Severance Setting: Dystopian horror mixed with retrofuturism
Apple TV+'s Severance presents a tale about the consequences of futuristic technologies; nonetheless, Lumon Industries' floor for departed staff is entirely furnished with antiquated computers and design. Retrofuturism, a creative trend created out of images of the distant future as imagined in past times likely continuing into Severance season 2, is distinguished by the combination of retro design and advanced technologies. Though it's more than just a design decision, the mid-century style of the cut floor helps the audience to enter Severance's ensemble of characters in their bizarre, dystopian life.
By the end of Severance season 1, the program fairly captures Lumon Industries' method of separating employee memories into two distinct personas. Under a retrofuturistic environment with mid-century interior design and old-fashioned technologies, the "innie" selves of detached workers operate. Their "outies," meanwhile, have access to all other contemporary conveniences including cellphones and the internet. Given the show provides multiple hints addressing such a subject, many have started to doubt Severance's setting.
Severance: Set in the present
Severance is situated firmly in the latter, even if Lumon's retro offices mixed with the modern civilization of the outer world can be perplexing. Severance's protagonist's driving license helps to corroborate this. Mark's license shows that he was born in 1978 and will expire in 2020, hence the program takes place in modern times. This aligns with the production of the performance, which was originally scheduled for 2020 but the COVID-19 epidemic caused a postponing to 2021.
Fascinatingly, Severance deliberately uses mixed visual signals to provide viewers with a glance into the perplexing and secluded life of the severed as well as their role in modern society. Severance's diverse visual techniques even on a more surface level simply convey the sense of two lives each character is living. Lumon's offices' retro design causes the innie characters to feel entirely different from the outie personalities, if only because of the psychological distinctions that conflicting designs bring about in the observer.
Why Severance Lumon Uses Retrofuturist Design
In Severance's universe, the design has a pragmatic use. The mid-century aesthetics of the severed floor are supposed to give Lumon staff members a workplace that exudes warmth, comfort, and nostalgia. This helps former workers to embrace their new life, which will be spent entirely in the basement of Lumon Industries. The homely but understated mid-century design of the severed floor is essentially another lie to hide Lumon Industries's true goal: a means of deterring the detached from asking too many questions and pushing them into doing what they are instructed.
This idea of good-natured employment radiates by the Lumon aesthetic, which begs the issue of why separated employees are kept in the dark about the real outcome of their jobs. Former severed employee Petey explained to Mark in Severance Season 1 that working in Lumon Industries' macrodata refinery department equivalent to "murdering people 8 hours a day"—without even knowing it. Lumon is keeping its staff in the dark by using the modest office décor, therefore extending one of the main unresolved issues from Severance season 1.
Why It's So Crucially Important That Severance Be Set Today Rather Than Tomorrow
Severance's visual approach suggests two different periods of human history, although it is rather vital that the play takes place in the present. Retrofuturism's visual language lets Severance investigate conflicts between the past and the future and offer a distinction between the alienating and empowering consequences of modern technologies. This is mostly investigated through Lumon employees' memories being split between their personal and professional life; the advanced Technology in an old-looking society lets the show's themes take front stage.
Severance establishes that the characters live in a modern, though Dystopian, society by applying retrofuturism. Severance may thus more readily drive home its social commentsaries and themes, notably the investigation of the evils of newly formed hypercapitalism in the real world. Severance's real-world analogues are not so subtle; the program more than ready to explore the idea that modern companies are progressively exploiting advanced Technology to progressively seize control over every element of society, including individuals's life.
The Production Designer Severance Has Added New Layers To The Retro Style
According to Severance production designer Jeremy Hindle's interview, the severed floor was purposefully designed for both visual and narrative uses. Given that most of the action in the program occurs on the severed floor, it has to be far more aesthetically pleasing and visually intriguing than a standard office environment. Especially, the anachronistic style serves as a subtle reminder that Lumon goes to great measures both to guard innies from the outside world and to conceal its secrets from outsiders, hence clarifying the practicalities of the basement's unusual furniture and machinery.
As Hindle detailed (via Thrillist), "They [Lumon] create all their own stuff. Not like a sticker, everything has a label and comes in packaging. It's theirs. They possess everything here. Like the break room of the severed level or the wellness center or the artwork shown by Optics and Design, the basement's beautiful appearance reminds us that everything inside the severed floor—including the staff—are owned assets of Lumon Industries. Severance emphasizes this point even more by juxtaposing the dismal outside world with the pleasant, cheerful, "60s-inspired basement." Likewise, the modern simplicity of Kier Town's houses offers a visual clue as to how the severed floor is several years removed from actual society. Apart than letting Severance physically stand out in a scene where stories about corporate dystopia are a recurrent topic, the sliced floor's retrofuturism gently exposes more about Lumon. Severance season 2 is set to expose even more of the world outside Lumon's basement, and it will be intriguing to watch how the show's characteristic visual language will translate concerning fleshing out other aspects of the special sci-fi realm.
Severance: Examining Lumon Industries' dystopian universe
From director and executive producer Ben Steller and creator Dan Erickson comes "Severance." Leading a team at Lumon Industries, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) guides individuals whose memories have been surgically split between their personal and professional life through a severance process. This bold experiment in "work-life balance" is put into doubt as Mark discovers he is at the center of an unraveling mystery forcing him to face the actual nature of his profession... and himself.
With its original concept, thrilling narrative, and examination of corporate dystopia, Severance has enthralled viewers. The retrofuturistic look of the show lends a depth of mystery and a visually different and provocative universe. Anybody interested in science fiction, Dystopian horror, or the complexity of modern work-life balance should definitely check Severance.
