s, with the 20th Century practice primarily being something among the upper class and traditionalists.
• Award Snub: Britt Lower and Tramell Tillman couldn't snatch Emmy nominations despite the first season's impressive haul.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The events of the Waffle Party, specifically the erotic dance that happens after Dylan eats his waffles, could qualify, since it's never discussed or explained by the characters. However, the symbolism of the masks and the "Taming of the Four Tempers" is subtly foreshadowed early on.
• Catharsis Factor: After a season of watching Milchick smugly bullying, manipulating and torturing the Innies, it is enormously satisfying to see him yelling in pain and fear when Dylan attacks him, and then next episode resorting to pleading to Dylan when the latter takes control of the Overtime switch.
• Fanon:
  • For visual depictions of the 4 tempers, it's never stated but generally accepted that the bride is woe, the jester is frolic, the crone is dread, and the ram is malice.
  • The state that Kier is in is never named beyond the abbreviation "PE" (which coordinates to no known US state), but fans tend to call it either "Perpetuity" or "Province of Eagan".
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With Succession, with the overlaps of Zach Cherry being in both, themes of body horror in corporate functions (pissing and shitting in the wrong places in Succession, injuries the innies receive being brushed over and compensated with gift cards for the outies), and satire on how being close to capitalism rots your insides. The finale also reveals that Helly is an Eagan, who wants to please her father like Shiv Roy.
  • Fans of The Prisoner (1967) also seem to enjoy this series, largely due to the similar themes of individuality vs authoritarian control and the Retraux style. In a piece for Fangoria, Scott Wampler said his friends "could’ve talked me into tuning in immediately if they’d simply told me how much The Prisoner DNA Severance contains."
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Burt and Irving resting their heads together in the severed floor's garden and admitting their feelings for each other.
  • Mark piecing together the torn-up picture of his wife while talking about how he loved all the little things about her equally. Until The Reveal that his supposedly dead wife is actually the very much alive Ms. Casey.
  • At the egg party, Helly and Mark both quietly admit that they care for each other.
  • In the penultimate episode, just in case their plan doesn't work, Helly passionately kisses Mark outside the elevator.
  • At Ricken's party, Innie Mark approaches him and sincerely tells him how much the book impacted him. It's sweet on many levels; considering Innie Mark is essentially meeting his hero, and Mark and Ricken's relationship is implied to have been strained before this, making it incredibly sweet to see them share such a genuine moment.
• He Really Can Act: Adam Scott has always been a well-regarded comedic actor, but here he really gets to stretch his wings in a dramatic role, de facto playing two significantly different characters to great acclaim.
• I Knew It!: Quite a few fans managed to guess that Helly's outie was part of Lumon's leadership, with some even managing to successfully guess her real name as Helena Eagan.
• Jerkass Woobie: Mark and Helly's outies both show shades of this. Despite the obvious misery that is their lives, their outies are adamant that they love working at Lumon to the point of being aggressive with others (Mark) and unsympathetic (Helly). However, this is softened considering neither has any way of knowing what is going on in their heads while at work. Until Helly's outie gets a video message from her innie, and subsequently the even more unambiguous message of waking up in the elevator being hanged.
• Love to Hate: Despite being a Stepford Smiler who cruelly mistreats the innies, Milchick has become one of the most popular characters with fans, due to Tramell Tillman's almost-always unflappable cheeriness that is always leaning on unnerving.
• The Woobie: Really, everyone who is severed is one by nature of the process alone. They're essentially being lied to in a way that is enforced by their very nervous system. Individually, they also have things that make them woobies; Mark's wife's passing was very hard on him, and Irving seems particularly tragic as his feelings about work seem to borderline romantic love. And, of course, there's Petey. It's also somewhat implied, in the case of Mark, that Lumon attracts employees to the severance procedure by seeking out people who have aspects of their lives they'd rather forget. Mark finds thinking about his wife too painful, so he believes severance is best for him.

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